Most parents and teachers reading this probably have a fairly specific idea in mind when it comes to how they perceive a classroom to be set up. Chances are this perception is quite different than how contemporary classrooms can—or at least should—be set up. Rows of desks and a chalkboard used to be staples in schools, but they don’t much help prepare today’s kids for a hands-on future. These days, students need collaboration, interaction, and active learning and it takes a different kind of classroom to help make this happen.
3 Things To Look For in 21st-Century Classrooms
Don’t get misled by the title of this section and think that you absolutely need all of these things in order to create the ideal classroom. It would be great to have all of them or any of them, but it’s not like you still couldn’t excel at preparing kids for the future. Classroom design is important in the 21st century and so are the tools students have access to every day. There are so many different tools available—many of which are new kinds of technology—but the goal remains the same. The first thing any modern classroom needs is complete student engagement. They need projects that cater to their interests and have real-world relevance so that they can get deeper into their work, build communication skills with their classmates, and to be consistently asking questions and trying new problem-solving methods.
The second thing that’s always good to have is a final product in mind, which ultimately helps provide students with a goal to strive for. Kids can be engaged with an activity, but they’re even better off when they are chasing a specific goal. For this to happen, teachers and students need to have a consistent and open dialogue, especially in project-based learning and student-centered classrooms. Through this constant communication, students will develop the skills and become better able to clearly articulate what they are doing, which is very valuable in the real world. It comes down to students knowing what they are doing, what their goals are, and teachers helping them refocus if they get confused or off track.
Lastly, and perhaps above all else, 21st century classrooms need to have connection—connection to the real world, connection to resources, and connection among students. Obviously, ‘connection’ can mean a number of different things, but when we think about modern learning, it is a very social experience. Much of education, especially once students reach college, is global and technology is helping them get exposed to what it’s like early on in their lives. Chances are that if students are completely engaged and on their way to creating a legitimate product that their learning can be connected. Schools should have the technology in place for their students to extend their learning beyond the classroom. They can connect with students anywhere and learn things they’ve never been able to as long as they are given the chance to try new things and redesign the classroom they’ve always known.
6 Reasons why STEM Learning Belongs in Modern Classrooms
As we’ve said already and as we say countless times every day, today’s students need a different kind of education because they will be entering a very different kind of workforce. One of the most telling differences is that the majority of jobs will soon be STEM jobs (if they are not already). As these new kinds of classrooms continue to sprout up and evolve to meet this need, more and more of them are focusing on the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering, and math because of their unwavering relevance in the future. For that reason, and above all else, STEM learning needs to be present in every K-12 classroom today because it allows students to focus on real-world problems while creatively devising solutions rather than just reading about concepts and theories in a textbook.
STEM education is all about relating the lessons students engage in during the school day to the tasks they will be expected to complete in the real world. Another reason this kind of learning belongs in the classroom is because STEM lessons are guided by the engineering process. They also immerse students in the kind of hands-on, inquiry-based learning that will help them develop new and relevant skills. Since STEM learning is open-ended, there are a lot more opportunities for students to tap their creativity and work in groups, giving them experience with the importance of collaboration. Reason No. 4 is that STEM lessons routinely involve students working together and creating results that are a byproduct of productive teamwork.
The modern classroom should also be set up to challenge students with more rigorous tasks and projects. And, hey, that works out perfectly because STEM lessons help them integrate more rigorous math and science content into their learning almost by default. Another inherent benefit of STEM learning is that teachers are able to easily weave science and math concepts into other subjects, giving students more practice with the most relevant coursework. Finally, STEM lessons allow for students to arrive at more than one correct answer. It’s more about the creative process they use to get there rather than being exactly right every single time. STEM learning gives them the chance to find multiple correct answers and realize the possibilities when they strive for creative solutions.
What Can be Done When Classrooms Feature Curiosity and Innovation?
Students are pretty much like snowflakes. Some of them love coming to school every day and learning new things, others dread it and do anything to avoid opening a book, and most of them fall somewhere in between these two extremes. Unfortunately, many children are conditioned to associate a school day with being trapped in a building and being forced to do things they don’t consider fun. A lot of this unhappiness stems from children being told what they have to do whether it’s read a book, answer some questions, or, God forbid, complete a homework assignment. Kids tend to be more enthusiastic when they are in control and student-centered learning helps make this happen when they can read, imagine, create, and explore on their own.
Not only do students not always enjoy learning in classrooms like the one described above, it’s not always beneficial to them. Every child learns in different ways whether that’s through reading, interaction, a hands-on approach, or something else. Other factors can contribute to student disinterest as well, like low expectations from their teachers, an outdated curriculum, a lack of support, and the belief that what they are doing is irrelevant. Educational leaders are realizing this and going out of their way to create programs that allow for much greater student choice. The premise behind this plan is phenomenal, but it’s still relatively new, so it’s not widely considered a guaranteed solution. The thing is that when students are given the chance to learn in new ways, to try hands-on learning, or project-based learning, not only are they better able to enjoy learning, they are learning in a way that’s more conducive to preparing them for the future.
Sometimes, innovation in education doesn’t necessarily mean bringing in the newest technologies and the most up-to-date resources to try to spur a resurgence. It can be as easy as trying new things in the space teachers already have. Teachers can design challenges in such a way that breeds curiosity, innovation, and connection, which is just as good as integrating new teaching tools. To create learning environments like this, educators need to give up some of their traditional practices and step outside of their comfort zones a bit. Simply talking with students and creating a meaningful relationship with them can build up that trust and skyrocket their interest in learning. It doesn’t take much, but adopting new attitudes, new methods, and, if you can, new tools can turn the mood of a classroom around instantly.
The Value of Immersion in K-12 Classroom Instruction
Contemporary education is all about doing whatever it takes to get students as engaged as possible. This could mean moving away from traditional lectures, making an effort to include more hands-on technology, creating challenged-based classes, or any number of other approaches. We always seem to come back to the technology aspect, however. I wonder why that is. Every year, it seems there is a new technology that’s emerged as a potential gamechanger in the classroom. In past years, it’s been MakerEd tools, 3D printing, robotics, and coding kits. In the next year or so, we could very much be talking about virtual reality in this same context. If you want a classroom in which students are 100 percent engaged, VR offers immersive possibilities like no other teaching tool—tech-based or not.
Any time students can use a new technology to enhance their learning experience, that’s a win in our books. This is because, as they are using it, they’re getting more familiar with how it works, what it’s capable of, and what it makes them capable of doing. They’re also learning how to use this technology by using it—the same kind of hands-on approach as ‘learning by doing,’ which is increasingly valuable in today’s world. This is definitely true with virtual reality since not many students previously know how to use it and especially all that they’re capable of doing with it. Most importantly, it doesn’t take them long to discover what’s possible, which is usually when the excitement tends to skyrocket. And, what goes hand-in-hand with an excited student in the classroom? A whole lot of engagement.
Perhaps the biggest reason why virtual reality is even in the EdTech conversation—aside from the fact that it’s ridiculously cool—is that it offers levels of immersion that we’ve never seen before. The best headsets, like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, provide users with a complete 360-degree view and crystal clear graphics that make them feel like they’re actually in the environment they’re seeing. In fact, a lot of the time, people forget they’re not really there, which is where the term ‘total immersion’ comes from. In education, total immersion is a pretty good thing to achieve since it gets teachers closer to achieving total engagement. With VR, students can see concepts, places, and events that they simply would not be able to witness otherwise, making virtual reality an ideal tool for increasing immersion and rebooting engagement.
Combining Making and Entrepreneurism Creates a Great Recipe
If every classroom could be set up ideally, it would be great if they could just mimic the real world. It’s probably not possible to do this throughout 13 or 17 grades of a child’s education, however. So, educators are forced to scatter the elements of real-world learning into their teaching methods whenever they can find a window to do so. Two of those common teaching methods involve giving students the opportunity to refine their making skills and refine their entrepreneurial skills. These two areas—in recent years—have formed a pretty compatible relationship in the gig economy. Essentially what it boils down to is that makers can leverage their creativity and hands-on skills to create tools, products, and devices that people actually want and need, thus becoming entrepreneurs born out of their own creativity.
Kids love playing and tinkering with technology and, as we know, it’s not just maker tools, like circuit boards, they like fiddling with. They enjoy things like tablets and smartphones, too, I’ve heard. The Maker Movement was born when entrepreneurs, who used technology every day, realized that they had developed the skills to make different versions of these products that would accomplish the same thing. They could make them at a lower cost and in a local place, which is very appealing to consumers. If children in today’s classrooms knew they could refocus the tech skills they are building into a legitimate career, how many of them do you think would be intrigued by that thought? We’re guessing more than a few.
Like so much of 21st century skills development, students need practice at making to develop enough confidence to do it routinely. Making also helps them build resilience if their first attempts do not succeed, which, as we know, is a valuable quality in this day and age. Beyond that, it helps students build connections with their peers since there is so much group collaboration involved, especially when they’re building larger projects, like robots. Making also leads to joy, which is a huge part of learning. When kids generate an idea for a potential invention, they immediately get excited and start thinking of different ways to make it happen—almost uncontrollably. With a classroom that permits trial-and-error learning through the art of making, they’re able to build these entrepreneurial skills and can lean on them later on down the road, making making something that works in K-12 education.
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