Twenty-First Century Learning as a Radical Re-Thinking of Education in the Service of Life

Abstract

The education reforms called for in 21st century education initiatives have been characterized as radical. International efforts to reformulate education for 21st century teaching and learning are well-funded initiatives by coalitions including governments, not-for-profit organizations, and large corporations. This article is a critique of the emergence of 21st century learning showing that a preoccupation with competencies and skills can be interrogated for that to which 21st century learning gives voice, but also for that which it silences. The fundamental question of the purpose of education, or for what do we educate, is virtually absent in most discussions of 21st century learning. Finally, I offer an alternative curricular vision to the techno-optimistic belief in progress prevalent in the discourse of 21st century learning. In the call for radical reform, I propose another understanding of the word “radical,” one that includes an ecocentric, life affirming understanding that roots education in a life code of value and in a living community of relations large enough to embrace the multidimensionality, the responsiveness, and responsibility at the heart of the pedagogical relation.

The Effect of Conflict-Cognitive Strategy in Inquiry Learning towards Pre-Service Teachers’ Critical Thinking Ability

“…In the 21 st century, learners have been faced significant changes in all aspects of life, digital literacies, technological advances, multicultural societies, human mobility, global com-munication, social networking, innovations, creativity, and inclusiveness (Saleh, 2019), and the role of education is to help learners deal with these changes by using their critical thinking (Chalkiadaki, 2018). Critical thinking has become a trend, the main focus of learning, the curriculum authorities in several developed countries which put critical thinking ability in their curriculum as learning goals (Prayogi et al, 2018a), and educational standards such as in United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand (Howard, 2018). Since 2013, Indonesia has established critical thinking as a learning goal through the implementation of the 2013 Curriculum.…”

Excellence and Relevance in Engineering Education in 21st Century Africa

“…In high-income countries with high technology usage, most of their manual work force have been gradually been substituted with high technology applications and robots that are imbued into human existence and day-to-day work. Several debates on reconstruction of engineering courses to address skill gaps and competencies are beginning to expand the call for excellence and relevance in EE (Howard, 2018).…”

“…Furthermore, to instil excellence and relevance in EE, sustainability in EE development will help educators to tutor students and motivate them in participating in building a viable society through engineering platforms Felder et al, 2016). EE must employ different strategies to integrate excellence and relevance in sustaining formal curriculum, innovative learning strategies, and establishing new partnerships with external individuals (Lima, 2017;Howard, 2018). This calls for innovative learning in developing and transferring knowledge skills and competencies in incorporating excellence and relevance in EE in the 21st century Africa.…”

Learning Analytics Using Social Network Analysis and Bayesian Network Analysis in Sustainable Computer-Based Formative Assessment System

“…Conceptually, a scenario task in the computer-based evaluation system can be designed based on the idea of epistemic frames grounded in 21st century skills [13][14][15]. Educational fields are of increasing interest to researchers studying 21st century learning skills [16][17][18][19]. More specifically, this system was basically designed to allow learners to develop domain-specific expertise by dealing with different situations under realistic constraints.…”