Election — 21st-century learning ideals illuminated - part of SD64 election discussions

With the election of three school trustee positions coming up this Saturday, the term “21st century learning” has started to become a familiar catchphrase — in conversation, if not in public understanding.

Just what does the concept refer to and how is going to affect students in School District 64 and across the province?

According to the BC Ministry of Education, which prefers the more descriptive term personalized learning: “Personalized learning for each student in British Columbia means a shift from a set of broad, uniform learning outcomes and courses, to learning that is increasingly student-initiated and self directed. It is learning that is co-planned with students, parents and teachers.”

BC’s Education Plan is geared to a move toward personalized learning opportunities for every student, characterized by high standards, quality teaching and learning, flexibility and choice, and learning empowered by technology.

“Under the plan, teachers, students and parents will work together to make sure every student’s needs are met, passions are explored and goals are achieved,” the official report from Minister of Education George Abbott reads.

“This means student-centered learning that’s focused on the needs, strengths and aspirations of each individual young person. Students will play an active role in designing their own education and will be increasingly accountable for their own learning.”

Sir Ken Robinson is an education specialist whose presentation on the need for new learning modes is linked on BC’s Education Plan. Robinson has argued that societies worldwide are finding the need to change public education systems that were founded on an idea born of the Enlightenment and the economy of industrialization.

These twin pillars, Robinson believes, have created a school system that’s based on factory lines and standardization, and rewards only those who have deductive reasoning abilities (and previously, a knowledge of the classics).

“Many brilliant people think they’re not, because they’ve been judged against this particular view of the mind.”

Robinson additionally presents a case for a false epidemic of ADHD, especially across the Eastern United Sates, where children are being medicated to force them to focus on “the boring stuff,” despite living in the “most stimulating period in the history of the Earth.” Instead of medication, he proposes the answer is to go in the exact opposite direction from standardization.

BC’s education plan states needs for a strong core curriculum and to maintain the provincial standards necessary for moving forward to higher education. But it also notes the importance of skills that will be particularly required in the coming years, such as critical thinking and teamwork. The pressures educators foresee coming include globalization, uncertain economies, climate change and changing demographics.

A recent example of 21st century learning comes from the Peace River South School District, where students undertook a CSI Project incorporating science, social, English and math skills. The students’ goal was to solve a crime with the skills they’d learned, while the educators’ goal was to deliver these skills in an engaging way.

According to the education plan, access to digital technology will be improved in schools, both to increase knowledge of these modes and also to create learning opportunities in core areas such as reading. Another recent example saw grade 6/7 students in Maple Ridge take up iPods in the classroom to improve reading skills and attitudes toward reading, among other goals.