The Importance Of Teaching And Learning In The 21st Century

21st century learning is bold, flexible, creative, challenging, and complex; it takes into account the rapidly changing world filled with new problems and new possibilities (21stcenturyschools, 2008). Students develop critical thinking and interpersonal communication skills in order to be successful in the 21st century (Edweek, 2010). By implementing technology to create an environment that meets the needs of this generation, learning no longer has to be a ‘one-size-fits-all’ system; the opportunities possessed by technology should be used to reconfigure 21st century learning (Howell, 2012).

Teaching and learning in the 21st century involves more than the use and impact of digital technologies; it comprises of multiple ideas and practices coming together in order to re-bundle learning and teaching that will in turn, better reflect the 21st century world (Bolstad, Gilbert, McDowell, Bull, Boyd & Hopkins, 2012). 21st century learning understands that in a global information society where new professions are constantly emerging, the concern has been shifted to developing the appropriate skills and aptitudes our students need in order to be lifelong learners (Howell, 2012).

This included the dilemmas caused between modernism and postmodernism, and structuralists and postructuralists (Saha, 2013). When looking at ‘traditional education’ of the 19th century in comparison to new practices of the 21st century, there are significant changes being made to equip students for the world in which they live (Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority [ACARA],