Student’s Perspectives on 21st Century Learning
The impact that the Teacher has on his/her students can never be underestimated! I recently attended a Professional Development day at my school and a little girl said, while being interviewed, “teachers don’t always know what their students are thinking: They should ask them.” In essence, she was saying that teachers don’t always understand what and how students are learning. Unfortunately, students are rarely asked for their opinions about what they want from their teachers and what they want from their education. This is ironic given that students are major stakeholders in the school and that the sole purpose of schools is to facilitate their learning.
There has been a great deal of debate in blogs, journals and newspapers, amongst educators about how to best prepare students so that they are effectively prepared for the 21st century. However, student voice is conspicuously absent in these forums. It would seem to make sense though, that the student’s perspective should be taken into account in discussions on educational reform, as these reforms will directly have an impact on their learning. Adding student voice to the educational reform conversation would provide an authenticity to these conversations and remind teachers of their purpose and role in education.
If I were to be completely honest with myself, I would have to admit; that I too, am guilty of not always asking my students what they think, or need, to be successful in school. At times, I have asked them to co-create norms for the classroom, offered them choice in content and asked them how they wish to be assessed but I have rarely asked them what modality works for them. The survey made it clear to me that students wanted a choice in what they read and what they write as well as choice in the subject matter they are passionate about. However, this does not mean that the teacher abdicates their role in facilitating the learning process by guiding students in developing the necessary skills to master content, as students may not have an understanding of the skill sets that are important in the long run.
This year, I enrolled in the National Board Certification program in the United States. It is a rigorous program that asks teachers to reflect upon their teaching practices in order to improve student learning. In completing my certification, I thought that it was important to ask my students what they wanted from me as their teacher and how I could best serve them in the classroom in order to empower them to be successful learners. So I decided to create a student survey to ask not only my 8th grade Social Studies students but also the entire 8th grade class of two hundred students what they wanted and hoped for in their education. While the results did not indicate anything that I had not already known or read about, I was gently reminded of the importance of asking students ‘what they think’ about their education.
While technology and pedagogy was important to students, the single most important factor to a student and their education was the teacher. Seventy-four percent of the students responded in the survey that it was “very important” to them to have a teacher who valued, respected and cared for them. They wanted a teacher who challenged and engaged them in their learning. They want to be inspired by their teachers!
It was almost equally important, to students to be able to partner with their teachers about educational experiences both inside and outside the classroom. This meant that students wanted choice in what and how they learned. Students wanted classes that are connected to their interests, experiences, talents and the real world while at the same time developing the skills and knowledge needed for higher education.
Surprisingly, technology wasn’t as important as I thought it would be, although students did want the opportunity to use technology as a way to not only engage them in the learning process but to also demonstrate what they have learned. This generation of learners has been referred to as digital learners and as such, they have been raised to use technology and mobile electronic devices such as the Internet, cell phones, laptops, social media and various other tools to process and communicate information. It was interesting for me to note that, even though they have been raised with technology, the results showed that this was not as significant as the relationships they had with their teachers.
After analyzing the results, I realized that if I was to become a 21st century teacher and value the opinions of my students, I would need to make changes not only in the structure of my classroom but the role that I played as well. In order to do this, I wanted to create more time within the space of the classroom to conference with my students so that I could effectively support them in their learning. I decided to flip my classroom. Students would go home and learn content by watching assigned videos or screen casts and come to class prepared to collaborate with their peers and myself. As a result of these changes, I found that students felt more in control of their learning and thus were motivated to learn the content at home, coming to class prepared to process this information collaboratively through engaging activities with their peers. By changing the structure of the classroom, I now had more time to be a coach/facilitator for my student’s learning. Rather than disseminating content, I began to teach cognitive skills that were needed to master content. In doing this, I now had more time to confer individually with each student about their learning and in turn give students what they needed and wanted from me as indicated by the survey. Consequently, their learning became more personalized and they were able to master skills at their own pace. In addition, students learned to communicate and advocate for themselves.
My favorite teacher in high school explained to me when I first started teaching that teachers are like gardeners. Just as gardeners plant the “seeds” and provide the necessary elements that are needed in order for the seeds to grow and blossom into beautiful flowers, teachers nurture and grow their students providing the necessary elements for their education. According to student responses in the survey these elements are a caring and respectful teacher, choice in how and what they learn as well as the tools need for their learning. When students move on though, teachers are not always around to watch their students bloom and so we have to trust in ourselves as teachers and trust in our students to tell us what they need.
