In its simplest terms, a 21st Century Learning Environment must be a school children are excited to attend because:
- It’s a safe place for them to learn and interact with other students.
- The work they do there is challenging, meaningful, and fun.
- They experience real growth and mastery (not just artificially-supported “self-esteem”).
- They are surrounded and fully engaged in a technology-rich environment that links what they learn in class to both the outside world and the inner world of their own self-discovery.
Research by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills helps identify the characteristics of this kind of learning environment.
© The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2007. Used with permission.
Physical Characteristics
21st Century schools feature flexible spaces where students … can participate in a variety of learning activities as individuals and in groups that “…promote interaction and a sense of community, enable formal and informal learning, and convey a sense of energy.” This flexibility of design extends to time as well. “21st Century schools may find it necessary to restructure the day into more malleable units of time than the typical rigid 50-minute class period in order to create extended learning blocks for project-based work or interdisciplinary themes.”
Technological Infrastructure
Of course, a critical component of a 21st Century learning environment is a robust and equitable technology infrastructure “[that] provides access to real world data, tools, and fosters the sort of real world learning that boosts student engagement and achievement.” Schools [should design “integrated learning environments” so as “to encourage student-teacher connections, student cooperation, active learning, effective feedback, and high expectations, while respecting the diversity of talents and ways of learning among students.”
School Climate and “Culture”
Leading educators such as Deborah Meier and Ronald Ferguson have demonstrated that a climate of respect and trust among children and adults is essential to an effective school. And Eleanor Drago-Severson has found that a positive school climate – characterized by shared leadership, collegial relationships, and support for constructive change and diversity – encourages the professional growth of educators, which in turn enhances student achievement.
One Real-world Example: The “Three R’s”
of the Wilson School Culture
From its beginnings in 1909, Reverend and Mrs. Wilson envisioned a school culture that would provide learning that was at once challenging, fun, and spiritually centered – in a family-like school community. One way to understand the “idea of a school” that, in 1909 was so innovative, and in today’s world, is so necessary, is to think of a different kind of “3 R’s.”
Respect
The school’s motto, Nosce Te Ipsum – “Know Thyself,” is the core Wilson cultural value of respect that informs how students and teachers interact each day.
Respect begins with recognizing, and continuously seeking to stretch one’s own potential for growth and excellence. That goal of excellence is based on both external standards of academic achievement and individual, personal gifts and strengths. Self-respect also includes awareness of one’s shortcomings and limitations – in order to improve them.
Respect for one’s self is inseparably linked to respect for others. Older Wilson students are expected to mentor and support younger children – just as they would do their own siblings. Respect extends not just all other students of any age, but for all people.
In 1911, Reverend Wilson, long a friend of Maud Ballington Booth, co-founder of Volunteers of America, established the tradition of giving at Christmas, a practice that continues today as The March of Gifts and the many other ways in which Wilson students give to others less fortunate than themselves.
Reflection
The Wilsons believed that “problems are in noise, answers are in the Silence.” The gift of silent reflection on the meaning and purpose of one’s actions are woven into the daily life of the school. While we are no longer affiliated with a specific denomination, the Wilson School is still very much a place in which spiritual values matter.
In keeping with Wilson’s traditions, we incorporate the Lord’s Prayer, a “Poem for Children around the World,” the Pledge of Allegiance and a Moment of Silence into each Friday Chapel. We respect and appreciate the diversity of beliefs within the school. At the same time, Chapel is a time for all of us to gather and celebrate as a community.
Responsibility
“There is no back row in a Wilson classroom.”
Wilson students are expected and encouraged to take personal responsibility for what they say and do. Reverend and Mrs. Wilson expected each child in the school to stand tall, look people in the eye, and speak clearly, even eloquently, from the heart. That tradition is nurtured today in daily class activities and formal chapel and program performances.
Wilson is very much a “safe place for students to learn and interact with each other,” but the discipline that creates that atmosphere is self-discipline.
The Wilson culture is the expression of “what we all do together” – the school’s traditions that help define the shared expectations that govern the choices people make each day about how to act with each other.
The Wilson culture is equally the expression of “why we do it” – the shared values that don’t need to be taught or preached, or even rigorously enforced, because they are lived.
Notes:
“The Impact of Change in Teaching and Learning on the Environment.”In Chism, N., Bickford, D. (2002). The Importance of Physical Space in Creating Supportive Learning
New Directions for Teaching and Learning. No. 92, Winter 2002. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Skill, T. & Young, B. (2002). “Embracing the Hybrid Model: Working at the Intersections of Virtual and Physical Spaces.”
