Activity 5-Engaging 21st Century Learners

Students who are meaningfully engaged in learning show sustained behavioral involvement in learning activities accompanied by a positive emotional tone. They select tasks at the border of their competencies, initiate action when given the opportunity, and exert intense effort and concentration in the implementation of learning tasks; they generally show  positive emotions during ongoing action, including enthusiasm, optimism, curiosity, and interest.  Project based learning is an approach that fosters student engagement as it enables students to work on authentic tasks and conduct sustained cooperative investigations.

Activity 4: Knowledge Building

Knowledge building environments thrive on fundamental guiding principles rather than on procedures alone. They also focus on improving the ideas of the entire classroom community instead of solely on individual learners. Moreover, they place emphasis on collaborative learning experiences, where students openly and publicly negotiate their ideas with each other. We all have to create classroom environments that are conducive to knowledge building if we want our students to be actively engaged in constructing their own knowledge.

Activity 3- Critical thinking

Critical thinkers make assertions based on solid evidence and sound logic. In order for our students to learn content, intellectual engagement is crucial. All students must do their own thinking, their own construction of knowledge. Competent teachers must be cognizant of this and as a result, they must focus on questions, readings and activities that stimulate the mind to take ownership of key concepts and principles underlying the subject. Too often teachers of Social Studies fail to teach students to think critically and the end result is that students tend to dislike the subject because of boredom. This topic has provided me with additional knowledge and skills that are  necessary for teaching my Social Studies students to think critically.

Activity 2- Vision Building

Factors that have caught my attention so far and provided me with intrinsic motivation as a teacher of Social Studies:

·         The ways in which student use to learn are changing and we constantly have to keep abreast of these trends if we are to teach 21^st century skills.

·         We need to have a vision for our subject and develop skills and content necessary to help us achieve that vision.

·         Digital and media literacy tools are fast replacing chalk and talk in the classroom and we should strive to provide students with equitable access to such tools.

Activity 1C

Students can influence the key elements of 21st Century education by developing core academic subject knowledge and understanding among themselves. They should be able to think critically and communicate effectively and build on a base of core academic subject knowledge. Students must also learn the essential skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, communication and collaboration. If students are to achieve success in this world, they must be able to acquire and be receptive to the 21st century skills and content.

Activity 1B

The key elements of 21st century learning is testimony that our students need to be provided with authentic tasks so that they can develop innovative and creative ways on completing them. They must be exposed to 21st century learning skills as well as content so that they can function in the global community.

Activity 1A

Changing times are definitely influencing the way in which we get and share information. We no longer receive letters from the postman but instead letters are sent via e-mails. Discussion boards are set up so students can  share information in online learning environments. In our schools we need to give our students the opportunity to get and share information so that they can adapt to changing times.

Activity 1-What is 21st Century Learning?

21st Century learning aims to provide teachers and students with the skills necessary to bridge the gap between how students actually live and how the learn. It is imperative that as teachers of the 21st century, we teach students in a 21st century context as well as learn 21st century content. As teachers we have to  plan collaboratively and strategically and  in order for 21st century learning to take place.

Module 7

This module is seemingly very intense but I am of the opinion that once we work together we can all get over this hurdle. All the best.