There are 4 key concepts that for me define today’s learning environments. I’ll call them the 4 C’s of Learning: Change, Cultivation, Connections, and Choices.
Change.
Change is here. It’s not going anywhere. Learners today must embrace change in order to be successful. Teachers must do the same. Children are naturally curious and naturally adaptive to change. Change can be a bigger challenge for adult learners and instructors alike. Change can be scary; be it learning a new sport, a new language, a new mathematical concept or operating a new piece of machinery at work. Technology is changing how we learn by providing new mediums and opening an unbelievable quantity of doors to what we learn.
Cultivation.
Teachers, parents and learners themselves must cultivate learning through curiosity and imagination. As Mimi Ito states in “Rethinking Learning: The 21st Century Learner“, “we know that learning outside of school matters tremendously for learning in school.” The parent who encourages curiosity and imagination promotes learning while cultivating a growth mindset in the child. The teacher must continue cultivating that mindset in school while encouraging further growth and exploration. Too many times, instruction in schools is focused on meeting standards and evaluating proficiency as based on tests not tied to the CCCC’s but rather to CDT’s. PSSA’s and SAT’s. In the fast-pasted, test-based system, there is little space for sparking imagination, but the 21st century teacher must make time to create and embrace those moments.
Connections.
Making connections on multiple levels is key to 21st century learning.
- People connections. In today’s classroom the teacher as facilitator must find ways to connect to his/her learners through shared experiences and the development of trust and respect. Without trust and respect, a barrier exists and the connection can not be made. Considering the importance of social learning in today’s learning environment, the teacher as facilitator must promote connections from learner to learner by creating an inclusive environment respecting diverse backgrounds and knowledge bases. Teachers of school-age children additionally must allow foster the relationship or connection between the school and the parents. The commitment from and connection to parents facilitates the school’s and teacher’s roles in cultivating learning; as the African proverb states “it takes a village to raise a child.” Finally, let’s not forget about the importance of connections from instructor to instructor and from instructor to institution. Just as the teacher creates an environment of trust, respect and inclusion in his or her learning environment, the institution itself must mirror (or create) that same environment. The connection between the administration or institution and instructor fosters commitment, dedication, and growth of the instructor. The connection of instructor to instructor creates a community of knowledge and experience sharing for the benefit of the overall learning environment.
- Knowledge and information connections. As seen through the principles of connectivism, George Siemens states that, “the ability to see connections between fields, ideas and concepts” is a key skill in learning. The learner must be able to build upon old knowledge and concepts in order to connect to new information. For younger learners, teachers and parents are essential in guiding the learner in drawing from his/her prior experiences and knowledge in order to establish the connections. For older learners, while instructors and peers may contribute to the learner making knowledge connections, in many cases it’s a matter of self-reflection and self-discipline. Once knowledge connections are made, through curiosity, we see growth and expansion of those bases.
- Technology connections. In our 21st century learning environment, we can’t leave out the important role of technology at school, at home, with us 24 hours a day. Technology provides instructors with a unique way to bring different realities into their learning environments via videos and interactive games. Through this technology, the teacher sparks curiosity and engages his or her learners. Removing the teacher from the picture, technology alone provides opportunities for self-instruction and learning as the learner explores avenues of interest in the vast web while connecting with others who have shared passions.
Choices.
While we have always been the owners of our learning experience. Today more than ever thanks to the aforementioned technology connections, we have innumerable choices and decisions to make regarding our learning. Thanks to technology, the options are limitless. The self-instructed learner must select the most relevant and meaningful path to his or her desired learning outcome. Likewise, the instructor is faced with choices among the bountiful online materials and websites and must determine which option and methodology best meets the learning objectives.
How do the 4 C’s translate into the world of language instruction?
Change.
Change is the everyday reality for my language learners. When working with a group of immigrants, their very lives revolve around change having uprooted their lives and many times the lives of their families to come to a new country. Language is but a small component of the changes they are going through but is essential to learn in order to survive in their new home. As an instructor, I face constant changes in my classroom as my adult learners acquire language skills, they acquire new jobs and leave my program. The ever changing makeup of my classroom requires constant adaptation.
Thanks to technological changes, language instruction now includes a wealth of interesting websites and online resources designed for both instructors and learners. Homework was once limited to reading and grammar exercises, but now can include online exercises, watching and reflecting on videos, even participating in online discussion. Language learners can additionally embark on the path of self-instruction through well-designed language acquisition tools such as Duolingo.
Cultivation.
Cultivating curiosity and imagination in the language classroom can be as simple as having the learners participate in making class learning objectives. In creating whole-class objectives, each individual’s curiosity is recognized and explored. Learners in essence take ownership of their learning objectives under the guidance of the instructor. As language learners connect with their peers, curiosity of each other’s cultures and background provides the basis for conversation and conversation the basis of language development. The language instructor thus must cultivate a comfortable environment free of judgement in which learners can freely exchange ideas.
Connections.
In the face of cultural, societal and linguistic change, the immigrant language learner first and foremost needs to establish people connections to successfully learn. From there, knowledge connections can be build upon. It’s not to say that a new immigrant can’t survive the streets of Philadelphia or New York city based on the technological connections they’ve made on Duolingo or Rosetta Stone, but having first established people and knowledge connections certainly make it easier. The friendships I see develop in my ESL classroom are connections which encourage the students to learn and develop language in order to better communicate with each other and the world around them. Their development of language in and of itself allows them to connect with the society in which they are living.
Choice.
My language learners choose how hard to challenge themselves. They choose whether to respond to my oral inquiry with a simple one sentence response or to push themselves to a more complex response. They choose to write a basic 5 sentence paragraph or develop a complete 10 sentence paragraph. Sometimes those who choose to take the easy path need to be pushed in order to explore their imagination or drawn out of their comfort zone in order to produce something more.
As an instructor with very broad institutional objectives, I have a lot of choice. Access to technology provides a plethora of resources to be utilized or customized to meet the needs of my students. If I have established a solid connection between myself and among the students, I can intelligently choose the most appropriate path given the learning environment that has been cultivated and the outcomes that are desired.
References:
MacArthur Foundation. (Dec. 1, 2010). Rethinking Learning: The 21st Century Learner. Retrieved from You Tube https://youtu.be/c0xa98cy-Rw
George Siemens. (2004). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age