21

ST
CENTURY LEARNING SCHEMA: A NOT SO NEW DRIVING FORCE IN
EDUCATION

What is 21
st
Century Learning?
The 21
st
Century has been marked with numerous changes; this practically includes all
aspects of life. Thus, education taken in these respects, has become its benefactor and, in
some sense a victim. This is because the ways of facilitating learning, acquiring learning, quality
of instructors among others must succumb to this schema brought about by this so called
phenomenon.
The demands of 21
st
Century education can be best gauged in the sayings of an
American writer named Alvin Tofer. These sayings alongside with his thoughts taken in
context, is said to be futuristic according to The European Graduate School; thus, proves to be
a pertinent guiding light to the new schema called 21
st
Century Learning. However, practically
speaking, this also becomes the source of burden/s for the present educators who must
succumb to its demands regardless of the intensity of their resistance.

The Odds of 21
st
Century Learning taken in context of Statistics
Some of the quotes of the aforementioned author as posted by brainyquote.com for
consumption of general populace of educators and the likes provide deeper insights when
deciphered in the context of educational principles, laws among others. For instance, the most
popular quote which reads: The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read.
It will be the person who does not know how to learn by itself can lead to fission of issues and
concerns which may trigger the modern educators concern as to how to make ways to delimit
the possibility of existence of such illiteracy in the modern setting; knowing that we are not yet
done in the endeavor of solving the problems of illiteracy having an old denotation of: the
inability to read or write (google.com; merriam-webster.com) which originally is an offensive
term by itself (Microsoft Encarta Dictionary, 2009); this is because nobody in this world would
like to be called such, not even the illiterates themselves, in some cases.
The old concept of illiteracy and manifestations thereof still lingers in the modern world;
taking the United States of Americas scenario per se wherein there remains 14% or practically
32 Million adults who cannot read as of 2013 (statisticbrain.com), may prompt an educator to
cast the question: Are we ready to the challenge of the 21
st
Century Education? But, the fact is,
we really have to; thus, sprouts fissions of problems as to handle challenge of educating the
modern society of prospective learners attuned with the demands of modern times. Note that,
America is America, and the Philippines among other nations are just inferior countries taken
with respect to its economy (bea.gov; http://www.aei-ideas.org; http://www.nytimes.com);
thus, logically speaking, they have far more advantage on educating their citizens as compared
to nations who have been categorized as third world countries/economies
(http://www.developmentgoals.com; http://www.ssireview.org) .

21
st
Century Education: The educators choice
The sarcastic truth is that: we cannot do without these changes in the worldwide
education scenario; indeed, it is in reality one way traffic of development that we cannot
counter so that the same will go in retrospect. Thus, we must go with the flow in an intelligible
manner; meaning, managing all the odds and challenges thereof by equipping ourselves with
the modern tools, and goods to be used in the modern teaching and learning scenario.

There are hopes despite of the perceived odds
As long as optimism is in play, everything under consideration becomes one step closer
to realization; the same goes in the concept of 21
st
Century Education; this happens to be the
case of the concepts which can be seen in modern literatures which somewhat links to the idea
of feasibility of 21
st
Century Education. Furthermore, there are pronouncements and logical
arguments which can be of pertinence in boosting the morale of modern educators despite of
perceived difficulties as regards to this modern learning schema. The axioms think globally, act
locally (http://www.unesco.org) provides an optimistic view on how we should go about in the
conduct of the said modern perspective in education; here, the suggestion is basically using
what we have to hit a specific end of uplifting the standards of education to its deemed level;
therefore, easing the burden from common misconceptions that should be high tech, which
must also be in some sense.
Actually, the new schema is not so new, so why bother to bother; taking into logical
analysis, 21
st
Century skills are just reiteration of what is deemed ideal to be conceived by an
educated person; for instance, the ways of thinking, which includes creativity, critical
thinking, problem-solving, decision-making and learning (http://atc21s.org) are common ideals
of education since time and memorial (http://www.criticalthinking.org); the same is true with
the other skills such as: ways of working, tools for working and skills for living in the world, only
the level differed because of time gap element.




In connection with the aforementioned similarity; critical thinking having the
definition of a mode of thinking about any subject, content, or problem in which the
thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully analyzing, assessing, and
reconstructing it (http://www.criticalthinking.org), only proves that it is an ancient skill or is
present during the time of our forefathers; in fact, humanity has survived this far because of
the wise use of endowed intellect by our ancestors; these are evident when we dig deeper to
the literature Linda Elder and Rush Cosgrove (2013) which reads:
Yet humans have great capacity for rationality and reasonability. The history of human
accomplishments, achievements and contributions well documents this fact. But for the
most part this capacity must be developed, actively, by the mind. It is our second, not
our first, nature.
What is more natural to the mind, what comes first in terms of human
tendencies, and often takes precedence, is an orientation focused on self-gratification,
self-interest, self-protection. This perspective is innate, and many would say, necessary
for survival. Still it leads to many problems and ultimately stands as a barrier to the
development of fair-minded critical societies.
Thus, this outlines the fact that our existence to date is an issue of wise use of intellect.
Actually, as can be gauged above, critical thinking does not come abruptly, for it needs to be
processed or developed (http://www.criticalthinking.org; http://sydney.edu.au;
www.wikihow.com); thus, our forefathers might have developed it through time by trial and
error, since; it is actually used in developing such even in modern respects (Christine M.
Piotrowski, 2011; http://www.coun.uvic.ca).






REFERENCES:
1. ALVIN TOFFLER - BIOGRAPHY. The European Graduate School.
http://www.egs.edu/library/alvin-toffler/biography/
2. Illiteracy Statistics. http://statisticbrain.com/number-of-american-adults-who-cant-
read/
3. Illiteracy meaning. http://www.google.com.ph/search?aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-
8&q=illiteracy+meaning
4. WIDESPREAD ECONOMIC GROWTH IN 2012.
http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/gdp_state/gsp_newsrelease.htm
5. Americas ridiculously large $16 trillion economy. http://www.aei-
ideas.org/2014/02/americas-ridiculously-large-16t-economy/
6. EDUARDO PORTER, 2012. Economic Health? Its Relative.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/business/us-economy-is-doing-well-compared-
with-other-nations.html?_r=0
7. UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION
EDUCATING FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE :A TRANSDISCIPLINARY VISION FOR
CONCERTED ACTION ;ACTION AT THE LOCAL LEVEL
http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/mods/theme_a/popups/mod01t05s01.html
8. What Are 21st-Century Skills? http://atc21s.org/index.php/about/what-are-21st-
century-skills/
9. Linda Elder and Rush Cosgrove (2013) Critical Societies: Thoughts from the Past.
http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/critical-societies-thoughts-from-the-past/762
10. Christine M. Piotrowski (2011) Problem Solving and Critical Thinking for Designers. John
Wiley & Sons Inc.
11. Thinking Critically ((2004). Official UVic Web site, University of Victoria
http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learning/critical-thinking/
12. Critical Thinking in Everyday Life: 9 Strategies.
http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/critical-thinking-in-everyday-life-9-strategies/512
13. Orientation Lecture Series: LEARNING TO LEARN Developing critical thinking skills.
http://sydney.edu.au/stuserv/documents/learning_centre/critical.pdf
14. How to Develop Critical Thinking Skills. http://www.wikihow.com/Develop-Critical-
Thinking-Skills












TAGS:
Educational phenomenon, 21
st
Century, changes in education, Driving Force in
Education, Alvin Tofer, illiterate, US Economy and Education, illiteracy in the modern setting,
statistics of learning,