10 DISCUSSIONS DUE IN 36 HOURS

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Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

—Nelson Mandela

1The Future Is Now: Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century

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Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

ሁ Indicate the skills and competencies today’s students need to compete in a globalized knowledge economy in the 21st century.

ሁ Identify the standards that describe what students and teachers need to know, understand, and do (KUD) in the 21st century.

ሁ Assess the influence of the digital revolution on curriculum and teaching in the 21st century. ሁ Develop an awareness of the importance of professional development in advancing teaching practice.

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Section 1.1 An Introduction to 21st Century Skills

Introduction The 21st century is an exciting time to become a teacher! We, the authors of this text, have many decades of teaching experience, and we passionately believe that when you make a dif- ference as a teacher, you make a difference in the world. It’s well known that the ripple effect of a teacher’s positive influence may continue for generations. “Teaching remains the only profession on this planet whose job it is to change the human brain every single day,” says David Souza (2006), author and international educational expert. To put it more succinctly, teachers are brain changers!

Moreover, in this complex, digital world of the 21st century, we will need teachers, more than ever, to help all students reach their full potential as problem solvers, communicators, collaborators, and innovators. The good news is that that the knowledge base of teaching and learning has also been evolving to better meet those demands. This textbook intends to address core questions such as: “What do students need to know, understand, and be able to do?” and “Are we preparing students for the world in which they will live and work in the 21st century?”

In the chapters that follow, you will learn the basics of how to construct learning outcomes and design curriculum that address mandated standards while you challenge students to think critically and creatively. You will learn sophisticated ways to use student data as the centerpiece of your instruction, learn how to access new digital learning technologies to sup- port student growth, and learn how the brain accesses, processes, and retains information. From this knowledge, you will be able to identify evidence-based teaching strategies that will complement the way the brain works. Ultimately, you will learn how to teach in such a way that all students in your classrooms have access to a high-quality curriculum that prepares them to live, work, and thrive in the 21st century.

1.1 An Introduction to 21st Century Skills As citizens of the 21st century, we all have seen changes in just about every area of our lives. Experts believe that this rate of societal change will continue, and even escalate. Thus, students in today’s classrooms will need entirely new sets of skills to succeed in the world they will face upon graduation. Recently, in developed countries, educators, policymakers, researchers, and those in the business sector have made an extensive effort to identify what these sets of skills should include (Ananiadou & Claro, 2009; Dede, 2007; National Research Council, 2010). In the United States, a 2007 citizen poll revealed that 99 percent of Americans thought that teaching students 21st century skills was a critical factor to our future eco- nomic success as a nation. This same poll disclosed that some people were concerned that the U.S educational system was not preparing our young people with “the skills and competen- cies needed to compete in a globalized knowledge economy” (Partnerships for 21st Century Skills, 2009).

C O N S I D E R T H I S

What changes have you seen in the world since the beginning of the 21st century? Which of those changes do you feel have inf luenced what our students now need to learn?

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21st Century Student Outcomes and Support Systems

Life and Career Skills

Core Subjects—3Rs and 21st Century Themes Information,

Media, and Technology

Skills

Learning and Innovation Skills—4Cs

Critical thinking * Communication Collaboration * Creativity

Standards and Assessments

Curriculum and Instruction

Professional Development

Learning Environments

Section 1.1 An Introduction to 21st Century Skills

Current frameworks for these 21st century skills include the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2006), the Metiri Group and NCREL (2003), the American Association of Colleges and Universities (2007), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2009). The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) has become the leading group focused on infusing 21st century skills into education (Buczynski & Hansen, 2014). This organization has defined a powerful vision for 21st century education to ensure all children’s success as citizens and workers in the 21st century; P21 has created the graphic shown in Figure 1.1 to symbolize the interconnecting components.

The P21 Framework Let’s take a closer look at the P21 framework and these important 21st century skills. There are four main domains: (1) Core Subjects and Interdisciplinary Skills, (2) Learning and Inno- vation Skills, (3) Information, Media, and Technology Skills, and (4) Life and Career Skills.

Core Subjects and Interdisciplinary Themes

Even with the advances in the 21st century, it remains essential for students to achieve mas- tery of the core subjects. These subjects include English, reading or language arts, world languages, arts, mathematics, economics, science, geography, history, and government and

Figure 1.1: Key components of 21st century learning skills ሁ The graphic represents both 21st century student outcomes (as represented by the arches of the

rainbow) and 21st century learning support systems (as represented by the pools at the bottom).

Source: P21, Framework for 21st Century Learning. Used with permission from Partnership for 21st Century Skills, www.p21.org.

21st Century Student Outcomes and Support Systems

Life and Career Skills

Core Subjects—3Rs and 21st Century Themes Information,

Media, and Technology

Skills

Learning and Innovation Skills—4Cs

Critical thinking * Communication Collaboration * Creativity

Standards and Assessments

Curriculum and Instruction

Professional Development

Learning Environments

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www.p21.org

Section 1.1 An Introduction to 21st Century Skills

civics. In addition to helping students acquire knowledge, today’s teachers will need to help students:

• Build understanding across and among core subjects. • Emphasize deep understanding rather than shallow knowledge. • Engage students with the real-world data, tools, and experiences they will encounter

in college, on the job, and in life; students learn best when actively engaged in solv- ing meaningful problems.

Included within this domain are interdisciplinary themes. In the 21st century, teachers will need to see that students attain mastery of additional literacies that are not solely embedded in traditional content subjects. Examples include: (1) global awareness, or an understanding of international issues; (2) financial, economic, business, and entrepreneurial literacy, or an understanding of how the world of business works; (3) civic literacy, or an understanding of one’s role as a citizen; (4) health literacy, or an understanding of how to keep oneself healthy and fit; and (5) environmental literacy, or an understanding of the local and global issues affecting the environment (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2011).

To assist students in gaining mastery of these important themes, teachers will need to find ways to integrate 21st century skills into the context of core subjects. While a number of teaching strategies can make it easy for students to practice the skills in these themes, Chap- ter 6 of this text will introduce you to a model known as project-based learning (PBL). The basis of this powerful pedagogy is that students learn best by experiencing and solving real- world problems (Buck Institute for Education, n.d.)

Learning and Innovation Skills

Knowing just core content and interdisciplinary themes will not be sufficient for 21st cen- tury students to succeed. Students will also need to master essential sets of skills to help them navigate more complex life and work environments. These skills are known as the 4 Cs—creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. Since educators have expressed excitement over this domain, let’s look more closely at the 4 Cs and what each of these will entail.

• Critical thinking and problem solving—Students will need to employ higher order thinking skills to solve problems.

• Communication—Students will need to be able to communicate orally and in writing with a wide range of audiences.

• Collaboration—Students will need to work cooperatively with others to complete tasks.

• Creativity and innovation—Students will need to use a range of idea-creation tech- niques, work creatively with others, and employ original thinking to solve problems.

Information, Media, and Technology Skills

Students in the 21st century live in a technology- and media-infused environment and will need to utilize technology to continually access information. Therefore, teachers must facili- tate student mastery of ever-advancing digital technologies. To do this, teachers will need to

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Section 1.1 An Introduction to 21st Century Skills

balance the use of traditional direct-instruction pedagogies with providing opportunities for students to learn in relevant, real-world, 21st century contexts (e.g., through project-based or other applied work). These information, media, and technology skills include the follow- ing subareas:

• Information literacy involves being able to locate and use information from a variety of sources.

• Media literacy involves being able to synthesize information from both print and digital media.

• Technology, or ICT (Information, Communications, and Technology) literacy, involves being able to access and use digital information.

Life and Career Skills

Today’s life and work environments require far more than thinking skills and content knowl- edge. The ability to navigate the complex life and work environments in the globally com- petitive information age requires students to pay rigorous attention to developing adequate life and career skills. To address this last area, teachers must consider that a classroom is very much like a mini-society in which students can be given opportunities to learn these important life skills in many different ways:

• Flexibility and adaptability—Provide a variety of roles, job responsibilities, and schedules that teach students how to adapt to change. Set the stage for dealing with ambiguity, and show students how to revise their work to incorporate feedback, including praise as well as criticism.

• Initiative and self-direction—Teach students how to set short and long-term goals and manage their time efficiently. Provide opportunities to work independently and develop self-direction and attitudes of life-long learning.

• Social and cross-cultural skills—Provide opportunities for students to interact effec- tively, conducting themselves respectfully and using social and cultural differences as a means for creating new ideas.

• Productivity and accountability—Provide conditions for students to work positively and participate reliably. Allow them to be accountable for tasks and accountable to others.

• Leadership and responsibility—Set conditions whereby students can learn how to use their own personal agency to influence and guide others, and to act responsibly for the interests of the group and the larger community.

As a teacher-in-training, your understanding of 21st century skills will be critical to your stu- dents’ success. To keep these skills on the forefront of your mind, each subsequent chapter in this book will begin by highlighting which 21st century skills that chapter will cover.

C O N S I D E R T H I S

If you were teaching right now, which of these skills would you want to emphasize? How might you go about doing that in your classroom?

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Section 1.1 An Introduction to 21st Century Skills

Strategies for Helping Students Attain 21st Century Skills Because these skills and dispositions are so far-reaching, how will you, as a teacher, sup- port your students in learning these essential 21st century skills? In their article Learning 21st Century Skills Requires 21st Century Teaching, Saavedra and Opfer (2012) offer nine strategies to help teachers integrate critical 21st century skills into today’s classrooms. We will highlight these strategies in the following sections.

Make It Relevant

Curriculum must be relevant to students’ lives. Some classrooms are full of children who are disengaged, unmotivated, and behaving as if they would rather be anywhere other than school. Yet students in other classrooms exhibit a palpable energy of intellectual stimulus. Students in these classrooms are focused, involved, and intellectually challenged. What might be making such a dramatic difference between these two types of classrooms? Does the teacher know how to make learning, in all of its forms, relevant? Does meaningful learning make a successful classroom? The answer is yes because the most important information (the meaningful information) gets the brain’s attention. And, conversely, the brain resists isolated bits of information that are perceived as meaningless.

To make curriculum meaningful, teachers need to include topics that not only are important to the discipline, but that also resonate with students. Additionally, students perceive content as being relevant when they are able to understand how it connects to what they have previ- ously learned. For example, let’s take the topic of plants. In the past, we may have directed second-grade students to the science textbook for an introduction to the plant world, without considering that students have been aware of plants since they were in preschool, and before that. They have played in plants, picked plants, eaten plants, and sometimes grown plants. Now, we have learned the critical importance of accessing prior knowledge. We have learned that long-term storage of information is greatly enhanced when we connect new information to something students already know (Caine, Caine, McClintic, & Klimek, 2008).

Teach Through the Disciplines

As we noted in the previous section, 21st century skills are wrapped around the essential core subjects taught in school. This is an important point because students need solid knowl- edge of the discipline before they can learn skills associated with each discipline. Saavedra and Opfer (2012) provide an example of this strategy with the discipline of science: “Students should learn why science is relevant and what kinds of problems they can solve through sci- entific methods, as well as how scientists carry out experiments, how they reach conclusions, what they do with the knowledge they gain from the process, and how they communicate their findings” (p. 10).

Develop Critical-Thinking Skills

Critical thinking and problem solving are at the heart of 21st century skills. Teachers should focus more time on students’ understanding of higher-order thinking, requiring students to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate. Saavedra and Opfer (2012) assert that in most classrooms, teachers spend more time on lower-order exercises, those that only ask students to parrot back what the text has stated. They report on an approach, popular in Finland and Singapore, that reverses the way students spend their time in the classroom and on homework. Instead

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Section 1.1 An Introduction to 21st Century Skills

of listening to lectures at school and doing problems at home, students can engage with con- tent as homework, and then at school, work on the development of higher-order thinking skills with the teacher as coach. This approach, renamed the “flipped classroom” in the United States, has already caught on in a great many U.S. classrooms. (See Chapter 9 in this text for more information on this digitally enhanced teaching approach.)

Encourage Learning Transfer

Many of us realize how hard it is to get students to transfer thinking processes they have learned in one setting to another setting. For example, many students understand how to solve math problems in their math books, but they are puzzled when they encounter the same type of problems in real life. As difficult as transfer is for learners, it is crucial for teachers to devote attention to this strategy because students must ultimately be able to apply the skills and knowledge they gain in school to other areas of their lives. Since traditional instruction doesn’t prepare learners to transfer what they learn, explicit instruction in how to transfer information can assist your students in mastering this concept. Saavedra and Opfer (2012) assert that “the importance of transfer brings us back to the fundamental rationale for learn- ing 21st century skills in the first place—so students can transfer them to the economic, civic, and global contexts that demand them” (p. 10).

Teach Students How to Learn

Teaching students the skills of learning on their own may be one of the most important things a teacher can do to prepare students for the 21st century. As we stated previously, experts cite exponential change in the 21st century in just about every aspect of life. Since students can only learn a finite amount of things through formal learning in school, they need to develop metacognitive skills that help them understand their own learning style and the strategies and attitudes that assist them in learning (Pauli, Reusser, & Grob, 2007). One way teachers are able to develop students’ metacognition is by asking them to observe how they think.

Address Misunderstandings Directly

The old adage that we learn from our mistakes is only true if someone can mediate the misun- derstandings that invariably crop up in any learning situation. You, the teacher, are in the per- fect position to help your learners build alternative explanations (Perkins & Grotzer, 2008). Textbooks are not very helpful in helping learners address misconceptions (Schwartz & Fischer, 2006). Teachers often may need to provide feedback and intervene directly to assist students to understand why something is not correct.

Treat Teamwork As an Outcome

Working collaboratively with others is one of the 4 Cs in the 21st century skills framework and a critical component of the Learning and Innovation skills category. While knowing how to work with others is something that may seem obvious to most individuals, many students do not have the natural ability to “work and play well with others.” Teachers are in the per- fect position to construct learning experiences to help students learn these important skill sets. By alternating classroom instruction between direct instruction and group experiences, teachers allow students the opportunity to learn, discuss, and present important standards- based learnings.

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Section 1.2 Uncovering Standards: Identifying What to Know, Understand, and Do (KUD)

Exploit Technology to Support Learning

No other medium besides technology has the potential for developing students’ 21st century skills. Teachers need to be active learners themselves, with regard to new digital technolo- gies, but they also need to be advocates for their students. If technology has not yet lived up to this promise, it is because teachers have not had the opportunity to learn to maximize its pedagogical value (Saavedra & Opfer, 2012).

Foster Creativity

The significance of creativity has captured both the commitment and the imagination of the business community. Creativity may be valued as the most important of the Learning and Innovation Skills in the P21 Framework (the 4 Cs) because, without it, the innovations that create jobs, address challenges, and inspire social and individual progress would not be possible. For students to be able to flex their creativity, teachers need to be intentional

in the learning opportunities they design (Robinson, 2001). Teachers need to encour- age students’ creative sparks so students can begin to believe in their own capac- ity for creative thought (Csikszentmihalyi, 2008; Sternberg, 2006).

While each of these strategies is useful in promoting 21st century skills, none can be accomplished spontaneously, or “on the fly.” Their implementation is only possible by coordinating standards and the organiza- tion of curriculum with planning strategies. Subsequent chapters of this text set the foundations for implementing those strate- gies that make accomplishing the ambitious 21st century skills possible.

1.2 Uncovering Standards: Identifying What to Know, Understand, and Do (KUD)

In addition to helping students become competent with 21st century skills and tools, teach- ers are responsible for their students’ mastery of core subject-matter standards, or grade- level subject-matter criteria that identify what students need to know, understand, and be able to do (KUD). Both teachers and students are held accountable, teachers for what they teach and students for what they learn. In this section, we will cover some of the important standards in the field of education.

Standards for Students in the 21st Century Standards are not new to education in the 21st century. By the mid-1990s, all 50 states had adopted discipline-based benchmarks to measure whether students were working at grade level, particularly in the four major subject areas—mathematics, reading/language arts,

Purestock/Thinkstock

ሁ Encouraging the creative spark within students is one strategy for helping them to develop 21st century skills.

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Section 1.2 Uncovering Standards: Identifying What to Know, Understand, and Do (KUD)

science, and social studies. Since education is a state’s right under the U.S. Constitution, each of the 50 states had different standards. However, there was also a growing awareness that U.S. students were falling further behind students in other industrialized nations.

It was under these conditions that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were estab- lished. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were created to bring diverse state stan- dards into alignment with each other while educating students for career and college readiness (Ananiadou & Claro, 2009). The CCSS were initiated in 2010 by a coalition of the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). The CCSS outline the knowledge and skills that students would need to be ready for college and careers by the end of their K–12 education (Drew, 2012). The authors of the CCSS purposefully included the words state standards in the title to indicate that these standards were developed “by the states and for the states” (Drew, 2012, p. 322). Since education is a state’s right, the standards were intended for states to adopt by choice. However, the federal government also offered monetary incentives to those states that reformed their curriculum and adopted the CCSS. To date, representatives from 48 states have been involved in the initiative. The education governing boards of 46 states have adopted the standards, and 19 state departments of education have been recipients of up to $700 million to improve schools through reforming existing standards (U.S. Depart- ment of Education, 2013).

The creators of the CCSS wanted to emulate what other nations were doing by creating fewer standards students could learn more deeply (NGA Center & CCSSO, 2010). The perennial criti- cism of existing sets of standards in the 50 states was that they were “a mile wide and an inch deep.” Many educators view the new standards as being “fewer, clearer, higher” and provid- ing “a roadmap for K–12 curriculum and instruction” (Phillips & Wong, 2010, p. 37). State- ments from the Chief State School Officers when introducing the standards further explain this intent.

The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. (CCSSO, 2010, pp. 12–13)

The CCSS were developed from the collaboration of teachers, school administrators, and experts who used national and international research, evidence, and standards from other countries that are often recognized for their high-quality education. The new standards pro- vide more coherence and focus. They take learning beyond the skills-acquisition level and require students to analyze, explain, and apply new learning.

English/Language Arts and Mathematics were the first of the content areas for which Com- mon Core Standards were developed; these were released in 2010. Science standards were released to the states to begin the adoption process in 2013, and the social studies standards are currently being developed. The goals for the standards, no matter the content area of emphasis, are that they be:

• Research- and evidence-based • Clear, understandable, and consistent • Aligned with college and career expectations • Based on rigorous content and application of knowledge through higher-order

thinking skills

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Section 1.2 Uncovering Standards: Identifying What to Know, Understand, and Do (KUD)

• Built upon the strengths and lessons of current state standards • Informed by other top-performing countries to prepare all students for success in

our global economy and society (Common Core State Standards, 2012)

CCSS ELA Standards

ELA Common Core Standards focuses on students being able to read both literary and infor- mational text. Instead of gaining superficial understanding, students gain deep compre- hension of text and an ability to cite evidence in both oral and written communication. An important point to remember is that the literacy standards include reading and writing in other subject areas like history, social studies, the sciences, and career-technical education. A full copy of the ELA CCSS can be found at http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy

CCSS Math Standards

One big change in the new math standards is that teachers will now be asked to concentrate their teaching on a more focused set of major mathematics concepts and skills. This concen- tration, in turn, will allow students to spend more time on mastering concepts by applying critical-thinking, problem-solving, and reasoning skills. The standards intend that students will interact with rich and challenging math content and engage in solving real-world prob- lems. Additionally, students will have frequent opportunities to formulate and take apart com- plex problems that require a significant amount of effort, and then to reflect on their thinking.

The CCSS for mathematics includes two types of standards: (1) Standards for Mathematical Practice (how students are able to apply and extend math principles) and (2) Standards for Mathematical Content (what students know about math). The standards for mathematical practice include the following:

1. Make sense of problems, and persevere in solving them. 2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. 3. Construct viable arguments, and critique the reasoning of others. 4. Model with mathematics. 5. Use appropriate tools strategically. 6. Attend to precision. 7. Look for and make use of structure. 8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. (Common Core State Stan-

dards, 2012)

Let’s look at an example of how a math lesson might look in the new CCSS with the geometry topics of area and perimeter. In the past, students might have been asked to find the area and perimeter of things in the classroom (e.g., desk, white board, pencil box). However, they would do this “problem” by applying an algorithm or a formula without being challenged to show how they used evidence and reasoning to support their thinking. The conceptual under- standing part of mathematical thinking was deemphasized, and the goal was merely to “get the correct answer.”

In the new alignment with the CCSS, mathematical practices are accentuated along with the solution of the problem. When introducing a unit on area, the teacher would give small groups of students a packet of 7–8 rectangles of varying widths and lengths and ask them to order the rectangles from largest to smallest. The students discuss their choices within their group, and then share their findings with the class, explaining the group’s reasoning. They could refocus

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http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy

Section 1.2 Uncovering Standards: Identifying What to Know, Understand, and Do (KUD)

the problem by connecting the size of the rectangles to a candy bar. By working in groups, as the students present their ideas to each other and to the class, they are demonstrating the mathematical practice of constructing viable arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others. Subsequent lessons could focus on the practice standards of modeling (using a unit square and tiles of other sizes) and attending to precision. A more elaborate example of les- son plans specifying content and practice standards for teaching area and perimeter can be accessed from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Third Grade Area and Perimeter at http://maccss.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/file/view/3rdGradeUnit.pdf

A full copy of the Math CCSS can be found at http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents /ccssmathstandardaug2013.pdf

Standards for Teachers in the 21st Century Just as the CCSSO and the National Governors Association (NGA) have led the work on articu- lating what learners need to know and be able to do with the development of the Common Core State Standards, their work has also brought a parallel change in teachers’ standards. It stands to reason that if teachers need to facilitate students’ understanding of global skills and knowledge necessary to navigate the world, while building students’ attributes and disposi- tions (such as problem solving, curiosity, creativity, innovation, communication, and interper- sonal skills), teachers’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions will need to undergo a similar transformation. Transformation has happened with the evolution of standards for the teach- ing profession. Every state has set professional standards for educators that include the knowledge, skills, and dispositions (KUD) required of teachers. Most states have based those standards on the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC). InTASC is a partnership of state education agencies and national educational organizations committed to the reform of teacher preparation, licensing, and ongoing professional development. InTASC was created in 1987, and its work is guided by one basic premise: An effective teacher must be able to integrate content knowledge with the specific strengths and needs of stu- dents to assure that all students learn and perform at high levels (National Board for Profes- sional Teaching Standards, 2013). See more at http://www.ccsso.org/Resources/Programs /Interstate_Teacher_Assessment_Consortium_(InTASC).html#sthash.cVuUqZhq.dpuf

C O N S I D E R T H I S

List some of the ways that the Common Core State Standards are changing the focus of reading and math instruction. Do you think these changes will benefit students? Why or why not?

C O N S I D E R T H I S

If you were charged with creating professional standards for teachers, what would you include and why?

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http://maccss.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/file/view/3rdGradeUnit.pdf

http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/ccssmathstandardaug2013.pdf

http://www.ccsso.org/Resources/Programs/Interstate_Teacher_Assessment_Consortium_(InTASC).html#sthash.cVuUqZhq.dpuf

Section 1.2 Uncovering Standards: Identifying What to Know, Understand, and Do (KUD)

The InTASC Core Teaching Standards describe what teachers should know and be able to do to ensure that every K–12 student reaches the goal of being ready to enter college or the workforce in today’s world. In this sense, the InTASC Standards have many similarities with 21st century skills and the Common Core State Standards for students. These standards out- line the principles and foundations of teaching practice that cut across all subject areas and grade levels and that all teachers share. For example, cross-disciplinary skills (e.g., communi- cation, collaboration, critical thinking, and the use of technology) are very much like the 4 Cs from 21st century skills and, as such, are woven throughout the teaching standards because of their importance for learners. Additionally, the InTASC Standards stress that teachers build literacy and thinking skills across the curriculum, as well as help learners address multiple perspectives in exploring ideas and solving problems. These standards also address inter- disciplinary themes (e.g., financial literacy, civic literacy) and the teacher’s ability to design learning experiences that draw upon multiple disciplines (CCSSO, 2011).

The InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards (CCSSO, 2013) consist of 4 domains and 10 stan- dards, as follows:

Domain 1: The Learner and Learning

Standard #1: Learner Development. Teacher needs to understand how learners grow and develop and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences. Standard #2: Learning Differences. Teachers need to have a strong foundation in understanding and planning for the learning differences of their students. Standard #3: Learning Environments. Teachers need to know how to provide a supportive classroom learning environment for all students.

Domain 2: Content

Standard #4: Content Knowledge. Teachers need to have a deep understanding of the subjects that they teach. Standard #5: Application of Content. Teachers need to be able to help students apply content information to real-world settings.

Domain 3: Instructional Practice

Standard #6: Assessment. Teachers need to know how to monitor student prog- ress and determine when students have reached learning goals. Standard #7: Planning for Instruction. Teachers need to be able to design yearly unit and daily lesson plans to meet the needs of all students. Standard #8: Instructional Strategies. Teachers need to be cognizant of and utilize evidence-based instructional strategies in their lessons.

Domain 4: Professional Responsibility

Standard #9: Professional Learning and Ethical Practice. Teachers need to be lifelong learners and engage in the highest ethical practices. Standard #10: Leadership and Collaboration. Teachers need to be part of a col- laborative learning community and take leadership roles as needed in support of common goals.

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Section 1.3 Technological Trends in Teaching and Learning

Because knowledge of the InTASC standards is critical to teachers’ understanding of the roles and responsibilities of becoming a teacher, subsequent chapters in this book will begin with a feature that identifies which standards that chapter will address.

1.3 Technological Trends in Teaching and Learning

The use of classroom technologies is one of the most extensive 21st century changes that has occurred in teaching and learning. Since this topic is so far reaching, an entire chapter will be devoted to it. (Please see Chapter 9.) Meanwhile, let’s look at what has been termed “the digital revolution” and examine the impact this movement has had on classroom teaching.

One of the main goals of technology is to “promote engaging and empowering learning expe- riences that prepare learners to be active, creative, knowledgeable, and ethical participants in a global networked society” (Rosen & Beck-Hill, 2012, p. 226). Integrating technology into today’s classroom has been never been so critical.

Technology can be a powerful resource for student learning. A technology-rich classroom environment can promote the kinds of learning experiences promoted by both the 21st cen- tury skills movement and the Common Core State Standards; these experiences include higher-order thinking skills, learning motivation, and collaboration (Rosen, 2009; Rosen & Salomon, 2007). Technology can also reduce learning obstacles for many students (Rose & Meyer, 2002), improve academic success for others (Wenglinsky, 2006), lead to higher school completion rates (Waks, 2006), and create a greater sense of school community (Gunn & Hollingsworth, 2013; Zhang, Scardamalia, Lamon, Messina, & Reeve, 2007).

Even while there has been consensus on the importance of these new technologies, many experts would also agree that persistent challenges still exist to full classroom integration and development of authentic and personalized learning experiences for all students (Brans- ford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999; Collins & Halverson, 2009; Fullan, 2007; Marzano & Kendall, 2007; U.S. Department of Education, 2010). Many educators assert that digital literacy is one of the most important literacies of the 21st century, despite its less-than-expected assimila- tion into everyday instructional use (Lee, Waxman, Wu, Michko, & Lin, 2013).

Dialogue on how to use these digital technologies has been underway for some time now in the educational community and has resulted in notable sets of standards. Like the standards discussed in the previous section, the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) are also important to educators. NETS are standards published by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) for the purpose of leveraging the use of technology in K–12 education to enable students to learn effectively and live productively in an increasingly digital society. There currently are sets of NETS for students (NETS-S), teachers (NETS-T), and administrators (NETS-A).

C O N S I D E R T H I S

Think about the teacher-preparation program you have experienced up to this point in your education. Which courses and/or learning activities can track directly to the InTASC standards listed here? Which standards does your program still need to address?

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Section 1.3 Technological Trends in Teaching and Learning

NETS for Students Students are going to live and work in an increasingly digital world. Therefore, the NETS-S address the following digital literacies:

1. Creativity and innovation—Students need to be able to use technology to innovate and enhance their own creative abilities.

2. Communication and collaboration—Students are already way ahead of many adults in their use of technology for social communication. In the 21st century, they will need to expand those technology skills to augment their communication skills in more formal settings.

3. Research and information fluency—Entire libraries of information are now at our fingertips. Students need to be able to efficiently and effectively access increasingly evolving informational databases.

4. Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making—Students need to be able to use technology to augment their own thinking and problem-solving skills.

5. Digital citizenship—Students need to understand that the digital revolution carries with it the increased need for every person to exhibit ethical behavior (ISTE, 2007).

NETS for Teachers Teachers are not only users of technology; they are also the conduit for students to gain digi- tal competencies. According to the NETS-T, teachers should be able to:

1. Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity—Computers are more than digital textbooks. Teachers need to be able to inspire students’ awe and creativity through digital channels.

2. Design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments—Teachers need to be able to create new kinds of learning and assessment experiences, ones that require students to access the power of digital technology.

3. Model digital-age work and learning—Since the goal of schooling is to prepare stu- dents for the world of work, teachers need to model digital learning in the classroom.

4. Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility—Teachers need to make stu- dents aware of the need to use tech- nology responsibly and ethically.

5. Engage in professional growth and leadership—Teachers need to be able to commit to lifelong growth and learning of their own digital skills (ISTE, 2008).

The challenge educators now face is how to best use these many digital technologies to promote student learning in (1) individual scaffolding and support; (2) making practices of meaning-making explicit; (3) developing critical thinking and promoting information literacy; and (4) stressing creativity in the design, presentation, and delivery of informa- tion (Buczynski & Hansen, 2014, p. 271).

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ሁ Teachers are tasked with finding the best way to incorporate digital technologies to promote student learning more effectively.

Try It!

Write a letter to parents explaining the new paradigm of teaching and learning in the 21st century.

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Section 1.4 Teachers as Learners

1.4 Teachers as Learners While we have focused this chapter on what teachers do with and for students, we would like to conclude with the notion of the teacher as a collaborator and learner. Understanding emerging content standards, professional standards, and integrating technology are complex tasks that teachers are asked to perform in 21st century schools. Becoming credentialed as a teacher is just the beginning of an exciting journey—one where the learning never ends.

Professional-Learning Communities The skills demanded of 21st century teachers require them to engage in ongoing collab- orative study to learn and grow with one another in the art and science of teaching. The professional-learning community (PLC) is one of the most compelling innovations in the 21st century (Buczynski & Hansen, 2014). A professional-learning community is a group of educators examining practice through ongoing study and collaboration. This notion is also reflected in the InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards and Learning Progressions for Teach- ers. These standards emphasize that by participating in ongoing professional-learning teams, teachers may greatly assist one another in the multifaceted work of planning learning experi- ences to meet the diverse needs of each learner.

Lifelong Learning Teachers hone their knowledge, skills, and practices of teaching throughout a lifetime of ongo- ing professional development. The concepts presented in this text are complex and varied, and go beyond what we can present within 10 chapters. This chapter provided an introduction to the foundational standards and concepts upon which teaching and learning are understood and curriculum is developed. Subsequent chapters attempt to build upon that understanding: learner development (Chapter 2), setting goals (Chapter 3), instructional design (Chapter 4), assessment (Chapter 5), instructional models (Chapter 6), unit planning (Chapter 7), lesson planning (Chapter 8), and technology integration (Chapter 9). The final chapter (Chapter 10) provides guidance on brain-based research, reminding us that the study of how people learn is relevant for teachers as well as students. It provides a framework that we all can use as we continue to learn and advance our profession.

Teachers who are just beginning their journey will soon realize they have much more to learn every day and will seek options to support lifelong learning through professional organiza- tions, advanced study, and a variety of methods for self-renewal. Personal choices may dictate the types of meaningful professional learning, but whether to not to engage is not an option. After all, the definition of commencement is the beginning.