MODULE 2: Understanding the 21st Century Learners

TOPIC FRAMEWORK

• Characteristics of the 21st Century Learners

• Theoretical Foundations of Learning
• Systematic Approach Towards a Holistic View of Teaching, Learning, and Technology

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After the successful completion of this module, the student must be able to:

• Examine the learners’ characteristics that affect learning.

• Apply the principles of learning classroom situations to promote effective pedagogy.

ACTIVITY TASK #2

Online Learning Offline Learning

✓ Take any learning styles inventory test

• Determine your learning style by
online to assess your learning profile.
answering the Learning Style Inventory
You may visit the links as examples:
Sheet found in the Appendix part of this
https://www.learning-styles-
Module. Write answers on each question,
online.com/inventory/; https://vark-
and the result of your personal
learn.com/
assessment in the Activity Section of your
✓ Prepare answers in a Word document file
Portfolio notebook. Accomplish also the
and upload the file in the Activity Folder of
your e-portfolio. My Personal Learning Style Plan part.

ANALYSIS
➢ What are the different learning styles of students?
➢ Is there a specific literacy that needs to be further developed than the other literacies?
➢ How significant is the use of learning domains or taxonomies of
objectives in designing lessons appropriate for the types of learners in this
generation?

ABSTRACTION
Learning is the development of new knowledge, skills, or attitudes as an
individual interacts with information and the environment. Learners in the 21st
century need to be better educated to assume the challenges of continually
evolving knowledge and skill requirements for the future.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A 21ST CENTURY LEARNER
Learners will have to acquire a set of skills and adopt certain
characteristics in order to become successful in 21st century society.

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• Creativity and Innovation -- “Creativity is as important in education as
literacy and we should treat it with the same status.” – Sir Ken Robinson,
2013. Creative and innovative skills are highly desired in the 21st century
learners. 21st century children need to be able to think creatively, work
creatively with others and also implement innovation in their everyday
lives. Teachers needs to foster and support the development of creative
skills in learners that allows for them to take part in creative exploration
and discovery. By giving children challenging problems, they are
encouraged to use more of their potential creativity, using innovation on
how to overcome these challenges.

• Collaboration and Communication -- the world learners are growing up

in today is a world where communication, collaboration and teamwork is
essential. Effective collaboration requires students learn to respect each
other’s differences and use their different personalities. This allows
children to collectively solve problems as a team, creating and innovating
original ideas (Delp, 2011). Learning to collaborate effectively will greatly
increase any given student’s employment opportunities in the future as the
collaboration of knowledge is a key factor in today’s global corporate world.

• Critical Thinking & Problem Solving -- students need the ability to think
critically and solve any problem which may occur in their lives. Constant
technological advancements mean that students need to be prepared to
adapt to any change and continue to perform at their potential, both in their
education and future employment. To be able to adapt to change
effectively, students need to have the ability to make connections between
information and arguments, interpret information to draw conclusions, and
reflect critically on learning experiences and processes to better prepare
themselves for the global workforce.
Key Areas of Literacy

• General literacy -- the ability of a student to comprehend or decode

information and to use, transform, and create new information.
• Text literacy – skills to use text – based resources as a means to gather,
interpret, and communicate information.
• Computer literacy -- encompasses the knowledge and skills to operate
systems and how to recognize and find solutions to hardware and software
problems.
• Distance learning literacy -- comprises three main components that are
applicable when teachers and students are separated by time or distance:
designing and facilitating learning experiences, modelling and promoting
learning and responsibility, and engaging in lifelong learning.
• Cyber learning literacy – involves the use of a variety of technology tools
to connect students with people and resources beyond the boundaries of a
normal classroom setting.
• Visual literacy – learned ability to interpret and create visual messages
accurately from visual media in instructions such as textbooks, workbooks,
digital media, newspapers, books, and magazines filled with visual

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images.
• Audio literacy – skill to understand the role of hearing and listening in
learning when verbally presenting information to students.
• Video literacy -- understands and evaluates video messages and to create
video that appropriately achieves the intended outcomes in digital formats
such as DVD and downloadable files.
• Media literacy – students’ abilities to interpret and produce a wide variety
of media, including text, audio, visuals, and video, which are often
combined to form multimedia.
• Information literacy – require a high degree of capability to locate materials
from a variety of online sources and ensure the material is accurate,
appropriate, easily accessible, and useable according to copyright
guidelines.

Learning Styles

Learning style is another factor influencing how an individual learns. Most

learning style theorists identify three primary modalities for learning: auditory,
visual, and kinaesthetic. Some individuals learn best by listening, others learn
best by seeing, and others learn best by doing. Although everyone can learn using
each of these modalities, learning style theorists suggest that each person has a
preference, a dominant sensory gateway.

Learning Style Models

Kolb’s Learning Style Model

Myers – Briggs Type Indicator Model

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Felder – Silverman Learning Style Model

VAKT (Visual/Aural/Kinesthetic/Tactile)

Multiple Intelligences

It is important for teachers to be aware of the multiple types of student

intelligences when planning lessons. The concept of Multiple Intelligence was
developed by Howard Gardner, who introduced a revolutionary theory of various
kinds of intelligences. A learner may exhibit more than one kind of genius. This
study / theory successfully frees the limiting confines of IQ theory measured by
Alfred Binet.

➢ Linguistic Intelligence
➢ Logical – Math Intelligence
➢ Musical Intelligence
➢ Visual – Spatial Intelligence
➢ Bodily – Kinaesthetic Intelligence
➢ Interpersonal Intelligence
➢ Intrapersonal Intelligence

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➢ Naturalist Intelligence
THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING

How teachers view the role of technology and media in the classroom
depends very much on their beliefs about how people learn. Several dominant
theories of learning have implications for instruction in general and for the use of
technology and media. Driscoll (2005) discusses learning theories and their
impact on teaching decisions in greater detail.

1. Behaviorist Perspective – view all behavior as a response to external

stimuli. A stimulus is the initial action directed to the organism, and a
response is the organism’s reaction to that action. According to
behaviorists, the learner acquires behaviors, skills, and knowledge in
response to the rewards, punishments, or withheld responses associated
with them. Burrham Freidrich Skinner was the father of modern
behaviorism. He viewed voluntary behavior, such as learning new skills,
with reinforcement or reward, could shape the behavior patterns of an
organism. The result was the foundation for computer – assisted
instruction and learning.

2. Cognitivist Perspective – focus on learning as a mental operation that

takes place when information enters through the senses, undergoes
mental manipulation, is stored, and is finally used. This theory makes
mental activity (cognition) the primary source of study. Cognitive theorists
attempt to explain learning in terms of how one thinks. Learning and
problem solving, according to cognitivists, represent mental processes that
are undetectable by mere observation. Key theorists in this perspective
include Jerome Bruner and David Ausubel. Early works of Jean Piaget
also significantly contributed to this perspective. Cognitivists create a
mental model of short – term memory and long – term memory. New
information is stored in short – term memory, where it is rehearsed until
ready to be stored in long – term memory.

Cognitivists have a broader perception of learning than that held by

behaviorists. Students are less dependent on the guiding hand of the
teacher and rely more on their own cognitive strategies in using
available learning resources.

3. Constructivist Perspective – knowledge is a constructed element

resulting from the learning process. Further, knowledge is unique to the
individual who constructs it. Learning is not seen as just the product of
mental processes; it is an entirely unique product for each individual based
on the experiences within which those mental processes occurred. Jean
Piaget also theorized that children construct mental maps as they
encounter information. New knowledge is either assimilated (fitted into
existing maps) or accommodated (existing maps are adjusted to
accommodate the new information). Seymour Papert adapted Piaget’s
perspective and applied to the children engaged in using technology.
Robert Gagné perspective, learning is a result of an individual’s cognitive
efforts to construct his or her personal knowledge.

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Constructivists emphasize that learners create their own interpretations
of information within their own experience. The role of instruction is to
provide students with ways to assemble knowledge rather than to dispense
facts. Proponents believed that learning occurs most effectively when
students are engaged in authentic tasks that relate to meaningful contexts
(i.e. learning by doing).

4. Social Learning Perspective -- the other view that of social

constructivism was well articulated by Lev Vygotsky and Albert Bandura.
Their view is that learning is considered a result of the collaboration of a
group of learners in an effort to construct a common core
5. of knowledge. Social psychologists look at how the social organization of
the classroom affects learning. Robert Slavin (1990) have taken the
position that cooperative learning is both more effective and more socially
beneficial than competitive and individualistic learning. Slavin developed
a set of cooperative learning techniques embodying the principles of
small – group collaboration, learner – controlled instruction, and rewards
based on group achievement.

Domains of Learning

Benjamin Bloom classified educational objectives into three domains such as

cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. In stating these objectives, they
should be expressed as specific, observable, measurable, realistic, and time
– bounded terms.

Cognitive domain – composed of intellectual abilities which involve the

recall of specific information and the processes of analysis and decision
making.

Affective domain – includes emotions, interest, appreciation and others

related to aesthetic expression. They are frequently hidden from observation
since they are values which a learner places upon what is being learned
including attitudes toward learning.

Psychomotor domain – embraces muscular or motor abilities –

manipulation, writing vocational and technical abilities. These are behaviors
that require motor skills. The first term, psycho, means mind, and the second
term, motor means movement.

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Benjamin Bloom, with collaborators Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl,
published a framework for categorizing educational goals: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
(https://www.bloomstaxonomy.net/: Retrieved: 10 August 2020)

The Revised Taxonomy (2001)

While each category contained subcategories, all lying along a continuum

from simple to complex and concrete to abstract, the taxonomy is popularly
remembered according to the six main categories.

The authors of the revised taxonomy underscore this dynamism, using verbs
and gerunds to label their categories and subcategories (rather than the nouns
of the original taxonomy). These “action words” describe the cognitive
processes by which thinkers encounter and work with knowledge.

(https://www.bloomstaxonomy.net/: Retrieved: 10 August 2020)

Integrating Technology with Bloom’s Taxonomy

Research indicates that “today’s students, regardless of demographics,

have shown an interest in digital opportunities to learn, and the range of the Web
tools that make collaboration, innovation, and individual exploration possible is
incredible.” (Lightle, K., 2011). Practitioners in the field of education have thought
of unique ways to connect digital tools with the framework of Bloom’s Revised
Taxonomy, which has led to the emergence of a Digital Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy

The purpose of this illustration is to inform the teachers of how to use

technology and digital tools to facilitate student learning experiences and
outcomes. It aims, “to expand upon the skills associated with each level as
technology becomes a more ingrained essential part of learning.” The digital tools
can act as vehicles for transforming students’ thinking at different levels. With the
myriad of digital tools, teachers can navigate and make choices based on the
designed learning experiences that s/he wants his / her students to engage in.

o Creating – to produce new or original work; Tools – animating, blogging,

filming, podcasting, publishing, simulating, wiki building, video blogging,

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programming, directing
o Evaluating – to justify or stand a decision, to make judgments based on
criteria and standards through checking and critiquing; Tools – grading,
networking, rating, testing, reflecting, reviewing, blog commenting,
posting, moderating
o Analyzing – to draw connections among ideas, concepts, or determining
how each part interrelate to an overall structure or purpose; Tools –
mashing, mind mapping, surveying, linking, validating
o Applying – to use information in new situations such as models, diagrams,
or presentation; Tools – calculating, charting, editing, presenting,
uploading, operating, sharing with a group
o Understanding – to explain ideas, concepts, or construct meaning from
written material or graphics; Tools – advanced searching, annotating, blog
journaling, tweeting, tagging, commenting, subscribing
o Remembering – to recall facts, basic concepts, or retrieval of material;
Tools – bookmarking, copying, googling, bullet – pointing, highlighting,
group networking, searching

Infographic Credit: Ron Carranza (https://teachonline.asu.edu/2016/05/integrating-technology-blooms-taxonomy/ Retrieved 10 August 2020)

SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TOWARDS A HOLISTIC VIEW OF TEACHING, LEARNING,

AND TECHNOLOGY
Systematic approach to teaching is a network of elements or parts different
from each other but each one is special in the sense that each performs a
unique function for the life and effectiveness of the instructional system. The
systems approach views the entire educational program as an orchestrated
learning pattern will all parts harmoniously integrated into the whole: the
school, the teacher, the students, the objectives, the media, the materials, and
the assessment tools and procedures. This approach integrates the older,
more familiar methods and tools of instruction with the new ones such as the
utilization of technology to a creation of a System Instructional Design.
Since teaching is a systematic, planned sequence of events that facilitates the
communication of an idea, concept, or skill to a learner, the act of teaching
requires an understanding of the learner, how s/he learns as s/he interacts in

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the his / her environment, and the factors that affect his / her learning process.
Understanding the characteristics of the 21 st century learner will help the
teacher in designing instructions, making them more exciting and engaging
with the support of technology in its delivery.
o APPLICATION / ASSESSMENT

✓ Relate the result of your learning style to the Theoretical

Foundations of Learning. What perspective will greatly affect
your learning style?

✓ Cite one learning theory with which you most agree and give
examples of classroom activities that supports this theory. Be
able to integrate what technology can be utilized to make the
learning experience more meaningful. Use the Bloom’s Digital
Taxonomy as your reference for a particular activity.

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