Assistant Professor, M B Patel College of Education, V.V. Nagar
Online published on 3 June, 2015.
‘We need a metamorphosis of education -from the cocoon a butterfly should emerge. Improvement does not give us a butterfly only a faster caterpillar.’
UNESCO: Learning to Learn.
For the past decade or so we have seen schools being forced to comply with a business managerial ideology that has all but crushed the common sense and creativity of innovative teachers and schools. Now is the time to reshape schools as democratic learning communities fostering in students abilities to be critical thinkers and good problem solvers no matter what life path they choose. They also will need to be creative, innovative, and show aptitude in evolving skill areas, such as information, media and technology skills.
The above mentioned demand of the world calls for professional development of teachers in the accordance with 21st century skills. This paper is a modest effort in suggesting how the pre-service Teacher Education can explore possibilities in enhancing 21st century teacherhood in teachers –in –making. Preparation of a task package for the same and getting it validated from experts is the core of this process. The focus of the tasks are:
Understanding the importance of 21st century skills and how to integrate them into daily instruction.
Enabling collaboration among all participants.
Allowing teachers-in making to construct their own learning communities.
Taping the expertise within a school or school district through coaching, mentoring and team teaching.
Supporting teachers-in making in their role of facilitators of learning.
Using 21st century tools.
The paper includes writers. reflective journey into the understanding the need of 21st century skills, advanced pedagogy, construction of tasks and its validation. Derived form it will be presented a plan of action for teacher education field for facilitating student teachers for 21st century classrooms.
‘Come to the edge’, he said
They said, ‘We are afraid’
Come to the edge, he said
They came
He pushed them … and they flew.
Guillaume Apollinaire
