Exploring the Pedagogical Meaning and Implications of the 4Cs "Super Skills" for the 21st Century through Bruner's 5E Lenses of Knowledge Construction to Improve Pedagogies of the New Learning Paradigm

As economies increasingly globalize and digital technologies assume ubiquitous presence and functional utility in peoples' lives outside educational contexts, there is an increasing realization among pedagogues that education designed to equip graduates of the Digital Economy requires the teaching of new skills rather than the traditional core subjects. This realization has led to the emergence of what is called the New Learning Paradigm which postulates that students now need to be taught the skills most in demand in the 21st century. Those skills are epitomized in what The Partnership for 21st Century Skills calls the Framework for 21st Century Skills. Keys among those skills are what The Partnership characterizes as the 4Cs super skills. What are those skills? Why are they essential for successful learning, teaching, assessment, working and living in today's Digital Economy? How do they align with the full set of 21st century skills? What are the pedagogical implications of these 4Cs super skills? This paper answers these questions in four steps. Firstly, it articulates the 4Cs super skills. Secondly, it explains the "Rainbow" framework of the full set of essential 21st century skills as conceptualized by The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Thirdly, it outlines Bruner's 5E Instructional Model and explains how it provides an excellent lens through which to approach learning, teaching, assessment and curriculum development for the 4Cs super skills in Kivunja's New Learning Paradigm

The Purposes of Education for Timor-Leste: Critical Discourse Analysis of Tensions, Trends and Gaps of the Views and Perceptions of the Education Stakeholders and Education and Education-Related Documents

The education in Timor-Leste has undergone through several educational systems. The European Missionaries and the Portuguese colonial introduced its 'rudimentary' and 'elite-oriented group' educations system before 1975. A 'community needs-base orientation' education system was introduced by Frente Revolucinario de Timor-Leste (Fretilin) party who proclaimed the independence of Timor-Leste unilaterally in 1975. From 1976 to 1999 under the Indonesian invasion, it applied a 'mass education-orientation system'. ... This research is a study to explore the views and perceptions of the government, the churches, an institution that have been played critical role in the sector during the history of the country, the education donors, the parents and community, the teachers, and the students on the purpose of education in Timor-Leste. It analyses their views to identify tensions, trends, and gaps based on the established seven conceptual frameworks designed for the study accumulated from the result of literature review and the education documents

Improving Social Capital Outcomes for Non-Formal Education: A Case Study of Four Non-Formal Education Programs in Western Uganda

With many people in Uganda, especially western Uganda, still limited in their access to formal education, the response of non-government organisations (NGOs) has been to offer non-formal education (NFE) programs. These programs tend to target adults without formal education credentials and out-of-school youth. The typical aim of these NGOs in providing NFE is to help people who have or have had limited access to formal education to improve their wellbeing. Yet such programs remain independently unassessed for the impact they are having on the livelihoods of learners. The implications of this lack of independent assessment and government regulation is that a wealth of time, energy and resources is being invested into activities without the confidence that such an investment is producing improvements in learner wellbeing. The research on NFE indicates a preoccupation with its ability to improve the human capital of learners. This will only have limited effects on their overall wellbeing. This research project aimed to consider the impact of NFE on the social capital outcomes of learners

The Barriers and Facilitators of Institutionalisation of Inclusive Education Policy and Practice in Papua New Guinea Education System

The study examined, analysed and determined the barriers and facilitators of institutionalisation of Inclusive Education policy and its practice in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Education system. The focus was on 'Special Education Resources Centres', 'Mainstream Schools'; and the education authorities at the local/district level, the Provincial (state) level and the National (federal) level. The federal government through the National Department of Education initiated a National Special Education Plan and Policy Guidelines in 1993. The national plan had strategic plans for the implementation and institutionalisation of Inclusive Education policy and its practice in the mainstream school system. The approach in educating children with disabilities was based on the philosophy of integration and now shifted to inclusion where all children including disabled children are prepared by Special Education Resource Centres, placed in schools and then assisted by the school-teachers, and both professionals and paraprofessionals from the Special Education Resource Centres (SERCs). This was a new philosophy that the United Nations Geneva and Salamanca (1994) conventions declared and mandated as a universal right to address inequality and allow equal participation of every person to be included in the provision of education service in all member countries

“Let us define ourselves”: forced migrants’ use of multiple identities as a tactic for social navigation

BackgroundThe article examines how and why multiple identities are altered, used and discarded by forced migrants.MethodsThe research is located in the constructivist paradigm. We used thematic analysis to analyse data gathered through interviews with nineteen forced migrants.ResultsWe found that, though individual migrants can make deliberate choices about which identities to be associated with, they are constrained in the process by external socio-economic factors that lead them to adopt identities that are perceived to be advantageous to navigate the new social system. Moreover, the construction of forced migrants’ identity includes significant contextuality, transactionality and situatedness.ConclusionsOur research contributes to the literature on migrant identity practice concerning the stigma associated with forced migrant status and the extent to which migrants appraise their reception in exile as undignified. Additionally, examining migrant identities allows the researchers to apprehend the diverse facets of identity as far as migrants are concerned. Future research may draw a larger sample to examine other impactful dimensions of identity fluctuation, e.g. gender, education, social media, the extent of prior trauma, etc

Leadership in Early Childhood Education Contexts: Looks, Roles, and Functions

Situated in the field of early childhood education (ECE), this paper uses literature on educational leadership to answer four questions about leadership in ECE contexts. Firstly, what is leadership and how important is it for the success of an organisation? Secondly, what does it look like in ECE? Thirdly, what does leadership in ECE involve? And fourthly, how does efficient and effective leadership function in an ECE context? It is important to answer these questions because there is an understanding that leadership in ECE contexts is unlike leadership in other educational institutions. It requires special administrative and managerial skills to plan, organise, lead, control and direct the operations in the ECE context, as well as leadership skills to provide an organisational vision, direction and aculturation. An understanding of what leadership in ECE contexts looks like, its roles and functions can inform ECE leaders in ways that help them to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their educational institution

The Use of Social Media Technologies as Novel Ways to Teach and to Promote Learning

The ubiquitous use of new information technologies, computer software and multimedia interfaces, particularly driven by the Internet technologies of the 21st century, has created opportunities for novel ways of teaching which promote learning. In the 21st century classroom or lecture theatre, teachers can no longer teach effectively through the application of the traditional individualistic or competitive learning models (Johnson & Johnson, 1978). Rather, what is needed is collaboration among students as well as between students and teachers. Internet driven collaboration is advantageous because it transcends spatial barriers and it creates opportunities for people to work in virtual workplaces (Jackson, 2002), and for students to learn together in peer learning networks (PLNs), which provide peer support and feedback in virtual classrooms (Howell, 2012) and thus enhance teaching and learning in novel ways. This paper is drawn from a study which investigated how selected social media technologies, namely Google+.Discussion Circles, (GDCs) can be used to support teaching, learning and assessment for 2nd year, Bachelor of Education students, training to be teachers at a University in Australia. Data were collected from 145 students 60 of whom were enrolled in one face-to-face unit and the other 85 students were enrolled in the online, non-face-to-face mode in the same unit. The research found that the majority of participants felt mutually supported in the PLNs driven by GDCs and developed strong feelings of social connectedness as they completed their learning activities and assessment tasks. They valued their learning experiences and felt that this novel way of learning was more user-friendly than the lecture method, or the more conventional Learning Management System called Moodle, in promoting their learning

A Pedagogy to Embed into Curricula the Super 4C Skill Sets Essential for Success in Sub-Saharan Africa of the 21st Century

At the dawn of independence in Sub-Saharan African countries, the pedagogical practices and curricula that African countries inherited were a legacy of the colonial era. The curricula the colonialists left behind had laid emphasis on the orthodoxy 3Rs of reading, -riting and -arithmetic, and on core academic subjects such as the History of the British Empire, or the Geography of Western Europe. These subjects became the gold standard of being an educated African, good enough to serve in the public service of the colonial administration. As a result, the skills taught and qualifications awarded, were all designed to provide an education tailored to meet the wishes of the colonial masters. The teachers had been trained to teach monograde and not multigame pedagogy, and the result was that the education provided did not teach the skills needed for Sub-Saharan African development. And so, when the colonialists left in the 1950s and 1960s, they left behind countries that lacked the essential training and in particular, lack of human capital development (Becker (1975). It is this human capital that is the most scarce resource in Sub-Saharan Africa. This scarcity, in my view, constitutes the imperative for change in pedagogy in Sub-Saharan Africa so that we may provide education curricula that will graduate students ready to provide the knowledge, skills, experiences, competencies and entrepreneurial abilities essential for success of the SubSaharan African economies in the 21 st century. The change in pedagogy needs to be one that infuses the Core Subjects with what are called the Super 4C Skills of the 2181 century, namely, Critical thinking and problem solving, Collaboration, Creativity and innovation, and Communication

The structural and cultural dynamics of a multi-campus college : a case study inquiry of four multi-campus colleges in New South Wales

This case study of four multi-campus colleges in New South Wales combines both qualitative and quantitative research instruments in a multiple-case study methodology to investigate the reasons why the DET restructured 34 of its comprehensive high schools into 11 multi-campus colleges and to study the interplay of the structural and cultural dynamics in those colleges. The study is situated in the literature on organisational behaviour whose perspective recognises the close interconnectedness between structure and culture but emphasises reculturing as the essence of effective organisational dynamism. In particular, special attention is given to Pace’s (2002) dynamics model which was redesigned into the Dynamics Paradigm that underpins the data analysis in this thesis. Using 16 structural-cultural dynamics criteria, themes and patterns were identified in the data and through iterative, inductive analysis, they were categorised into the different elements of the Dynamics Paradigm for analysis. Contextual contingency, curriculum, opportunity, economic rationalisation, politics and policies of the DET, plus demonstration effects from other Australian States and Territories were the reasons for the restructuring of the comprehensive high schools. The study identifies 12 areas for further research, recommends 32 policy options which could lead to improved outcomes for students and teachers in multi-campus colleges, and proposes 11 potential applications of this thesis

Theoretical Perspectives of How Digital Natives Learn

Marck Prensky, an authority on teaching and learning especially with the aid of Information and Communication Technologies, has referred to 21st century children born after 1980 as 'Digital Natives'. This paper reviews literature of leaders in the field to shed some light on theoretical perspectives of how Digital Natives learn and how we can use that knowledge to facilitate learning by Digital Natives. To locate this understanding within the context of general Educational Theory, the paper first presents a brief historical review of the foundational educational theories on how people learn. It then discusses some of the contemporary theories on how Digital Natives learn. Out of these two bodies of knowledge the paper synthesizes an understanding of principles, strategies and practices that we could use to effectively teach Digital Natives and facilitate their learning. It is my hope that this review will help readers develop a deeper understanding of how learners of the digital generation learn and how we can design our pedagogical principles and practices to better meet the needs of the digital learners in our teaching contexts today