The Transformative Role of Peer Learning Projects in 21st Century Schools—Achievements from Five Portuguese Educational Institutions

Rethinking the role of education in the 21st century implies acknowledging the power of learning and the urgency of making learning provision more meaningful, inclusive, and student-centred, which assumes particular importance when learner disengagement is still a global issue in elementary and secondary education. Rooted in social constructivism principles, peer learning is a learner-centred approach that facilitates the development of soft and technical skills, with evidence-based contributions to learners’ academic performance under the cognitive, affective, and social dimensions. This study aims to find evidence of the transformative role of peer learning projects in four Portuguese secondary schools and a higher education institution through teachers and peer teacher students’ (PTS) perceptions of these projects’ purpose, implementation, and impact on the educational community, particularly on PTS. Data were collected by means of a semi-structured in-depth interview and a survey by questionnaire, and content analysis and descriptive statistics were the techniques used. Results show cooperation and interpersonal skills’ improvement as major strengths of these projects, whereas the challenges are mostly organisational, e.g., reduced teacher service time and coordination of learners’ schedules. Conclusions highlight the potential of peer learning projects to promote pedagogical transformation and innovation in 21st century schools.

Rethinking post-Covid-19 school design in Brazil: adaptation strategies for public schools PEE-12 FNDE

In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the disease COVID-19, whose causative virus is SARS-CoV-2, a pandemic. An important measure was the closure of schools in several countries to try to reduce the contagion levels, so that students were not exposed to risk, nor their families. The question that arises within this context is: In school architecture, what are the appropriate design methods to deal with challenges during and after a pandemic? In this scope, the article aimed to propose an adaptive design scenario in the post-pandemic moment for a standard school in Brazil. The methodology was built through a literature review and multidisciplinary research, to later present strategies based on the recommendations of competent bodies and studies focused on the school architecture, design patterns for 21st-century schools, technology and security. The focus was on design challenges in the education field in the post-pandemic moment, and on the adaptation of the school built spaces for the return of activities. The results can help the school community and public agencies in making decisions to face this challenge, recreating safer, user-centered schools.

Enabling Teacher Librarian Leadership for Technology Integration

The highly technological environment of 21st century schools has significantly redefined the role of the teacher librarian by presenting the opportunity to assume leadership roles through technology integration. The teacher librarian must evolve as a leader in order to address the needs of today’s learners and ensure that they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to use technology as an important tool for learning. This research, based on distributed leadership theory investigates practices of teacher librarians in order to identify what is enabling some to thrive as technology integration leaders and what is hindering others. This paper presents the findings from the replication research identifying what is enabling some teacher librarians to thrive as technology integration leaders and serve as a foundation on which to build research- based strategies to support practicing teacher librarians in understanding how to enact this vital role and on how to better prepare future teacher librarians for a leadership role in the integration of technology.

Rethinking Education Delivery for the 21st Century

Designing schools as learning centers is more than just about restructuring the physical space of schools. There are many variables that need to be considered when rethinking education delivery for the 21st century. Schools seem to just keep constructing buildings that merely reinforce an obsolete paradigm that will not prepare students for real-world challenges. The focus of this chapter asks the question: What does re-thinking education mean at the school leadership level? Numerous stakeholders, from policymakers to providers to end users affect the structure, content, and delivery of K-12education systems. A case study exploring the effect of district and school leadership styles on teaching and learning prompted by the question, Were the principals in High Scoring Schools (HSS) engaged in different instructional leadership practices than those in the Low Scoring Schools (LSS)? A significant feature of this study is the sizeable database that incorporated nine states, 43 school districts, and 180 elementary, middle, and secondary schools.

Teachers as Counselors

The changing demographics and necessary pedagogy of the 21st-century schools require teacher education programs to examine their connection to practice in the K to 12 education system. This chapter focuses on the need for teachers to understand the place of guidance and career education in their curriculum and in the lives of all their students. There are nine Guidance and Curriculum courses offered in all Ontario secondary schools, yet, little is done to provide professional development for teachers to build efficacy for these courses. Faculties of Education spend little time looking at the curriculum expectations in these courses as they are not considered methodology or foundation courses. A comprehensive course developed at the Faculty of Education, University of Windsor, provides teacher candidates with the knowledge and skills to explore these courses and engage in an integrated guidance and career program.

Rethinking 21st century schools: the quest for lifelong learning ecosystems

The relevance of current education towards the needs of 21st century society is questioned as most schools, especially in developing countries that offer their students homogenizing learning experiences in the 19th century style. This paper presents the results of a mixed-method study focused on identifying the main features of 21st century education as a concept that should promote lifelong learning experiences. The method combined a systematic literature review, survey application, visits to innovative schools and interviews with international educational experts. Results show the relevance of a soft skills-centered and purpose-oriented curricula, the activation of personal learning paths and the minimization of instruction in favor of research as a teaching approach. It is noteworthy that, although most of the results are widely discussed in the literature, they are currently presented with new possibilities of implementation and with a greater innovation potential, due to the technological evolution of our time.

Investigation of the design criteria for the new generation learning environment in the scope of architecture first class student works

21st century schools are defined as new generation schools. In recent years, studies on new generation schools in educational science have been created with the contributions of the discipline of architecture. In new generation schools, the learning environment can not be confined to classes. According to learning-oriented learning approaches, any environment that affects the learning process for children is the learning environment. In this context, the concept of “learning environment needs to be perceived from a new perspective beyond the concept adopted. The design of educational buildings should be conveyed to the students of architecture, the architects of the future, in the context of the new generation school and learning environment. Within the scope of this study, first year students of the department of architecture were asked to design a learning environment in accordance with the criteria of new generation learning environment design. Student studies were evaluated by the instructor and another faculty member and scored in the context of design criteria of the new generation learning environment. The application results were analyzed comparatively

Teachers as Counselors

The changing demographics and necessary pedagogy of the 21st-century schools require teacher education programs to examine their connection to practice in the K to 12 education system. This chapter focuses on the need for teachers to understand the place of guidance and career education in their curriculum and in the lives of all their students. There are nine Guidance and Curriculum courses offered in all Ontario secondary schools, yet, little is done to provide professional development for teachers to build efficacy for these courses. Faculties of Education spend little time looking at the curriculum expectations in these courses as they are not considered methodology or foundation courses. A comprehensive course developed at the Faculty of Education, University of Windsor, provides teacher candidates with the knowledge and skills to explore these courses and engage in an integrated guidance and career program.