How I See the 21st Century Learning

As I See It

 

 

The 21^st Century Teaching and Learning style has been the most talked-about agenda globally and Malaysia is no exception.

Our plans and actions are based on the goal. In fact, some countries have been on their way to their destination on 21^st Century Education programmes with some adjustments from the errors they have encountered.

Have we started our journey towards the 21^st Century Education? Yes, we have. Firstly, we embark on the physical aspect of it for instance, the classroom arrangement. Some logical patterns have been suggested. Then, every school has to set up classrooms of those patterns. The progress is monitored by appointed officers from the ministry and the education department. The enhancement of management sector follows. This has been very much cared about as compared to the methodology of teaching and learning. Numerous paperwork marked the identity of our managerial business, so we take to filing thousands of sheets of it to fulfil the needs of managerial documentation.

The philosophy of 21^st Century is created for guidance and revolution follow suit. Factually, there had been revolution in pedagogy since 1984 (my experience). The aspect of C and C (critical and creative thinking) had been emphasized. We are struggling to equip ourselves with the knowledge. Currently, we are implementing H.O.T.S (Higher Order Thinking Skills) which I think is just another name for C and C.

 

 

 

 

Let us turn the pages of history. Isaac Newton, a scientist had been critical enough to discover the theory of gravitation in 1687 which traced the falling apple story. Newton chose to think about nature’s phenomenon back in 15^th century! He later developed the Newton’s Laws of motion. In Malaysian schools, the implementation of Nuffield Science in the lower secondary is to tease the students’ intellectual faculty to think critically and creatively and develop their inquisitive domain. That was carried out more than 40 years ago. So, H.O.T.S. business is just like a sequel to C and C.

Back  in the late 70’s, I was taught the basics of physical geography about factors that determine the climatic of a mass of land among which are distance from the sea, cloud cover, altitude, latitude and aspects; BINGO! I got it! You’ll see that from here, the higher order thinking skills could be established and nurtured. Without basic facts, one could not set up proper thinking activity. The tool to thinking is facts; facts are synthesized during thinking.