The Class of the 21st

What is the class of the 21st century trying to achieve?

It’s increasingly becoming obvious that I am teaching students who will need to thrive in a reality that has not yet come to be. My students will likely be adults in a world where automation and AI are ever more pervasive and which will be reinventing itself at an ever faster rate.

This will call for a skillset that obviously goes beyond the ability to reproduce learned knowledge onto a paper on demand.

It seems to me, my students will need to be:

• Critical thinkers: capable of facing information, technology and situations with a critical outlook;
• Problem-Solvers: capable of using knowledge and experience as tools for facing new situations and problems;
• Flexible: capable of reinventing themselves to remain relevant in an ever-changing world and with a mindset for lifelong learning;
• In possession of the “people skills” to render them capable of communication and leadership within a social situation or working environment.

As Yuval Noah Harari argues, giving young people this skillset can help equip them to make themselves ‘true’ and ‘good’ Global Citizens.

It seems to me that at the heart of shaping this skillset, is a reflective practice that is often alien not only to our educational system but (despite its many strenghts and good values) our nation in general.

This is the ‘education’ I wish to be giving…and, despite my efforts, I feel I’ve miles to go.

Beyond KWL

K	W	H	L	A	Q
What do you Know?	What do you Want to know?	How will you find out	What have you Learned?	What Action will you take?	What further Questions do you have?

The traditional KWL questions may not suffice for the 21st century classroom. As it has been argued, one may aptly sneak in:

• an ‘H‘ – How will I find out?
• an ‘A‘ – What action will I take?
• a ‘Q‘ -What further questions do I have? 

Whilst it may be counterproductive to tie oneself down too rigidly to the KWHLAQ framework, it has clear worth in a methodology foregrounding 21st century skills as it:

• acknowledges Reflection as an integral part of the learning process.
• makes the increased importance of Information Literacy visible. 
• encourages consideration of taking Action on wider, even global, scales.
• allows the exploration of technology to express and communicate in Other Forms of media beyond words and text.

Moving Forward

I should aim at implementing a more student-centred, hands on approach, perhaps one that approximates an emergent curriculum as much as possible. It makes a lot of sense to work with a KWLHAQ mindset

[Perpetually processing ideas in this area: Lift Off, Queries, and Lesson Structure for the ‘thinking aloud’ process.]