Report: Modern Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century

This report analyzes modern teaching and learning practices in the 21st century, using a case study of a primary school in Victoria. The report examines the shift from traditional teacher-centric methods to student-focused, technologically-driven approaches. It explores innovative practices such as audio-visual tools, outdoor classes, role-play, family and community partnerships, and storyboards. The author compares and contrasts these methods, highlighting the benefits of audio-visual tools for enhancing student engagement and understanding. The report also includes a reflection on teamwork, discussing both the benefits of collaboration and the challenges faced. It concludes with recommendations for effective teamwork and the importance of adapting teaching strategies to meet student needs. The report emphasizes the value of teachers staying informed about diverse teaching methods and the positive impact of teamwork on skill development and classroom management.

Running head: TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Teaching and learning in the 21st century
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Table of Contents
Analysis of the scenario.............................................................................................................2
Examination of new practices, partnerships and technologies for teaching and learning..........2
Review and comparison.............................................................................................................4
Reflection...................................................................................................................................5
Reference....................................................................................................................................7

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Analysis of the scenario
The case provided for this report is about a Brown Coal Primary School in Victoria.
Ms Newcombe is the grade two teacher of this primary school, is searching for a modern and
interesting approach so that it can help the student’s wellbeing as well as learning regarding
the coal fire incident and mine which took place in the local coal mine. Thus, the main issue
here is their traditional teaching methods, which is mainly a teacher centric, or their
regimented classrooms. This is highly reflected through the approach Mr. Benjamin took
which says that he wants to invite the firefighter to the schools and make the children interact
with him so that the children can write an essay on coalmine and fire. However, modern
techniques of teaching is more progressed which focuses more on each student’s needs then
just assuming every children with same level of understanding.
Examination of new practices, partnerships and technologies for teaching and learning
The modern day teaching and learning practices have become more technologically
driven with an extensive comprehensive assessment and an inquiry based learning for the
students. In this 21st century learning and teaching practices, the main importance is given to
the understanding to the concepts through associating the curriculum with life of the students
(Doel & Shardlow, 2012). The traditional practices mainly use to focus on the examination
and its results regardless of the student’s interest or understanding of the concepts. Therefore,
in the earlier practices there was lack of collaboration as well as group learning. While
teaching the primary school students there are various new learning and teaching practices
that Ms. Newcombe can take up which are as follows-
 Teaching must comprise of Audio and video tools- Children learn better when they
are observing or copying any behavior of others. Therefore, when sensory experiences

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are stimulated it is found that children learn more effectively (Bergmann & Sams,
2012). Ms. Newcombe can thus, incorporate audio-visual materials in her teaching
and learning practice. She can further replace her usual studying materials with
models, filmstrips, movies and pictorial materials. Along with these, she can choose
graphics, several other mind mapping, and pictorial materials so that the teaching and
learning process becomes more interesting to the children. Through these audio-visual
tools the children will not only gain a better understanding of concepts but will also
become capable of active listening.
 Few classes can be outside the classroom- when students are shifted from closed
doors, the teaching and learning process becomes more spontaneous. Therefore, Ms.
Newcombe can take her students for field experiences. This type of learning can be
inherently interdisciplinary. Thus, taking the students outside the classroom will help
them learn better as they will feel fresh and exciting and will be able to memories
faster the things, which are taught better (Waite, 2017). This is more effective because
the children in the primary school have limited attention span and taking them outside
class will help Ms. Newcombe to capture their attention.
 Teaching through role play- Role-play is such a technique where usually students can
explore real life situations through interacting with others in the class and can gain
knowledge being in a supported environment (Whitebread & Coltman, 2015).
Therefore, Ms. Newcombe can also use this technique where they can make the
children play the role of the firefighters. By doing this the children will step out of
their comfort zone and will be more effective in developing their interpersonal skills.
Moreover, this will help the students to understand that how their academic learning
will be applicable in their everyday task. Role-play can be very much handy and can
help Ms. Newcombe to teach the students about fire and coalmines.

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 Family, school as well as community partnership- children not only learn from
schools but they start learning through their family way before coming to school. The
school authorities involve family as well as other community agencies so that they
can all support their children in this development as well as learning process. The
schools as well as the community partners all join hand shows active involvement in
listening to the parents to support them and verify if the parents have the necessary
tools with which they can become the active partners to their child’s teaching and
learning experience (Bryan & Henry, 2012). Thus, Ms. Newcombe can engage family
and community agencies to enhance their academic outcomes.
 Teaching through story board- If students are taught something in a story format, it
can never be forgotten (Christel et al., 2012). Thus for primary school children Ms.
Newcombe can apply this which will help the children in systematic memorization
and visualizing ideas which are highly conceptualized. Through storyboard teachings,
the children can learn that even complex ideas can be easily analyzed.
Review and comparison
Thus among the all other researched modern practices in teaching and learning
procedure, the best approach according to me is the use of Audio and video tools. This
approach is the most highlighted one among the other approaches because the combination of
sound and visuals definitely attract more information to be grasped easily by the students.
Another benefit can be that through audio and visual tools the teachers can manipulate the
timeline of learning because it can be paused, stopped or rewind any moment of the teaching
and learning process. Moreover, with the advanced technological advancements teaching and
learning through videos are very much portable. It has thus, enables various learning of
lessons which was previously geographically isolated. It is a humanly tendency that human

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listen for long then they read, thus, it will be more effective in grasping children’s limited
concentration (Tyner, 2014). More importantly, it can help the children understand the
concepts better as they can visualize the concept what they are being taught.
Reflection
The benefits that I gained working, as a team is firstly that how one group function
productively. Every student in our group was responsible enough to fulfill their individual
tasks. Through appropriate communication and support to each other, the group successfully
delivered a good quality work. Along with this, I learnt that how one should work with
others. Through the teamwork, I came to know that how one could work outside friends
group with people who have different experiences and ideas. Lastly, another benefit of
working in a team is what I felt made me learn that groups can make better decisions than
individuals because in a team every member have different perspective, questions, critical
evaluation and constructive thoughts which can enhance the solutions and the performances.
On the other hand, I have also faced certain challenges like conflict. As different team
members had different viewpoints regarding the accomplishment of the task thus, at times
there raised interpersonal conflicts while working in a team. Another major challenge, which
I faced, was that few of my team members are lazy for which they were found waiting for
others to take up their part of work. These people were very much dependent on others and so
contributed less.
The recommendations that I would like to provide for others when working in team is
that communication within the team members should be open and honest so that doubts are
clarified and everyone’s opinions should be heard and respected and team members should
have a strong sense of belonging with the group. Thus, from the above-discussed benefits it
is clear that if ranges of teaching strategies are considered by teamwork then definitely it will

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be beneficial for the children because the strategies will be innovative and unique coming
from every team members head. Strategies can be considered thinking about its advantages
and disadvantages. Therefore, being a teacher it will be highly beneficial for me to become
knowledgeable regarding various strategies of teaching with modern as well as traditional
practices. Teamwork will lead to healthy discussions, which will help me gain more
knowledge and apply the best ideas in my teaching practices. Teamwork’s can further help
me as a teacher on skills development as well as classroom management. Moreover, what I
feel team work can further help me as a teacher to reinforce positive behaviors and
individualize the approaches of learning which can best met the need of the students.

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Reference
Bergmann, J., & Sams, A. (2012). Flip your classroom: Reach every student in every class
every day. International Society for Technology in Education.
Bryan, J., & Henry, L. (2012). A model for building school–family–community partnerships:
Principles and process. Journal of Counseling & Development, 90(4), 408-420.
Christel, M. G., Stevens, S. M., Maher, B. S., Brice, S., Champer, M., Jayapalan, L., ... &
Zhang, X. (2012, July). RumbleBlocks: Teaching science concepts to young children
through a Unity game. In Computer Games (CGAMES), 2012 17th International
Conference on (pp. 162-166). IEEE.
Doel, M., & Shardlow, S. M. (2012). Modern social work practice: Teaching and learning in
practice settings. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd..
Tyner, K. (2014). Literacy in a digital world: Teaching and learning in the age of
information. Routledge.
Waite, S. (Ed.). (2017). Children learning outside the classroom: From birth to eleven. Sage.
Whitebread, D., & Coltman, P. (Eds.). (2015). Teaching and learning in the early years.
Routledge.