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This second volume of papers from the ATC21STM project deals with the development of an assessment and teaching system of 21st century skills. Readers are guided through a detailed description of the methods used in this process. The first volume was published by Springer in 2012 (Griffin, P., McGaw, B. & Care, E., Eds., Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills, Dordrecht: Springer). The major elements of this new volume are the identification and description of two 21st century skills that are amenable to teaching and learning: collaborative problem solving, and learning in digital networks. Features of the skills that need to be mirrored in their assessment are identified so that they can be reflected in assessment tasks. The tasks are formulated so that reporting of student performance can guide implementation in the classroom for use in teaching and learning. How simple tasks can act as platforms for development of 21st century skills is demonstrated, with the concurrent technical infrastructure required for its support. How countries with different languages and cultures participated and contributed to the development process is described. The psychometric qualities of the online tasks developed are reported, in the context of the robustness of the automated scoring processes. Finally, technical and educational issues to be resolved in global projects of this nature are outlined.
Containing a selection of texts on education prepared during the work of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century, this volume bears witness to some paradoxes faced by education: to reconcile divergent aims and trends, to embody both continuity and renewal, to encourage conformity and innovation. These papers are intended to complement existing literature to respond to questions that arose in the course of the Commission's work, and to illuminate specific issues that cross disciplines.
This open access book presents a comparative study on how large-scale professional development programs for teachers are designed and implemented. Around the world, governments and educators are recognizing the need to educate students in a broad range of higher order cognitive skills and socio-emotional competencies, and providing effective opportunities for teachers to develop the expertise needed to teach these skills is a crucial aspect of effective implementation of curricula which include those goals. This study examines how large-scale efforts to empower teachers for deeper instruction have been designed, how they have been implemented, and their outcomes. To do so, it investigates six programs from England, Colombia, Mexico, India, and the United States. Though all six are intended to broaden and deepen students’ curricular aspirations, each takes this expansion of curricular goals in a different direction. The ambitious education reforms studied here explicitly focus on building teachers’ capacity to teach on a broader set of goals. Through a discerning analysis of program documents, evaluations, and interviews with senior leaders and participants in the programs, the book identifies the various theories of action used in these programs, examines how they were implemented, and discusses what they achieved. As such, it offers an indispensable resource for education leaders interested in designing and implementing professional development programs for teachers that are aligned with ambitious instructional goals.
This volume provides a summary of the findings that educational research has to offer on good practice in school science teaching. It offers an overview of scholarship and research in the field, and introduces the ideas and evidence that guide it.
A revision guide for those doing separate sciences, it aims to cover what they need to know for their course. It contains separate science content that double science people don't have to cover.
Shift happens: Emerging technologies and globalization have resulted in political, social and cultural changes. These changes have a profound impact on all aspects of human life, including education. Yet while society has changed and continues to change, schools are slow to keep up. This book explores issues related to transforming and modernizing our educational systems, including the impact of societal shifts on education, the efforts at various levels to bring schools into the 21st century, the identification of 21st century skills, the reformation of the curriculum, the creation of alternative models of schooling, the innovative use of technology in education, and many others. It addresses questions like the following: Should schools systems adapt to better meet the needs of tomorrow’s world and how should this be accomplished? How can society better prepare students for a changing and challenging modern world? What skills do students need to lead successful lives and become productive citizens in the 21st century? How can educators create learning environments that are relevant and meaningful for digital natives? How can the school curriculum be made more rigorous to meet the needs of the 21st century? This book encourages readers to transcend the limits of their own educational experience, to think beyond familiar notions of schooling, instruction and curriculum, to consider how to best structure learning so that it will benefit future generations. It encourages a deeper analysis of the existing education system and offers practical insights into future directions focused on preparing students with 21st century skills.
The authors of this book examine the British National Curriculum from several different perspectives and concentrate on various subject areas. The uniting theme between these essays is the argument that the subjects in the school curriculum used to be regarded as discrete areas of knowledge which would be imparted to pupils by teachers motivated by a love of learning, but that this has not been enough for recent governments who see schools as a means of promoting social and political goals that may or may not relate to traditional academic disciplines. The contributors to this book argue that we need to return to the traditional view of education as a means of transmitting a body of knowledge from one generation to the next, and that academic rigour and respect for the professionalism of teachers should take precedence over political manipulation of the curriculum.
Why do I need a teacher when I’ve got Google? is just one of the challenging, controversial and thought-provoking questions Ian Gilbert poses in this urgent and invigorating book. Questioning the unquestionable, this fully updated new edition will make you re-consider everything you thought you knew about teaching and learning, such as: • Are you simply preparing the next generation of unemployed accountants? • What do you do for the ‘sweetcorn kids’ who come out of the education system in pretty much the same state as when they went in? • What’s the real point of school? • Exams – So whose bright idea was that? • Why ‘EQ’ is fast becoming the new ‘IQ’. • What will your school policy be on brain-enhancing technologies? • Which is the odd one out between a hamster and a caravan? With his customary combination of hard-hitting truths, practical classroom ideas and irreverent sense of humour, Ian Gilbert takes the reader on a breathless rollercoaster ride through burning issues of the twenty-first century, considering everything from the threats facing the world and the challenge of the BRIC economies to the link between eugenics and the 11+. As wide-ranging and exhaustively-researched as it is entertaining and accessible, this book is designed to challenge teachers and inform them – as well as encourage them – as they strive to design a twenty-first century learning experience that really does bring the best out of all young people. After all, the future of the world may just depend on it
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