Four Barriers to Facilitating 21st Century Competencies Through Digitalization

Author(s):  
Scott J. Marakovits

The purpose of this chapter is to identify and offer solutions based on four barriers to facilitating 21st century competencies through digitalization. The first barrier includes the technological challenges faced by families, including devices and reliable broadband internet. The second barrier explores the training and support needed by teachers in implementing digital tools and instructional technology. The third barrier is a pedagogical shift from teacher-centered to student-centered teaching and learning, especially in remote environments where this approach is needed for student engagement. The fourth barrier is training for parents and families to become familiar with the technology and digital tools that their children are using. Practical solutions backed by research are presented by the author for consideration by teachers, administrators, and the school community. Prompts for reflection and discussion based on identified barriers and real-life examples are presented by the author at the conclusion of the chapter.

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-90
Author(s):  
Simona Laurian-Fitzgerald ◽  
Carlton J. Fitzgerald

The article focuses on the idea that it is time that teachers and students take control of their own learning, that education must be transformed and aligned with the realities of the 21st century. One way to take ownership of our own learning is student-centered teaching and learning. In this process several elements are important: constructivist activities, metacognitive reflections, student and professor partnerships, collaborative/cooperative efforts, authentic assessments, active and on-going student engagement in the work to learn, explicit teaching of important skills, student control of at least some of their learning, peer and professor/teacher feedback, and learning-based, to a large extent, on student effort.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Renol Aprico Siregar

As teaching is considered as a lifelong process, teachers should always intend to develop themselves to be able to effectively conduct the teaching and learning process. This study aimed at exploring the view of pre-service English teachers towards the effective 21st-century teachers’ pedagogical competence and how they develop their pedagogical competence for their future teaching. The data were obtained through interviews and questionnaires. The study was qualitatively conducted as a case study by involving 12 pre-service English teachers purposively chosen due to their familiarity with the study issue. The results indicated that in terms of 21st-century education, the participants perceived that the pedagogical competence focused on teachers’ capability of integrating the technology in classrooms and teachers’ ability to exploit adjusted methods and materials which furnish students with skills appropriate to their future real-life careers.  Further, there were eight very crucial traits of effective 21st-century pedagogical competence perceived by the participants. They were extended to; facilitating and inspiring students to learn creatively, utilizing, designin


Author(s):  
Jason Marshall ◽  
Karen Thomas ◽  
Sandra Robinson

This chapter focuses on the transition from teacher-centred learning to student-centred learning. First, we situate the importance of student-centred learning within the Angloplone Caribbean experience. Second, we outline ways in which on-going professional development centers institutions interested in making the transition to student-centered learning. Third, we describe some techniques that can be used to engender student-centered approaches to teaching and learning. Finally, we conclude by summarizing student-centred pedagogical challenges and implications.


Author(s):  
Irina Lyublinskaya ◽  
Xiaoxue Du

This chapter describes pedagogical practices and teaching strategies with instructional technology used in an online summer course with preservice K-12 teachers. The course provided preservice teachers (PSTs) with experiences in using technology in K-12 classrooms from both students' and teachers' perspectives, engaged PSTs in active explorations of various K-12 curriculum topics using technology that could enhance high-impact teaching strategies, and supported PSTs in development of virtual lessons using instructional technology. The study identified effective practices with instructional technology to support preservice teachers' development of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) for their own online teaching. Study findings suggest that online immersive experience created a virtual student-centered space to nurture collaborative inquiry and that contributed to the growth of PST's TPACK. However, this experience also brought challenges and concerns for sustaining and transforming teaching and learning with instructional technology to an online environment.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Dias ◽  
Angelin Victor

Mobile devices have introduced a new generation of educational tools that afford creative use and instant access to a wealth of resources. These devices hold great potential for transforming learning. On one hand teachers and students are very positive about these devices, on the other hand, there are several obstacles faced. This paper examines the benefits and challenges of mobile devices on learning and teaching. The study shows that teachers and students are optimistic about the use and influence of these devices on students’ motivation, communication, collaboration and ability to research. Adequate training and support can help overcome the challenges faced.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 235
Author(s):  
I Wayan Dirgeyasa

This research aims to find out the typical categories of answers to Yes/No questions most used by students at selected Public Senior High Schools in Medan, Indonesia. These schools were classified into top favorite, medium favorite and non-favorite schools. Through a stratified clustered random sampling technique, six schools were chosen consisting of two schools from each classification. A number of 40 students were chosen from three class X, three class XI and three class XII at each of the six chosen schools, making a total sample of 720 students with 360 sets of dialogue scripts. Data was collected through documentation-recording dialogues. The data was transcribed and analyzed by descriptive analysis. The results of the research showed that: 1) the categories of the students’ answers to the Yes/No questions were distributed variously in terms of the six models. However, the distribution of the answers was not proportionally equal amongst all the models, 2) the dominant distribution of the answers was the third model with the formula Yes/No+additional information such as confirming, supporting, etc., reaching 37% of the total answers, whilst the least common models were the sixth and fourth categories respectively, which had 1% and 3% of the answers respectively, and finally 3) there was no significant difference in the distribution of the students’ answers in terms of the class of school whether top favorite, medium favorite or non-favorite. In conclusion, the ways to answer Yes/No questions need to be developed amongst students by their teachers by teaching and learning using natural, real life-like situations and in contextual ways.


Author(s):  
Gökhan Kayır

Task-based language teaching is one of the newest language teaching models and has popularity among language teachers as it brings real-life situations to the classroom. Based on main principles of communicative language teaching approach, the method provides student-centered, flexible, and authentic real-life classroom environments. Not only the output but also input and learning processes are important for the teachers using this approach. Students are in the center of teaching and learning process, while the teachers are mentor and facilitator. The TBLT uses educational tasks to teach a language. Educational tasks are duties that are structured for an educational purpose. Each task has a language focus that can be assessed. As a result, having the flexibility and being a student-centered approach, TBLT will be used and adapted by many language instructors.


Author(s):  
Shadi Forutanian

Every day we are moving toward digitalization and computerization. In education and especially online learning, we are observing fast developments. The need of a digital curriculum and digital literacy for better teaching and learning is sensible. Thus, a digital literacy curriculum is a necessary tool for teachers and students. This qualitative study explored some components of the digital literacy curriculum based on EFL and IT instructors’ voice. Also, the researchers found digital tools that they used a lot and their purposes behind applying these digital tools. The results show that EFL and IT instructors had focused on production, communication, evaluation of digital skills in cyberspace. Most of them were aware of digital literacy definition and suggested some components of the digital literacy definition components and suggested designing a digital literacy curriculum. Among all digital tools, they used WhatsApp and Bigbluebutton more. Based on all retrieved data, the researchers proposed a digital literacy curriculum framework and identified the need for further study about applying this framework in real life. Doing need analysis before designing a digital literacy curriculum to know students' and teachers' digital talent and awareness is another area that further research should have done. 


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Surya Subrahmanyam Vellanki ◽  
Sasidhar Bandu

The Covid-19 pandemic effected a sudden shift to online teaching, prompting teachers to implement many uncommon or even unusual teaching techniques in this unforeseen context. This precipitous move to online teaching has radically altered our teaching practices, where teachers have had to either completely do away with traditional practices or modify them in significant ways. One of the primary concerns of online teaching voiced by many teachers is to hold students’ interest and keep them engaged in the virtual classroom. Another challenge has been to make students interact with each other and the teacher. The authors of this paper believe that Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) addresses these concerns head-on. There are two reasons for this: first, its emphasis on real-life language through meaningful tasks; and second, it is student-centered. This paper provides a brief background of TBLT and technology-mediated TBLT. It will show how some coursebook materials could be used in TBLT to help online learners improve their language skills. The paper also outlines with examples how technology-mediated tasks could be deployed to encourage learners to use language in productive ways. Finally, the authors discuss some of the anticipated challenges concerning the application of TBLT in online teaching and learning contexts.


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