Trends of Teaching and Learning

In 19^th century, the classroom, the fundamental infrastructure of most of any school, are often constructed  at the minimum cost as the design is a closed isolated space which could keep students in sight at all times during teaching. Physical classroom are mostly inflexible and task-unrelated time frame decided by school bells based on the bureaucratic arrangement of “time-period-teacher-group-subject matter” blocks designed by school managers. Pedagogic objectives, methodologies, and resources, evaluation processes and interactions between students and teachers were interfered by the physical space of the classroom. Therefore, student learning and development was rooted in the classroom that was not improved for student research, creative projects, cooperative work or co-teaching. Particularly, in many classrooms, there is hardly any free space for collaboration, development of competencies and skills and application of knowledge, hence, the physical setting for the teaching and learning process blocked interaction with teachers and among students and as for individually-centered role for teachers. It could be assumed that the physical design of classroom of most schools is irrelevant, inapplicable to students’ out-of-classroom realities and individual particular supposed futures. Those traditional school designs are irrelevant for the universal student development of the 21^st century skills as it is required to support the necessary variety of individual and group working areas for interaction in the teaching and learning process.

During the second half of the 20^th century, almost nobody expected that the information environment would develop so drastically in such a short period of time. However, internet has not been using widely and curriculum authorities, school managers nor examination boards have not been able to take hold of the full implications of reversal for the education of the 21^st century. It used to believe that the traditional concept of school grounded on explanations of teachers and on a few books as external sources of knowledge. Nowadays, students of the 21^st century education, there is no longer a need to emphasize and rely on textbooks, workbooks, a few maps and a dictionary as the internet is capable to provide endless student personalization and education possibilities and the potential of individual student.

I wonder what the teaching and learning situation will be like in next century ! Would it be artificial intelligence or robot teachers or any other things beyond our knowledge.