PART FOUR

This is the last course section leading to taking your reflective assessment. In Part 4, you will read to learn how to integrate 21st-century teaching and learning skills into your lessons. There are many skills but we have limited our focus to the few ones we have in this course. 

SOME MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT 21ST-CENTURY SKILLS  

There are so many misconceptions about who a 21st-century teacher is or about what a 21st-century lesson or class should look like. Many teachers claim to be 21st-century educators and even state it on their CVs and Resumes without understanding the depth of what they are claiming. Some think using the computer and PowerPoint to present their lessons is what makes them 21st-century  compliant educators. The truth remains that modern lessons can still be taught without the use of PowerPoints and ICT using selected skills. It is not the use of technology parse that makes a teacher 21st century compliant. Rather, it is the skills he/she deploys in teaching his/her lessons. A teacher can teach using a projector to project lessons and yet use a traditional teaching method to deliver the lesson contents.  Conversely, another teacher can also teach a lesson without using the aforementioned devices and yet deploy skills like critical thinking and collaborative skills (21st-century skills) to deliver his lesson contents. Which of the two teachers would you select as a 21st-century teacher? You know the answer right answer.

Another misconception is to think that 21st-century skills must be taught as topics or subjects to students. While this may not be completely out of place (because some could be taught), we want to reiterate that 21st-century skills are to be integrated into lessons rather than being taught directly as subjects or topics. Students are to experience them by practicing activities connected with such skills.  The duty of teachers and curriculum implementers is to create models, case studies, opportunities, and learning environments that will enable learners to explore and experience these skills during lessons. I created this course to help correct these misconceptions and to guide teachers on how to apply/integrate the skills in their lessons by engaging their students with them.  That is why you need to carefully go through this course.  

 GLOBAL LEARNING APPROACHES FOR TEACHERS

GLAs are not different from 21st-century learning skills. I will try to explain how teachers can integrate them into teaching and learning. 

i. Communication and collaboration skills: Every Global educator should create opportunities for his/her learners to communicate and collaborate during lessons. The easiest way to do this is to give room for group or pair activities during lessons to enable them to discuss, share ideas, and solve problems together as a team.  

ii. Critical thinking and problems solving skills: These skills involve helping learners on how to probe into issues or difficult tasks with the aim of finding solutions to them.  It is expected that teachers teach their learners how to think rather than just making them cram concepts. One of the ways of encouraging critical thinking among learners is by using questioning techniques effectively, by asking them higher-order thinking questions, and by teaching them how to question things constructively in order to take informed decisions. So, instead of just asking "What is?" you can ask "Why do you think this is good or bad? The focus of this skill is helping learners use their imaginative capacities to think through a problem with the aim of finding solutions to it. This is why case studies are often used to present questions in Cambridge IGCSE exams.

iii. Global citizenship/awareness: In teaching, lesson contents should not be limited to the local environment of learners. For instance, in teaching weather, it's important to teach your learners about what is obtainable in other continents. Also, in teaching culture learners should also be exposed to other countries' cultures and not just about their own local cultures. In addition, learners ought to know that the world is a global village and so they need to learn how to contribute to keeping their environments clean and support all efforts to reduce global warming and other disasters affecting the world we leave in. Schools should teach about and mark the world's international days for different events. Teachers should also be religious sensitive to avoid offending students who believe in different religions. 

iv. Digital skills: Teachers should learn how to use the computer in solving problems and searching for information to do their academic and other work. Such skills should be transferred to the learners by giving some activities involving the use of digital devices to search for the right information about things online. Through an internet-enabled computer, the learners can become more global citizens and they would be connected to the globe from their localities. They should also be taught about cyber safety when using the internet or any internet-enabled mobile devices.  

v. Leadership skills: One of the major problems in the world is that of bad leadership. Teachers are expected to demonstrate and inculcate good leadership skills in their learners. This can be done during lessons and outside academic work by engaging them with leadership responsibilities at their levels. Class teachers can give certain responsibilities to students like book prefect, facility prefect, etc. During group discussions, a group leader could also be appointed to oversee the group activities. As students operate in these leadership statuses they will learn how to lead others and what it means to lead others.    

vi. Creativity skills: This skill is very central. You have to be creative to strive as a global educator. Besides, you will be required to teach your learners creativity by giving them projects to do within each term. You can apply creativity in all subjects including CRS. Another important focus of creativity is in helping your students to develop their identified talents/skills like singing, drama, sports, creative writing, art and craft etc.  

vii. Other skills are presentation skills, diction (speaking right), good interpersonal skills, etc. 

You must learn all these skills and apply them in your lessons. 

These skills are parts of what makes British curriculum teachers better than those using the Nigerian curriculum. They are international teaching/learning skills that can be used by teachers anywhere in the world.

To conclude this course, let me say that teachers ought to identify and state which skills they will engage students within their lesson plans during the teaching-learning process.

Reflective activity: Reflect on all the 21st-century skills discussed above. Which of them do you think would be helpful in teaching your students? How would you integrate them in your next lesson plan? Are all the teachers in your school aware of these skills?