21st Century Teaching/Learning Environment

Introduction

Much attention has been focused on the new and emerging skills that are required of learners and citizens in the 21st century and not traditionally represented in standards for learning (Banks, 72). The skills are defined and are driven by the types and contents of assessments in formal education settings describes the skills and knowledge students need for the future across cultures and countries, but the skills are subsumed within or across particular content areas and are assessed in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment).

Discussion

In the 21st century, multicultural education advocates will have to develop new strategies to ensure that the public schools retain diverse student populations and garner equal resources for all schools. Because current policy trends have reinforced the movement toward neighborhood schools, efforts may include working with community development specialists and urban planners to advocate for the development of multi-income housing to create more economically diverse city neighborhoods.

The growth of accountability mandates and standardised testing since the mid-1990s has also proven challenging to teachers and school leaders who are committed to implementing multicultural curriculum in their classrooms and schools. As (Grant, 58) notes, “the entire history of standardised testing has been one of exclusion and social ranking rather than diagnosis and school improvement” (p. 60). The passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001 required a system of accountability from each state that received federal funding and expanded the system of high-stakes testing in school systems across the country. With pressures to perform well on state-mandated tests, poor urban school districts that serve predominately students of color have increasingly relied on prescribed and scripted curriculum materials to find a quick fix for unsatisfactory test scores.

These intensified efforts to improve performance in math and reading tend to drive other subjects out of the curriculum. Time devoted to social studies, science experiments, art, theater productions, music, and physical education is reduced, and students from diverse backgrounds are exposed to inflexible curricula and teaching strategies that violate their home cultures and languages (Honey, 31). The challenge for multiculturalists in the 21st century will be to make a convincing case for multicultural curriculum and assessment approaches that incorporate multiple perspectives, multiple frames of reference, and multiple funds of knowledge. If student assessment is to be more culturally responsive for diverse students, advocates of multicultural education must garner support from school district, state, and national education leaders and policy makers to alter the current high-stakes testing environment (Banks, 73).

The emphasis here is on the need to learn continuously throughout life, not just the more traditional and rote learning often espoused in the classroom. Fundamental to the Partnership's foundation is ICT that stimulates the growth of 21st-century skills. Another definition of 21st-century learning includes four categories: (a) digital literacy—basic, scientific, economic, and technological literacies; visual and information literacies; and multicultural literacy and global awareness; (b) inventive thinking— adaptability, managing complexity, and self direction; curiosity, creativity, and risk taking; higher-order thinking; and sound reasoning; (c) effective communication—teaming, collaboration, ...