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There have been many changes in the development of national and world education. The most observable phenomenon is now the internalization of society and the penetration of digital technologies into learning.
Education has traditionally been seen as a pedagogic relationship between the teacher and the student. Pedagogy, the art of science and teaching the child, embodies a teacher-focused education where the teacher dominates the classrooms. This approach assumes the teacher being the repository of knowledge and taking full responsibility about what the learner needs to learn when it is to be learned, and indeed how it should be learned. This pedagogical slant develops the role of the student to be a dependent one and the relationship between the student and his/her peers as a competitive one. Pedagogical learning is purely based on the possession of skills and knowledge through transmittal techniques, such as lectures, demonstrations, textbook reading, audiovisual presentations and examinations. Students are motivated to learn due to external pressures such as competition for securing higher grades, fear of failure and at times due to fear of punishment. Learning is confined to a pre-planned curriculum for all students so that it can easily be monitored and evaluated. It addresses the issue of what is to be learned “The Content”, and not how it is to be learned “The Process”.[1]
Today we are entering into a period where we see new and unorthodox ways of learning and teaching in digital learning environments. Many educational institutions have now integrated a great number of contemporary, international, technology-driven and inter-culturally grounded contexts which have developed new pedagogical configurations that no longer resemble conventional forms of teaching.
We see significant changes related to the new scientific discoveries, informatization, globalization, the development of astronautics, robotics, and artificial intelligence.
How is the school changing in the new century? How does learning theory change? Maybe you hear a lot of criticism that the classroom has not changed significantly to meet the new challenges or the teachers have not succeeded in modern changes.
The theory of education, figuratively speaking, has two levels. At the macro-level, in the “education-society” relationship, decentralization and diversification, internationalization of education, and the introduction of digital technologies occur. At the micro-level in the “teacher-learner” relationship, there is an active mix of traditional and innovative methods, a combination of an activity approach with an energy-informational environment approach, cognition with constructivism and connectivism. [2]
Digital technologies change our way of life, ways of communication, way of thinking, feelings, channels of influence on other people, social skills, and social behaviour. What we now see is the Internetization of digital technologies into learning. Knowledge is the transition from acquiring knowledge through reading, from the teacher’s monologue to visual perception, or discussion in the classroom.
The theoretical changes in didactics and pedagogy lie behind the most obvious tendency. The pedagogy in the broad sense is a purposeful influence of the society to prepare the younger generation for life. Today the digital influence is a part of our lives.
We can see changes in didactics in the following areas, which lead to the active use of innovative teaching methods [2]:
- the features of the expansion of the subject of pedagogy—“education”;
- approaches in modern didactics on teaching the digital generation of students;
- attention on pedagogical innovation as a direction for the development of didactics;
- using traditional and innovative teaching methods in a digital environment.
Teachers have diametrically opposed opinions on how to respond to changes: from conservative (leaving everything as it is) until the need for a complete restructuring of the education system.
In education, the understanding of learning outcomes has shifted from knowledge, or knowledge and skills, to the formation of competencies. If knowledge is formed consistently, then competencies develop in a complex manner. Competencies are difficult to form in one lesson, so we can talk about “learning strategies” implemented for a certain length of time. The learning strategy integrates both approaches and principles, the direction of development, and the methods and types of instruction. Training strategies are aimed at competence—the expected results of education[2].
Changes Coming Our Way
There is a storm of change coming our way. The discourse by policymakers, industry leaders and academics in education often centre around the impact of the 4th industrial revolution on the world of education and employment – how artificial intelligence, advancements in robotics, virtual reality, cloud technology, big data, the internet of things and other technologies will engulf human creation, human creativity and the future of employment. The fusion of technologies and the blurring of the lines between the biological, digital and physical aspects of life will likely transform the way we work, learn, and live. The 4th industrial revolution is also predicted to transform the work environment from tasks based learning to the human-centred approach. Jobs will demand social intelligence, as much as IQ and there will be high job mobility across different sectors, in different countries. Research in the past 35 years has shown that there is a steep decline in the number of jobs where levels of social and communication skills are unimportant. By far, the greatest growth has been in jobs requiring high social skills, because, the interpersonal asset is the most prized factor for occupations and career highest in demand in our current economic model where creative cooperations will create multiplier of wealth. The spectre of a significant percentage of the population losing their jobs in raises more debates about the preparedness level of university graduates and graduated from Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to face a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. Today, many parents and students still focus on higher education programmes that will help them secure jobs, but such jobs may not exist in the future. For focusing on future jobs, students must look to develop future work skills – proficiencies and abilities required across different jobs and work settings. [3]
References:
- Deepika Tiwari , Paradigm Shifts in the Pedagogical Approaches. IGI 2016
- Aigerim Mynbayeva, Zukhra Sadvakassova and Bakhytkul Akshalova, Pedagogy of the Twenty-First Century: Innovative Teaching Methods, Intechopen 2017
- Pradeep Nair; Preparing 21st Century Teachers for Teach Less, Learn More (TLLM) Pedagogies, IGI 2020
Lucubrate Magazine February 2020
The picture on the top of the article: Nobu (Adobe Stock)
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