Welcome to Essential Skills to Foster an Effective Learning Environment

About Me

I graduated from Mohawk Valley Community College in 2020 earning a A.S. in Adolescent Math Education and from Utica University in 2022 with a B.S. in Mathematics with a concentration in Adolescent Education. Currently, I am working on my M.S. in Curriculum Development and Instructional Technology at the University at Albany. My mission is to assist all of my students in regard to reaching their full potential in achieving literacy and pragmatic applications at this point in their academic career.

My Topic and Purpose

The intent of this mini-course is to focus on infusing the desired skills of the 21st century learner in alignment with pragmatic applications of utilizing and implementing communication skills, collaboration strategies, creativity and critical thinking. When designing the course, it is intentionally included that students relate to their experiences within the array of learning environments that they have been stakeholders with, meaning both roles of student and teacher. There will be multiple opportunities for students to reflect on the material and relate to their own experiences. The mini-course will have a balance of group and individual assignments.

The Modules will be facilitated as follows:

Module 1: Introduction
Module 2: Communication
Module 3: Collaboration
Module 4: Creativity
Module 5: Critical Thinking
Module 6: Final Module (Wrap-Up)

Scope of Learning Outcomes and Content

The student will demonstrate strategies of offering opportunity for students to implement creative approaches within the educational process.
The student will exhibit the knowledge of the benefits regarding communication and collaboration.
The student will illustrate methods of facilitating effective communication techniques.
The student will differentiate between collaboration and communication within the learning environment.
The student will be able to reflect on previous experiences and modify approaches by infusing opportunities for enhanced communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking within the learning process.

Needs Assessment

Educational Opportunity

While participating in mundane class structure and being programmed to succeed by memorizing facts to achieve a satisfactory score on a test, there is a whole other side of education. This side of the educational process aims to nurture and expand a students ability to communicate and collaborate with one another as well as implement creativity and critical thinking skills within their problem solving processes. The 21st Century skills desired are not aligned with fast recall and memorization. The desired skills link with an individual that illustrates creativity, the ability to communicate and collaborate, as well as exhibiting critical thinking skills.

Intent

Throughout the course of a students educational journey, the constant presence of assessment is always influencing their learning process. With an increase of access to technology, it has become a challenge to obtain and retain student attention. There is an increase in relating learning experiences to the material being discussed and the emphasis on fostering academic discourse across all disciplines. The intent of this course is to cultivate a learning environment that fosters the implementation of the four main skills, communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking, by encouraging students to change their mindset by becoming comfortable with applying problem solving skills using unique solutions that are not reached by memorizing a process.

Stakeholders

The stakeholders that are impacted by this mini-course include any individual such as students, educators, administrators, parents, et cetera. Essentially any individual that has a connection with the educational system and how the instructional process is executed.

Analysis of Gaps in term of know vs. need to know (Reality vs. Ideal)

After a number of conversations with present and past educators, there are legitimate challenges that education faces in terms of implementing and understanding the benefits of the desired 21^st century skills. When discussing topics with many of the educators, the question I asked was, “Do you believe that the 21^st century skills have a pragmatic application within the modern-day learning environments?”. While many of the past educators believe that students need to learn by sitting in straight rows and throughout drill and practice, there was a decent amount that believed the traditional approach is no longer the most effective. While the past educators believe that the traditional approach is effective regarding student memorization, the newer generation of teachers value the concept of problem-solving rather than simple memorization.

The ideal learning environment is that every student inside the classroom is actively learning and participating. However, many present educators raise great points, “You are asking the teachers to compete with a world of entertainment that students have on their phones, where instant gratification is now the norm”, stated by a present educator. When the learning environment is intentionally planned and designed to generate active learners in authentic learning, students are more likely to be engaged within the lesson that is being taught. Learning is a process where mistakes should be seen as lessons or moments of growth, not a slash on a worksheet indicating you lost points. In a traditional setting, the ideal expectations are no longer easily achieved within the classroom.

The reality is that the 21^st century skills are designed and aimed to foster learning where the knowledge that is constructed is applicable to modern day needs, whether that be a skill set to become an engineer, electrician, or entrepreneur. In the modern-day classroom, educators must develop lessons that interact with students, allow students to interact with one another, and foster the applications and meaning of the content being discussed. Students should no longer be expected to sit in straight rows, but in small groups where they can construct knowledge with one another and think of different methods to a solution rather than memorizing a formula.

What educators need to know is the contributions that the 21^st century skills bring to the learning environment in theory. Educators should be aware of the benefits of students working with one another, communicating their thoughts and different perspectives, how to solve a problem without simply memorizing a process, as well as thinking outside of the box and nurturing student strengths rather than forcing them to think a certain way. The reality of the situation is that many educators in larger schools are faced with many barriers. In my school, teachers expressed that they cannot form groups due to the number of classrooms that they share with other teachers or the lack of tools to do so. Teachers that are more technologically advanced emphasize the use of supplemental technology such as Chromebooks to enhance the students learning experience. Educators must keep an open mind when incorporating the 21^st century skills inside their learning environments. Creating a classroom community is far more significant then memorizing the quadratic formula.

Throughout my entire experience in higher education, I can attest to the substantial emphasis on student centered and collaborative approaches that are being designed and implemented within classrooms, in an effort to address these learning gaps and the skills of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.

Existing Efforts to Address these Gaps

There are many efforts in place to combat these learning gaps that are rooted from the traditional teacher centered approaches of instruction. A popular approach that many educational preparation programs advocate is a constructivist approach. This differs from the traditional instructivist approach where the teacher is the center of all of the learning. In a constructivist approach the attention is shifted on the students and offers them the opportunity to explore content and construct knowledge. This approach provides students the chance to align meaning and purpose to their education rather than just memorization and becoming complacent with being told information. The use of the 21^st century skills enhance the constructivist approach, transitioning students from “doers” to “thinkers”. Within the constructivist approach, students are challenged by the teacher with Higher Order Thinking Strategies (HOTS). HOTS can be implemented in numerous methods such as the teacher providing deeper level, open-ended questions or activities that cultivate an environment where students learn throughout experiences rather than a textbook. Students are encouraged to provide personal experiences and goals in order to further align meaning and purpose with their educational journey.

There students are granted more influence on the learning environment and the pace of the learning. Too often in school, the teacher moves on without a sufficient level of understanding from all students. In a learner centered approach, the students are participating in discussion, creating and constructing the understanding of content, and alternate modes of assignments. These alternate modes of assignment can range from project-based, competency-based, strength-based, or inquiry based. This is how the constructivist approach differs from traditional, allowing students the opportunity to engage with their education rather than just receive information.

Analysis of the Learner and Context

Who are the stakeholders for this course?

The stakeholders of this course will range from students aspiring to become teachers, pre-service teachers, teachers, administrators and other pathway that impacts the educational process. Educators that are seeking new methods, approaches, and strategies of creating a more engaging and purposeful learning environment will benefit from what this course will offer. Educators that believe in the benefits of providing students the opportunity to take learning into their own hands and experience a unique learning environment that incorporates the 21st century desired skills of communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking, will learn practical methods of infusing these attributes within their academic disciplines.

Any student that enrolls in this course should demonstrate an open mind to the strategies used to pique the interest and motivate students within any learning environment. This course is ideal for any educator, regardless of experience. As time progresses, the educators within the field must be open to the ever changing world that surrounds education, ranging form society as a whole to technological advancements.

What is the primary goal of this course?

The primary goal of this course is to shift the mindset of educators in valuing the implementation of the four 21st century desired skills, changing the idea that education is not a mundane and repetitive cycle, but a platform or opportunity to relate the material to personal experiences while constructing knowledge with other stakeholders within the learning environment.

How will the course instruction be delivered?

All of the content for this course will be delivered thought an e-learning environment, in other words online. This provides the student access to the course at all hours of the day using an array of resources that they have at their disposal. Students will be encouraged to craft meaningful responses as they will have an ample amount of time to generate contributions to the course discussions and assignments. The main resource that will be needed is an electronic device that has a word processing application and ability to connect to the internet. Finally, the amount of time that students should spend in successfully completing the course should be approximately twelve (12) weeks as there are six (6) modules.

Performance-Based Objectives

After the completion of this mini-course, the stakeholders of this course will be able to:

Create engaging lessons that allow the students the opportunity to exhibit creative approaches to problem-solving or conveying their ideas.
Demonstrate perspective by conducing self-assessments and reflections on the learning environment that the teacher has created. Provoking thoughtful questions such as; Are students engaged? Are they understanding the material? Do the instructional methods being used relate to the student and motivate the stakeholders within the classroom?
Formulate strategies of facilitating effective communication between the learners within the learning environment. Implementing the strategies will require that the teacher knows the stakeholders within the learning environment and encourages students not only to understand the material but demonstrate the ability to defend their thought process by supporting their response with evidence and justification.
Compare and contrast the impact that collaboration and communication have on the learning environment by generating a presentation.
Reflect and comment on their personal experiences within the learning environment and how they could have changed and constructed lesson plans while focusing on the elements of communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking skills. Students will compose an analysis and reflection of existing or newly created lesson plans, appraising the quality of the lessons and how they infused the elements mentioned above within the learning process.

Task and Content Analysis

Pre-Requisites

Prior to enrolling in this course, the learner should:

Knowledge (Cognitive Learning Domain):

Have an understanding that there are areas in the educational process that can be modified.
Be aware that there are different approaches that teachers implement within their learning environments.
Recognizes that the learning environments are affected by all of the stakeholders included.

Skills (Psychomotor Learning Domain):

Distinguishes the difference of a teacher-centered approach and a student-centered approach.
Have designed and developed their own lesson plans.
Be cognizant about the necessity of evaluating and planning revisions for lesson improvements.

Attitudes (Affective Learning Domain):

Verify their stance on education as well as their style of teaching.
Modify and reflect on lesson plans and how those plans were executed with a classroom of students.
Display the outlook of the future of education and the needs that society poses.

Module 1: Introduction to Essential Skills to Foster an Effective Learning Environment