What are the qualities required of teachers to teach 21st century learners?

There are many postings regarding benchmarks (qualities/good practices) of TESOL teachers. You may like to view them and please send your feedback if you could. I hope it helps!

It does seem that the focus has shifted to the student and the teacher has become a little forgotten, I agree. They are often seen as mere facilitators, or as some critics put it, 'entertainers'. A very interesting perspective on impact on student learning is presented in Hattie's book 'Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximising Impact on Learning'. His basic argument is that visible and interventionist pedagogies have been shown to have the most positive impact on student learning. Personal qualities of course influence teaching style but essentially, teacher' 'field knowledge, training and how well they scaffold learning still seem to be the most important 'ingredients' (if I may use this word) to successful teaching. 

I will add to 'scaffolding of learning' is the main hub to link all the specific teaching and learning strategies. Better scaffolding is directly proportional to better outcomes. You may refer to see my postings to view  extensive scaffolding in TESOL. Thanks!  

Thank-you for your responses Arif and Ezster,

While you are discussing what these teacher enact I am asking about who these teachers are. How do they live their lives?

I think teachers should be flexible in adapting to new ways of how students learn in the 21st Century classroom. As such, they are required to life long learners, which may include even having a virtual identity and always updating their skills in order to meet the changing demographics of students in their classrooms.

Many thanks,

DFJ.

You might find this recent book to be useful:

Oh I think we do talk about 21st Century Teacher skills. Teachers need to be flexible, life long learners, facilitators, and must know their students. Teacher's noticing is now more important than ever before.

From my point of view 21st century teachers should be aware of their students´needs for future career development; I mean teachers have to be able to develop and enhance students competences that will allow them to cope with their future professional duties.

Prof. Bos is right. I would add that the 21st Century Teachers must be more tolerant and strong inspirers for their students.

From my experience, I believe strongly that students realize who really cares.

These are the characteristics of a 21st Century Teacher:

From my point of view 21st century teachers should be  flexible and friendly and also aware of their students´needs for future career development; I mean teachers have to be able to develop and enhance students capability to tolerate and adjust in any field and to make a positive thinker and also developed humanity and moral values.  

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Which_skills_must_21st_century_teachers_have_to_promote_high_quality_learning?

 Thank-you Keith. I was a co-author of that monograph you suggested. While working on the  monograph with Helia and Ian  I felt privileged to assemble and analyse the desires and opinions and frustrations of caring academics, classroom teachers and researchers who want to better lives for 21st century students. This question I pose in this forum is more about the fabric of the teachers who have these desires. As Parker Palmer believes, we teach more of who we are than what we know. Are we the risk takers, the creative innovators, the adventurers  that we ask our students to become? 

I think that the ability to flexibly adapt and problem solve are crucial aspects of 21st century learners, and that these qualities need to be reflected in teaching and pedagogy. The world of work, and the displaced nature of work, means that students need as core qualities adaptability and innovation. This is even more so now that it is likely that a student of 2016 may face multiple changes of career/ job and may need to learn, relearn and adopt new skills for each new career, work place and occupation. It is more important than ever that students become independent learners and be aware that their learning and ability to adapt and reinvent themselves is lifelong.

I also am challenged by the ideas from Don Idle that we are textured for technology and that technology has always been and will ever be a part of the deepest learning that we do. Learning to move technology and the digital technology of the 21st century into the heart of the learning process is an ongoing challenge for educators. So, the practice of being a literacy educator in the 21st Century must be, has to be, inclusive of digital literacies, including, most importantly, the use of social media. 

At the same time there are deep issues with the use of the technology and its implications in terms of equity and the displacement of human labour. Careers and jobs that were once pathways for students are being lost. We already see the trend to part time work and the movement of work to Asian countries, Moreover, the changes to core literacies skills afforded by digital technologies is not all positive and indeed can be regressive in terms of the core literacy skills of students. 

Moreover, the advent of so-called techno-imperialism, through companies such as Apple, means that we have technologies imposed on us which must be evaluated and critically examined. We must reject the idea of techno-utopianism and take a critical stance as educators, sorting out that which is helpful and useful and that which is pure business acumen. 

All in all,education now exists in a challenging multi-modal, multi-digital and rapidly changing environment in which there are numerous ways of delivering education content at primary, secondary and tertiary level. However, in such an environment students need critical skills and adaptability to negotiate and traverse this environment. 

Edwin, I agree but does this mean that teachers need to be independent learners, responsive yet critical consumers and selectors and adaptable to the imposed and rapid changes surrounding them?

Yes indeed. You could say that teachers have a role as gatekeepers, which suggests just what you wrote: that teachers themselves are critical consumers of technology and innovators in teaching but, at the same time, protectors of what is important for students in order to develop them as multi-literate and adaptive individuals. I think this has implications for teacher training and for the thinking that surrounds pedagogy and curriculum in this rapidly changing information age. This might be controversial but for me education is about learning and the ability to be a self-learner, and in pursuing that end there are multiple technological means of supporting an scaffolding learning. Not all technology is inherently good or worthwhile. And not all old technologies should necessarily be jettisoned.  

I couldn't agree more Edwin. Yet as a  Teacher Educator I was often disheartened by the pre-service teachers perpetuating un-examined traditional practices on placement even when in the School of Education we were perpetuating a very different critical view of learning and teaching in new times. That is why I am anxious to discover the people we get into Teacher Education programs.

Dear Dr. Latham,

If I am 28 and my student is 18, he/she can not get in to my shoes and think/feel/do what/how I do. But, I, being 28 can go back in my memories and feel what a teenager feels/does/behaves like.

In the teachers of our time, this is lacking. Ironically, we still call them 'practical' and intuitive' and ''interactive'.

How about Pedagogical Content Knowledge? should teacher synchronize these skill?

Dear all,

Project-based learning is a teaching approach that engages students in sustained, collaborative real-world investigations. Projects are organized around a driving question, and students participate in a variety of tasks that seek to meaningfully address this question.

1. aware of job description

2. professional

3. honest

4. dedicated

5. capable of using new tools and methodologies

As a long time teacher, the main changes in what I need to do to be effectve have been:

There are so many useful ideas emerging, now I think we need to have a template or a framework to put things in a manner that it helps to implement all the best practices together to get sustainability and performance. Thanks everybody!

Hello

I believe that we need to humanize the process of teaching and that will require to grant students the responsibility of their own learning, so the teacher must try to stop being the source of teaching and promote the auto learning. so then, is necessary to integrate schemas of confrontation with the educational experience and the current needs of students.

Perhaps the same as a good teacher in the 1st Century.  Be present, know the student, and support and challenge the student's growing.  There is this notion that somehow this Century, more than any prior, requires a whole new conceptualization of teacher.  Yet a teacher is still a teacher - a human being who cares and guides a student's learning.  In a way, it's probably that's qualitatively different from how a primate mother teaches a primate infant (as in Jane Goodall's studies of Chimpanzees.)  Teaching and learning has deep roots in our evolutionary history.

Hello,

I think following qualities are essential for teachers to teach 21st century learners:

Technology Enthusiastic,

Creativity,

Kindness,

Discipline,

Persistence,

Courage,

Optimism,

Perspective,

Collaboration,

Fairness,

Calm,

Logical,

Passionate,

Facilitator,

Flexible,

Reliable,

Learner,

Knowledgeable,

Social,

Innovative,

Role model, etc.

You may like to include a good learner and enjoys very good understanding with the students to help them become good learners who could lead their own learning. Thanks!

Teachers should have 10 Modern Teaching Skills. the 1st six are traditional and other 4 are modern teaching skills

We know 21st century educators are student-centric, holistic and they are teaching about how to learn as much as teaching about the subject area. We know too, that they must be 21st century learners as well. But highly effective teachers in today's classrooms are more than this - much more (see the attached picture and refer to the link for the list of characteristics)

 Link: http://www.masternewmedia.org/teaching-skills-what-21st-century-educators-need-to-learn-to-survive/#ixzz4EIKnKyTi

"According to Harmer, J. (2007), the term ‘facilitator’ is used by many authors to describe a particular kind of teacher, one who is democratic (where the teacher shares some of the leadership with the students) rather than autocratic (where the teacher is in control of everything that goes on in the classroom), and one who fosters learner autonomy (where students not only learn on their own, but also take responsibility for that learning) through the use of group and pair work and by acting as more of a resource than a transmitter of knowledge.

Facilitating learning is empowering for both the learner and the teacher and frees the teacher from many of the burdens that having to be an ‘expert’ might entail. It would traditionally have been seen as a weakness for a teacher to say ‘I don’t know, let’s find out’ or ‘I don’t know, do any of you students know the answer?’ But, times have changed and so must the role of the ELS teacher."

Teachers of this century should be creative inside classrooms rather than being traditional. S/He must be well aware with the latest technologies of educational interests. They should concentrate more on modern advancement in giving examples than the older traditional examples given by our own tearchers in the classrooms. Nowadays, modenization in the teaching is key to develop skill among the students to handle new life style easily and effectively. 

Thanks Mahamad. I agree. Yet the focus of this conversation, however, is more on who the teacher are or should be in the classroom, what they should know and foster where I am asking about the people (who are teachers) outside the classroom and research centers and what  mindsets they need and how they lead their lives. 

Gloria, Can you expand that please?

I have found that patience is essential, the ability to adapt and a willingness to try things, get things wrong and try again.  The most effective teachers I have trained and worked with are those who see the classroom as an adventure and share the experience with the students.

Dear Gloria,

I think, that we all are  students, however, at different level. If we are at teacher position we should cover more than knowledge flow. Being involved in teaching younger generation we should realize that we are a part of a complex process. Human touch is a necessity.  Integrated teaching approaches (such as : technology integrated learning, CLIL, game based learning ...) are worth applying. We should still be aware, mainly these days in the era of enormous information boom and flow , artificial intelligence, technology " rocket"  development, that  the most important thing is to assist young people to become at first human beings with open mind, heart and ready to improve the life on our planet and be flexible to work on various projects and in various teams.  As 21st century teachers/educators we are supposed to inspire students to work in teams by using their gifts and foster our life energy to be forever young :-)

Innovation... along with a hand's on approach seems to be the big take away message from all of the STEM conferences I have attended. Many teachers are too afraid to incorporate "on hand" projects in the classroom simply because they themselves don't know all of the concepts behind the material they are teaching. In the beginning, I didn't understand why most charter schools were taking STEM graduates who did not possess a teaching background to teach in k-12 schools but now I know why... those STEM graduates bring a difference to the classroom in terms of innovation, mini on hand projects, and they provide more visuals for students to take away the BIG IDEAs from the lesson plans. Also, there are no current evaluation methods in place to make sure teachers are providing quality learning. From what I've seen, we constantly place emphasis on student performance. So, that approach needs a major shift if we want more quality teachers rather than just a quantity of teachers. 

Thank-you Jamel. I certainly agree that we do want a quality of teacher rather than mere quantities. Yet what is constantly in dispute is what makes a quality teacher.   If you take a systems approach a quality teacher is compliant and follows the standardised regimes and methods of  neo-liberal thinking. I am arguing that it isn't the program or the methods that make the difference in learning but rather  the nature of the teacher, the mindset that matters. In the past what you knew was most important as a teacher. Yet that has shifted as knowledge is so readily available. If people who go into teaching were successful at school they are eager to pass on their knowledge of how to be successful. Yet the nature of success too has shifted. Can you teach risk-taking for an uncertain future if you are not a risk-taker? Can you instill innovative practices if you don't own them yourself? Can you help students stand out rather than fit in if you have not stood out?

Wow... thanks for that awesome response Dr. Latham. Yes, I agree with you as well. We must shift from the neo-liberal way of thinking.  I guess... I would have to define a quality teacher as one who consistently evolves their transferable skills with that of the modern times and can easily break down complex knowledge in an elementary manner. In more detail...a quality teacher is simply a great leader; one that can (1.) communicate effectively, (2.) coach others to success based on their own successes and failures , (3.) command projects really well and (4.) organize ideas systematically and (5) connect their knowledge to many challenges that present themselves in the real world. However, within that list alone, even a quality teacher who is highly intellectual may fail if they lack one of those sub-qualities alone. I have seen that happen way too many times. Some teachers are smart enough to teach the material; however, they may lack the conceptual-to-real-world linkage that is vital to the classroom, especially to students whom already lost the relevance of the lesson plan within a few minutes or so.

A good mindset can be awesome, however, I would argue that organization and a lack of effective communication seems to find it's way in the classroom of many successful teachers.  On the other extreme... teachers who have struggled during their collegiate experiences sometimes exude better teaching practices than their stronger counterparts simply because they had to find some way to make it through a challenging learning experience.  I may be incorrect on that... but I'm only going off of the empirical evidence that my eyes have witnessed.

However, in answering your remaining questions.... I don't think risk-taking is something that is passed on from teachers who have "struggled" during their collegiate career and no... those teachers who did meet the bare requirements to teach will not exploit innovation in the classroom.  But, on the other hand... students may still be able to stand out based on the communication and organization of that teacher. Sometimes students who have learned from teachers who have struggled...may exude an inquisitive based learning approach. Do you agree?

In stating the definition that I gave... I often ask myself... How does one evaluate such sub-qualities of teachers? and What benchmark do you place those qualities against? 

For a teacher to be effective in the 21st Century such a teacher need the following qualities:

1. good pedagogical content knowledge (PCK).

2. high self-efficacy

3. must be professionally focus

4. sound in ICT

5. personal quality

Personal quality consist of teaching strategies, motivation and interaction, professional development, and experience. A teacher who has good personal quality will know the appropriate teaching strategies to employ for a particular topic. Besides, such a teacher will know how to motivate students to learn with real interaction. Teacher must be experienced in the teaching profession and always update his or her knowledge, otherwise, he or she will not be able to meet the need of the students in the 21st Century.

See these links.

I am of the take that as teachers, we should always embrace current trends and uphold changes in the field of education in tandem with global trends. Only then, we will be able to cater to learners' needs and align to their interests. As we are aware, teachers' roles are more of facilitators in the current 21st century era and thus, multimodal teaching practices have to considered as supplementary tools in the classroom undeniably to facilitate effective learning.

 When thinking about the development of teachers that exhibit a 21st-century mindset, I believe that this process must begin with educational leaders.  Do they provide school structures that are conducive to innovation and imagination?  Does the climate of the school promote collaboration and critique?  Are their opportunities for teachers to innovate without concern for ramifications of failure?  Do professional learning communities support short-cycles of action learning?  Do teachers feel empowered to make decisions?  

Yes Rob, I certainly agree and that is why some teachers with a 21st Century mindset ( the ones I want to hold onto) leave teaching.

Know what you teaching. Read the last paper,. Learn, Learn and Learn every day. And a few of neuroscience. That is the main knowledge to know what occurs whith yours pupils and what need everyone.  

Rob, your point is really important. It happens at 4 levels in Australia. The principal can encourage, discourage or have no impact on teacher's ability to do what is needed. Both the central administration and regional administration can place generic demands on Principals and schools that limit teachers' ability to innovate, and now the National government can limit teachers through poorly constructed Natiopnal Curriculum. Navigating these disparate demands of itself reduces teachers' capacity to be innovative and be the teacher that students need.

Never listen the administration. On classroom, only you know what happens. Every student is world 

Gloria, your original question also addressed the question of whether we should privelege teachers' knowledge over who they are, with the idea I assume that teachers who are vibrant, imaginative and with a '21st century' mindset. Your question implies thast those who are imaginatiove will buck against controls until possibly leaving the system. I can agree wioth you that excessive control and compliance demands create stress and the more a teacher recognises the need to innovate, the greater the stress. Also the external perceptoion that teaching is a controlled, compliant job will block the entry of some people. The problem is mainly political. The politicisation of education, automatically increases compliance demands. Administrators can make some difference but not alleviate the oversight demanded by politicians. I have taught through times that were apolitical and times that were political. When eiother education is apolitical or the politics is one of innovation as it was in queenslanmd in the early 2000s, teachiong is a real joy for those who like to innovate and can be a trial for those who like to have clear and well understood procedurtes and practices.

In a nutshell: depoliticise education and value broad based oputcomes such as the attributes of a life long learner and common curriculum elements in Qld. Privilege positive educational psychology and broad ouitcomes over simple pass fail results and teachers will feel more disposed to innovate. My final word is that neither knowledge nor personal attributes should be privileged over each other. Both are important in balance.

I am goig to include what I think as a a list and you may do further research about it.

Adaptability.- Should see the world as a global community and can adapt to different groups, culture, organizations, schemes, schedules, etc.

In love with knowledge.- It is truth we are facing a world where access to communication is immediate, but still those who have a clear mindset of how the world works in its essence especially those who have had deep studies of philosophy, theory of knowledge, epistemology, will have a clearer idea of overall goals and better ideas to attain goals and associate different phenomena which occur in every-day life.

Ethics.- This teacher should have a high set of values. Teachers have the responsability not only to shape students' knowledge or develop skills, but also help students form an adequate behavior, and for that these teachers must put ethics into practice not only when teaching, but as an individual.

The list may go on, but I think those three are critical.

Hello Gloria, 

teachers maybe need many of the following abilities:

- a very good knowledge of their subject

- a very good empathy and sensitivity for all the individuals sitting in the class room

- teachers should have very good tools to diagnose the different abilities of students

- teachers should know about tools how to interpret the diagnosed abilities of students

- an then teachers should have many possibilities to provide different tasks and learning material to students in regards to their abilities

Now it is the time to handle all students as individuals with individual learning needs and learning rhythm. 

Kind regards

Guenter

Would these be the qualities of teachers in any age Guenter? Are their qualities that are needed today that have not been needed previously? What kind of discipline knowledge is required of teachers? 

I think, the requirement in this case is based upon a variety of a teacher's competences (which researchers indicated), we need to have scaffolding of learning of 21st century students. You may like to see my postings regarding TESOL teachers benchmarks as a sample. To answer question, 'What kind of discipline knowledge is required of teachers?' These days a teacher must have in addition to core subject knowledge, multi-disciplinary knowledge as well including pedagogical training. I hope it helps!

Dear Friends, In 21 th century  for a teacher need Knowledge, values, Skills and Professional Idea and honesty. A vision and view for development of society . 

The qualities I think a teacher should have to be effective in the 21st Century are but not limited to the following:

Professional focus: A teacher must concentrate on the teaching alone not any other job.

High self-efficacy: A teacher must be sure he/she has the capability to teach any topic in his/her subject. He/she should have confidence in him/herself to be able to change any student no matter the problem of that student.

Personal quality: A teacher must have good strategies of teaching and know when and how to apply a particular strategy. He/she should be able to motivate and interact well with both the good and poor students. A teacher should be experienced in teaching skill. A teacher should have a good professional development.

PCK: A teacher should have adequate knowledge of the subject matter and be able to impact the students with this knowledge.

A teacher in 21st Century must have adequate knowledge of ICT.

To be effective in the 21st century, a teacher should not see himself/herself as an island of knowledge but should be ready to learn, even from his /her students. In other words, day to day update of knowledge is inevitable.

Technology has brought fundamental changes and created new styles of communication, interaction and new means for constructing community. It has produced new styles of playful learning, which go beyond the teacher-dominated, authoritarian approach of old style education. It is creating new competencies or forms of “literacy,” which require and produce new intellectual powers, and even “more complex brain structures.”

I agree with Mark and Aina Jacob. Besides all these qualities that they have mentioned, it is imperative for teachers to be a good role model for their students. I have experienced that learning does not only happen through direct teaching. In fact more meaningful and ever lasting learning takes place in the form of hidden curriculum. It is more so true with school children as they easily emulate their teachers. Irrespective of the contextual differences, I feel that all teachers must be a good role model in every aspect of their life...To me this is one of the crucial qualities that any 21st Century teacher must posses.

It is nice to see so many researchers contributing their experiences. One can get a large extent of 21st century learners'  and teachers' qualities. This data can be used for many useful research projects. Good luck! 

Arguably, all of the above things you mention. Ensure that cognitive and affective pedagogies are included. BW Paul

ok, muy buena pregunta, considero que las cualidades son las siguientes,

primero competencias actitudinales, tener un buen corazón una buena educación espiritual que le permita amarse a asi mismo para amar a sus estudiantes para preocuparse para que aprendan a aprender y aprendan a pensar críticamente para que sean ciudadanos responsables, y con capacidad de resolver problemas y pensamiento critico autónomo e independiente.

 Greetings Gloria,   

In addition to the excellent responses from peers, I add suggestions from an informative book that lays out strategies that inform required qualities for 21st-century teachers.

Gary Marx (2014) provides concrete strategies to develop educators and leaders by:

-Engaging students, staff, and colleagues in active learning and problem-solving skills

-Building adaptability and resilience in our work lives

-Keeping in touch with rapidly changing institutions and communities

-Understanding and planning for the critical issues in our future

-Releasing ingenuity and creativity in others

Marx, G. (2014). Twenty-one trends for the 21st century: Out of the trenches and into the future.  Bethesda, MD: Education Week Press  

Onward and upward!

Kathy 

You ask: What are the qualities required of teachers to teach 21st century learners?

Given that your question gave rise to many responses, any additional response to your interesting question risks saying something that, to an extent, was already said. This aspect notwithstanding, I want to refer to the qualities required of teachers/professors to teach 21st century learners, or even learners living in future centuries. My answer is, so to speak, a Piagetian-oriented answer [see, for this respect, Piaget, J. (1970). Science of Education and the Psychology of the Child.  London: Kegan Paul Trench Trubner; Piaget, J. (1973), To Understand Is to Invent: The Future of Education (1973). New York: Grossman Publishers.  

In my answer, I am going to use the following language and style: To teach 21st century learners, teachers must be aware of this, that, and so forth.

(1) Such teachers must be aware that learning/teaching, and hence education, is costly, but it is far less costly than its alternative, that is, ignorance. Therefore, such teachers should be aware that resources involved in their teaching should not be jeopardized, or, in other words, should bring about a good, and even excellent education (see more in point 3)

(2) Such teachers must be aware that only education is capable of saving societies from possible collapse, whether violent or gradual. This means that those teachers should be aware of their central role in creating harmony and cooperation among all people, countries and nations.   

(3) Such teachers must be aware that education, and hence, teaching/learning, is a scientifically oriented process in a double sense. That is, they should know quite well (a) their subject of specialization and expertise; and (b) be knowledgeable of the leaner’s psychological development. If the former is not the case, the teacher is no teacher at all. To think of an ignorant teacher is even an oxymoron. How can one teach that which one does not know well? If the latter is not the case, the teacher risks teaching to his/her pupils material that is much above or below their cognitive capability, and hence material that is ill-tuned to their cognitive ability to understand. Consider the following case: A teacher who intends to teach, say, to a concrete operational pupil, a six-year-old child, for example, the proportionality concept, which requires formal operational competencies. As these competencies are not at the reach of a six-year-old child, the obvious risk is that the pupil, at his/her best, will memorize rather than understand the material that, supposedly, is being “taught” and “learnt”.  In short, there is neither significant teaching nor significant learning for no assimilation/accommodation is taking place. The same happens when a teacher intends, for instance, to teach, say, to a formal operational student, a normal 16-year-old boy/girl, for example, the idea of weight conservation, which requires only concrete operational competencies. Given that such idea is much below the cognitive capacities of the pupil, the pupil is not interested in what is supposed to be taught because s/he knows the point in advance. As such no significant teaching/learning occurs.

(4) Such teachers must be aware that education should aim at generating individuals who are creative, inventive, and discoverers, not individuals who limited themselves to simply repeating what previous generations have done. In other words, such teachers must be aware that education aims at forming autonomous and critical individuals, not individuals who are oriented to an uncritical acceptance of dogmas, established truths, or truths simply  imposed from outside. This objective stands in sharp contrast with the conservative goal of traditional education, which is to inculcate and transmit to students the existing knowledge and values from one generation to another.

(5) Such teachers should be aware that education should be a process oriented to the individual’s moral and intellectual autonomy. The goal of intellectual education is to develop intelligence rather than to promote rote learning and to give rise to inventors rather than to conformist people and the goal of moral education is to develop an autonomous morality, a morality oriented to equality, cooperation, and mutual respect, not a heteronomous morality, a morality based on obedience, coercion, and unilateral respect, and that the goal of aesthetical education is to create people who come to be sensitive to the several and different manifestations of the beautiful. This means that such teachers should be committed to helping their pupils to find out what is cognitively true, morally good, and aesthetically beautiful. Needless to say, a world deprived of the true would be an incoherent and illogical world, deprived of the good, would be an unjust world, and deprived of the beautiful would be a horrible and even nonsensical world. Note that the categories of truth, morality and beauty exist everywhere, regardless of how different they are in terms of place and time. This means this such teachers should be sensitive to the true, the good and the beautiful. Of course, the individual’s intellectual, moral, and aesthetic autonomy is not tantamount to individualism and total freedom. Instead of individualism, autonomy involves, for example, exchanging points of view and coordinating different perspectives. Instead of total freedom, such autonomy, implies, for instance, to be subject  to prescriptive and reversible moral principles, such as the golden rule in the moral domain (do not do unto others what you would not like others to do unto you), or subject to reason more than to perception while solving cognitive tasks.

(6) Such teachers must conceive of a teacher more as a mentor and organizer of learning situations, someone who helps students to actively rediscover or reconstruct every truth, or morality, or beauty to be learned, than a simple transmitter of knowledge. In this vein such, when teaching, such teachers must appeal to the active methods, or methods alternating between individual work and work in groups. In other words, the active methods for which I argue are neither entirely teacher-centered nor entirely child-centered, but they rather appeal to an interaction between a teacher organizing classroom situations and involving students in experimentation and a pupil reconstructing or reinventing any teaching/learning experience or situation. Actually, individuals can achieve their inventions and intellectual constructions only to the extent that they are involved in collective interactions. This being so, such teachers should look at education as an interactionist process or a process that involves a continuous interaction between the individual and his or her physical and social environment.

(7) Such teachers look at education as a constructivist process. Among other things, to espouse a constructivist account of teaching/learning and education amounts to adopting that: (a) the learner’s actions upon objects and his/her coordination of those actions play an important role in the process of his/her education and development; (b) a truth learned is only a half-truth because to understand is to discover, or reconstruct by rediscovery; (c) the most appropriate methods to use in schools are the active methods, for they give broad scope to spontaneous research on the part of the individual and require that every new truth to be learned is rediscovered or at least reconstructed by the students, not simply imparted to them; and (d) the main goal of education is to give rise to inventors and creators, not to conformist individuals.

There are people who think that to see education as a constructivist process means that the teacher has no role in students’ education and their success depends on leaving them entirely free to work or play as they will. However, such a conclusion does not follows necessarily. Suffice it to say that in such a conception of education what is desirable is that the teacher ceases to be a lecturer and is instead a mentor stimulating the students’ initiative and research.  

I hope that I hope that has gotten your point and has given you some hints on in

I see the biggest concern in the 21st century is the rate at which knowledge is created.  There are a number of different ways to address this issue, however i would like to present and entirely new idea, an idea whose day is rapidly approaching.  Today our schools teach content based upon the assumption that our students know how to learn or at least come to class with some skills.  What is not taught are the conceptual tools necessary for learning that content.  

Every construction industry has it own set of sophisticated tools, and the success of any company (think individual) depends upon the skillful use of those tools.  What is needed in the field of education are the mental tools necessary for concept construction, and understanding to the concept types necessary to support various forms of reasoning along with the philosophical perspectives necessary to make judgments. 

Our research has shown that once these content dependent tools are mastered, the rate of knowledge acquisition is astounding, the depth of knowledge is enhanced along with creativity and innovation.  In other words, our current system is under educating our students and depriving many of them access to career options.

Consider for a moment that only a few are highly skilled at doing mathematical operations and yet they are unable to adequately explain the nature of a number, nor provide the meaning of dividing distance by time to determine speed.

The university in the eleventh century, teaching requires flexibility in generating ideas, by reasonings that are not designed as absolute truths, but as emerging thoughts that produce new knowledge to forge dynamic interactions. It is true that at present the analytical reasoning conceived as absolute reality, making it difficult to orient innovative educational processes towards teaching and scientific humanization by combining reason and experience (emerging rationalism) prevail, can not innovate performing repetitive actions without going beyond projection and interconnectivity of knowledge. In this regard I published a scientific article in Option Magazine in which these circunstamncias are analyzed and as should be the process foormación called from what I call "emerging rationalism, the title of research in Spanish is "RACIONALISMO EMERGENTE: PRINCIPIO ACTIVO EN LA HUMANIZACIÓN DE LA DOCENCIA UNIVERSITARIA", and in English "EMERGING RATIONALISM: ACTIVE PRINCIPLE IN THE HUMANIZATION OF UNIVERSITY TEACHING"

I invite you to review it at the following link https://www.http://produccioncientificaluz.org/index.php/opcion/article/view/20505/20416 

The most important quality a teacher should have is an understanding of creative practices. The capacity to develop students creativity is the quality that in my long experience as a teacher fundamentally changes students lives. I have attached a paper by Filimowicz and Tzankova from Fraser University, Vancover Canada who implemented my theory of transitional multi-mode practices based on my book 'Teaching Creativity: Multi mode Transitional practices' 2009. There is also an article in  the RMIT journal Access Vol.30(i) 2011 that highlights what I consider to be the central most important quality of creativity which is the  provisionality of ideas.  

Thanks Derek. That's Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. 

You ask  'how might we attract vibrant role models to teaching'?. I would argue for the involvement of people who belong to the sphere of creativity--architects, writers, artists, designers. People who interact with the world and other people. Give these people, and above all their practices, a voice in education and encourage  both teachers and students to appropriate and transform these practices.

Cesar you raise an important point regarding ethics.  As knowledge building and influencing others plays an increasing role in participating in global electronic communities ethical standards are critical.

Interesting to be further discussed, the quality of teachers in the 21st century be the thing my mind is whether the 21st century needed a teacher? Teachers needed as it pertains to the existence of a human figure that made him human personality. The personality of a human being is not only humans have the knowledge but based on the knowledge of man be able to manage her to be part of another human being so that there was good interaction and co-exist for a better life. If a teacher is associated with the formation of a person, then at any time until a teacher will be necessary. But if the teacher only serves as the transfer of knowledge, it is not necessary teachers for the future. All knowledge is already accessible today without the required presence of a teacher. So if the 21st century is still required of teachers? What about education policy in the community (state) to the presence of the teacher? Teachers as forming the students personality is creating peace. So, teachers are penyelemat man on earth. Teachers are still needed in the 21st century and beyond that of human existence, the better life in peace interact.

Ability to flip your  classroom,  initiate and sustain learning productivity by guiding Students through a series of self-regulated learning experiences. 

Son dos las cualidades que se requieren:

1. Ser un intelectual en acción.

2 Ser un científico en potencia

personalmente pienso Que Requiere de algunos adj: aspectos Relevante .... En Primer Lugar Dębe Tener ESA Vocación, Amor a Enseñar, fluidez verbal Una y lo mas Importante, relacionar las Enseñanzas Propias con Experiencia o particulares, Aplicaciones; para mi eso es fundamental ... .................. superdotada Imagínese en Una personales, estafadores Conocimientos Altos, Una experiencia en campo laboral de lo mas alto y dirigir v v No Una SABE ONU publico?, nO TIENE UNA Metodología y pedagogía para transmitir Poder ESE conocimiento m m ?? Lo Mismo Que Nada Puede Mucho sable, Parr Pero El Mismo, es Como una enana blanca.

 Respected Gloria Lathem 

    Your question is not clear about  quality of teacher, which level of teacher you want answer, Do you want to quality of higher education teacher? or Do you want to secondary level teacher quality ? or primary level teacher quality ? because all level of students are different age group and wants to different need of attention. So please specify the your question than answer may be easy. 

I agree that 21st Century teachers (at all levels) must be mindful of students' needs, caring, and more importantly be a good role model. Coming from a Gross National Happiness country, I have realised that more than ever the 21st Century students learn (whether it is good or bad) from their models. 

There is some evidence that teachers' perception of themselves as teachers does vary depending on years of teaching experience.  The perception may be related to efficacy, both as a teacher and as a problem-solver.  We do a fair amount of professional development meetings for elementary teachers, and have discovered the range of reasons why someone might attend a pd meeting.  The reasons do not always involve lifelong learning.  Follow-up to the pd meetings seems to be one of the ways to improve efficacy.  Giving teachers tools to give to students is the essence of education.  Sometimes teachers have to get out of the way, and let students use what they know how to do.

I am an associate professor who has taught for 20 years in the public school. I have seen the role of both the student and teacher change. I recently found myself writing an article on the need for teachers to be be action researchers ( not practitioner researchers which many confuse). I believe more than ever before the teacher's actions and student's action need documentation through triangulation  through the aid of teams of teachers, and statistical analysis'.  Teachers can provide the valid and reliable research supporting theories used in the schools or leading us to further actions that can be studied and tried. Education will always be changing and we need relevant insight to that change.

Beth, I agree wholeheartedly with the idea of techer as action researcher informing future research. What seems to lacking however is the next layer up. The impacy of education policy on teachers' practice. I have seen that policy actively constructs teachers' mindsets in a way that limits their practice and hence research. I have always viewed myself as an action researcher teacher and been quite active in this role, however, over the last 10 years and I am sure as a result of policy changes, my efforts have been more circumscribed. Two examples come to mind. One is a large policy decision and the other a small one.

1. 11 years ago, a policy decision was made to limit reporting on student outcomes in schools to a '5 point scale', completely undoing changes I (and others) had been experimenting with for the 5 years previous.

2. Over the last 5 years there has been an increased demand for compliance in teachers, expressed to me a s a line manager of 17 teachers 'how do you know, (your teachers) are doing what they are supposed to?'. The mere request places pressure on teacvhers to conform. I also feel that same pressure from my line manager as he asks me the same question? 

I am looking at creating a larger dialogue with national and international policy makers and researchers. I would like to teachers intermingle and share ideas at conferences and in prestigious conferences. I believe this means a change in how we train teachers; more of an emphasis on research with reliability and validity, what it looks like and takes to be rigorous to takes its place with those from academia.

Sujeet, Mark, Beth, thank-you for your responses and Sujeet, to your question as to what level of teaching I am addressing. I feel all teachers in any sector or discipline require particular mindsets and life qualities for 21st century learners. I argue that it is no longer merely the knowledge teachers hold or the teaching methods they possess that will make a difference to students' learning but rather how they live their lives. if teachers are risk-takers, adventurous, critical thinkers, who embrace uncertainty and change they will convey those qualities and values to their students. Just imagine a whole kindergarten, school, department at university or TAFE filled with these teachers! Just imagine if the most important aspect about their lives are the questions, rather than the answers.  If these strong minded and embodied teachers are not deterred by the policy documents or ways of measuring learning they  will not get in their way.  There are certain aspects of education out of our control but as Beth said, we can undertake research to better understand the effects of our practices. After all, we are in the business of 'learning,' not for the duration of an examination, for a particular job (which will cease to exist) but for life. 

Dear All,

I can see a couple of very strong points being made in your discussions. The first one- to be an action researcher and thereby provide valid and reliable knowledge from the classrooms to inform policy. The second point -the notion of teachers today being pushed to be invisible, while students take the center stage and the third one the impact of policies on teacher researchers' input and interest. At the moment, i am leading a collaborative action research project  with my student teachers, and some of these points have been my motivation (the first two points) for this research while others (the third one) are thoughts going on in me. 

i can also also see further complication in the "next layer up". Action research by its nature, while being very thorough, is most often neglected by policy makers because of it being context and sample specific. I see that most often policy makers are impressed by huge sample to relate to generalizability, and also the sensitiveness or the "politics" of the case. Hence, action research for some of us can be  nothing more than answers to our own context specific problems, while for others, it can be nothing more than a useless feather in the cap offering some excitement. The "Action" begins with a "bang" but ends with a "whimper".

I do see a lot  of benefits of the reflective practitioner, and the action and reflection led teachers, but unless a stronger emphasis is given by all parties, especially the policy makers, it will be difficult to see its ultimate glory.

Thanks so much for your considered response. I certainly agree that what research counts remains very narrow. Often the Big Research grants set out to affirm the already narrow beliefs about educational directions. 

There will always be an important place for Practitioner Based Research; quality teachers who are seeking to better their practices will always find ways to learn more. You are not alone. 

I Think it was Popper who said that most of formal science was about checking and testing existing ideas. In that sense I value action research more highly because it is often there that people go beyond what is already known to test sometimes outlandish, but always interesting ideas.

I think teachers need to adapt themselves to a new and highly demanding 21st century. For the first time in the history of education, we are teaching learners whose future we cannot describe, due to the unpredictable nature of the ultra modern ICTs. Teachers need adaptability, collaboration and an unending sense of permanent self-learning. They are no longer knowledge disseminators, but knowledge creators, and collaborators and researchers. They have to embrace this new role and re-think the way they perceive themselves as well as  learners under their guidance. The characteristics of what they will be in the future, will be determined by what they do, what they stand for (as values and attitudes), and the quality of the outcomes from their actions vis-a-vis of learners (citizen of the future). I hope i contributed.

Critical thinking is one of thee necessary skill required to be prepared in students for after education and workforce support in the 21st Century.

Thank-you all for your considered responses. So much of what we read as research is in the detail. I feel we need to be asking all kinds of questions that may not be answered in the research about 21st century teachers and findings. Hattie's evidence in Visible Learning for instance has been scrutinized by statisticians who found many flaws in the findings. Learner centered certainly doesn't mean the teacher's role becomes a mere facilitator as Eszter terms it. While I agree that critical thinking is an essential skill as Krishnan (and others) suggest, what we need to discover is how we build this thinking in ourselves and in our students. What does it look like? Are teachers critical in their thinking? Zigama discusses the importance of adaptability which I would suggest has always been needed as the future has never been known.

Many of the important thinking and other skills are not taught explicitly in the teacher college courses. Sadly, there is no Logic 101, Creativity 101, Systems 101, BlackBox 101, Operationalising 101, Design 101, Prototyping 101, Estimating 101, Modelling 101 Scaffolding 101!

If teachers are not explicitly taught these useful generic skills, how then can they explicitly teach their students these generic skills required for the future??

The most essential quality a teacher requires is reading learner's mind!! 

While I agree with Ian about the need to address thinking skills in Teacher Education courses, I feel that these skills should not be in single courses.  Rather, generic skills ( often deemed soft skills) need be discussed and agreed upon by staff and integrated in all courses across the program. The importance of these skills are part of their overall philosophy. Rather than explicitly taught these skills are demonstrated by lecturers and students throughout the program in weekly problem-solving tasks, assessment  tasks and tutorial discussions. In discussion,students reflect on what they have experienced, what they have learned and how it can be transformed to the primary or secondary classroom. 

These links may help you

Watch High Tech High in San Diego California provide a new structure of schooling.

Dear Gloria, I used "101" as a place holder to indicate a generic, early topic.

I do not mean that they must be taught in the same year or by the same lecturer.

As you say, they may be embedded in other courses e.g. via Problem Based Learning, but my point is that they should not be overlooked. Best Regards, Ian.

Very challenging question. We need to train our teachers who are actually facilitators of learning and teaching. They need to follow outcome based education philosophy (at all the levels) which is in fact evidence based education. That approach will change the mindset of our traditional teachers hopefully to certain extent. I hope it helps!

21st century teachers are those who use constructivist teaching approaches that engage students more in learning and that develop in students 21st century skills that include problem solving, creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, communication and collaboration). These are teachers who are resourceful and effective planners and who use methodologies such as project-based learning.

It is my honest believe that as a 21st century teacher, we MUST go beyond the extra mile in sourcing for practical approaches, being trusted, being a friend, knowledgeable and informed so as to expose the modern learner to a world of facts and occurrences. In so doing, they can relate easily relate the theory and practical content, while appreciating the teacher as a source of inspiration, hope and.."Yes it is Possible" once they are out of school.

In my opinion, 21 CE skills should basically focus on the seven Cs (7 Cs) as listed below:

Creativity

Critical thinking

Communication

Collaboration

Computing,

Cross Culture learning

Career learning

I definitely agree. Thank you for replying.

Some of the qualities of 21st Century Teachers include:

They should be collaborative problem-solvers themselves;

They should be lifelong learners (be willing to learn always)

They should be subject matter specialists;

They should be possess techno-pedagogical content knowledge (that is, be able to teach with technology);

The 21st Academics must understand that sustainable economic development driven by technology is the ultimate target of education products, thus critical thinking, creativity and cross fertilisation of knowledge through collaboration and integration is key to achieving this goal .

Учитель 21- века – это творческий специалист, который должен обладать технологиями вовлекающие ученика в процесс познания. Это учитель, владеющий профессиональными компетентностями и личностными ценностями: любовь, эмпатия, толерантность.

interesting I got.