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21st Century Innovation in Learning: Implications for Learning in Teacher Education

Prof. Dr. Anne SliwkaInstitute für Educational Science

University of Heidelberg

The Learning Environment

• recognizes the learners as its core participants, encourages their active engagement and develops in them an understanding of their own activity as learners.

• is founded on the social nature of learning and actively encourages well-organised co-operative learning.

• employs learning professionals highly attuned to the learners’ motivations and the key role of emotions in achievement.

• is acutely sensitive to the individual differences among the learners in it, including their prior knowledge.

Prof. Dr. Anne Sliwka – Institute for Educational Science – University of Heidelberg

21st Century Practice in Learning (Dumont, Istance & Benavides 2010)

The Learning Environment

• devises programmes that demand hard work and challenge from all without excessive workload.

• operates with clarity of expectations and deploys assessment strategies consistent with these expectations; there is strong emphasis on formative feedback to support learning.

• strongly promotes “horizontal connectedness” across areas of knowledge and subjects as well as to the community and the wider world.


21st Century Practice in Learning (Dumont, Istance & Benavides 2010)

What‘s New in 21st Century Education?

• Diagnostic assessment: differentiation/personalisation of learning and scaffolding

• Focus on cognitive, meta-cognitive and social-emotional learning

• Consistent use of ICT in learning environments• Transparent assessment criteria and formative assessment• Deliberate selection of social processes: individual –

collaborative – competitive• Deliberate selection of learning methods: e.g. inquiry-,

project-based-, service learning. • Networked, wrapped-around schools


Let‘s use a cooperative learning method: Think for 2 minutes on your ownPair with your neighbourShare your ideas for 5 minutes

Question: Do current learning enviroments in teacher education reflect 21st century learning principles?

But what about Teacher Education?


Self-Similarity of Learning in Schools and in Teacher Education

Hypotheses:If teacher education programmes want to prepare teachers for 21st century learning environments, they need to reflect, model and consistently apply 21st century learning principles.

-> self-similarity


Self-Similarity of Learning in Schools and in Teacher Education

• How can we use diagnostic assessment and differentiate instruction to make sure that teacher trainees work in their „zone of proximal development“?

• How can we create a balance between cognitive, meta-cognitive and social-emotional learning in teacher education?

• How can we make assessment criteria transparent and provide formative assessment to teacher trainees?

• How can we diversify approaches to learning to encompass inquiry-based, problem-based, project-based and service learning?

• How can we use cooperative/collaborative learning methods to model „professional learning communities“?

• How can we create strong support networks for teacher education programmes?


Thank you!

Bibliography: • Conner, L. and Sliwka, A. (2014): Implications of Research on Effective

Learning Environments for Initial Teacher Education. In: European Journal of Education. Teacher Education and Professional Development. Volume 49, Issue 2, S. 165–177.

• Sliwka, A. and Klopsch, B. (2012): Service Learning and School Development in German Teacher Education, in: Murphy, T. und Tan, J. (2012): Service-Learning and Educating in Challenging Contexts. London: Continuum, S. 89-104.

• Sliwka, A. (2010): From homogeneity to diversity in German education, in: Effective Teacher Education for Diversity: Strategies and Challenges. Paris: OECD, S. 205-217.
