As educational standards continue to transform, it has become essential for educators to receive the support and training necessary to effectively instruct their students and meet societal expectations. To do this, fostering education programs that include innovative practices and initiatives is imperative. Preparing the Next Generation of Teachers for 21st Century Education provides emerging research on innovative practices in learning and teaching within the modern era. While highlighting topics such as blended learning, course development, and transformation practices, readers will learn about progressive methods and applications of 21st-century education. This book is an important resource for educators, academicians, professionals, graduate-level students, and researchers seeking current research on contemporary learning and teaching practices.

Computational Thinking in Education explores the relevance of computational thinking in primary and secondary education. As today’s school-aged students prepare to live and work in a thoroughly digitized world, computer science is providing a wealth of new learning concepts and opportunities across domains. This book offers a comprehensive overview of computational thinking, its history, implications for equity and inclusion, analyses of competencies in practice, and integration into learning, instruction, and assessment through scaffolded teacher education. Computer science education faculty and pre- and in-service educators will find a fresh pedagogical approach to computational thinking in primary and secondary classrooms.

Every generation of students comes to the classroom with different needs than that of their predecessors. Implementing new methods and styles of teaching to meet these diverse needs will provide students with the best chance of success in their educational careers. The Handbook of Research on Pedagogical Models for Next-Generation Teaching and Learning is a critical scholarly source that examines the most effective and efficient techniques for implementing new educational strategies in a classroom setting. Featuring pertinent topics including mixed reality simulations, interactive lectures, reflexive teaching models, and project-based learning, this is an ideal publication for educators, academicians, students, and researchers that are interested in discovering more about the recent advances in educational fields.

This book describes how different nations have defined the core competencies and skills that young people will need in order to thrive in the twenty-first-century, and how those nations have fashioned educational policies and curricula meant to promote those skills. The book examines six countries—Chile, China, India, Mexico, Singapore, and the United States—exploring how each one defines, supports, and cultivates those competencies that students will need in order to succeed in the current century. Teaching and Learning for the Twenty-First Century appears at a time of heightened attention to comparative studies of national education systems, and to international student assessments such as those that have come out of PISA (the Program for International Student Assessment), led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. This book’s crucial contribution to the burgeoning field of international education arises out of its special attention to first principles—and thus to first questions: As Reimers and Chung explain, “much can be gained by an explicit investigation of the intended purposes of education, in what they attempt to teach students, and in the related questions of why those purposes and how they are achieved.” These questions are crucial to education practice and reform at a time when educators (and the students they serve) face unique, pressing challenges. The book’s detailed attention to such questions signals its indispensable value for policy makers, scholars, and education leaders today.

"We are excited to offer you the fourth edition of Exceptional Students: Preparing Teachers for the 21st Century. The field of education has evolved into one that requires collaboration among families, communities, and schools. Within schools, special and general educators must collaborate to be effective and efficient in teaching and responding to the demands of new standards, statewide assessments, and calls for education reform. In this fourth edition of Exceptional Students: Preparing Teachers for the 21st Century, we have refined and updated our content to reflect the role of the special educator while continuing to address the role of the general educator in serving special populations. The fourth edition includes updated references and photographs, changes to the content emphases and discussions to reflect current thought and practice, and additions/ deletions of tables and figures to also reflect current thought. The following section, New Additions to the fourth Edition, outlines more specifics. We would like to stress that this text includes information from DSM-5, the latest from the AAIDD, and other important publications and references that define and influence the field of special education. We are grateful to the instructors and students who have given us their feedback on the text. Their classroom experiences inspired suggested refinements that we incorporated throughout the third edition"--

STEM Teacher Preparation and Practice for the 21st Century: Research-based Insights introduces the reader to a collection of thoughtful, research-based works by authors that represent current thinking about the future of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics or STEM as it known today, as well as STEM education for a rapidly evolving global society and the preparation of STEM teachers to meet the educational needs of a changing educational landscape. Each chapter focuses on STEM teaching and the preparation of teachers who will enter classrooms to instruct the next generation of students in STEM. Research in the learning sciences focuses on the cognitive, epistemological, and socio-cultural characteristics of scientific and engineering research communities in their efforts to improve Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. STEM education is a means to help individuals develop different strategies in order to solve interdisciplinary problems and gain skills and knowledge as they are engaged with STEM related activities through formal and informal learning programs. Research also suggests that STEM may well stand as the new general education for the 21st century. In much of the current discourse on teacher quality and preparation, two essential points for consideration have emerged: the strength of the relationship between teacher content knowledge and student achievement, and the specific representations of knowledge that are most conducive to effective teaching. Add to these two points one additional: the nature of transforming a chaotic system of discreet preparation and clinical experiences into a coherent, aligned and logical system of continuous and progressive development and support throughout a teacher’s career. These three points apply to STEM teacher preparation, induction and professional learning as well as to teacher preparation, induction and professional learning in general. Importantly, the contributing authors to this book have brought to the foreground research-based insights concerning STEM teacher preparation. Each chapter presents clear paths to understanding and reimagining STEM teaching and the importance of STEM teacher preparation, acknowledging the value of STEM literacy and the interdisciplinary nature of STEM teaching.

This book addresses two main questions, namely how to prepare high-quality teachers in the 21st century and how the East and the West can learn from each other. It addresses the different challenges and dilemmas that eastern countries, especially China, and western countries are facing with regard to teacher education. We explore the question by examining teacher education research, practice and policy in different countries, identifying both common problems and country-specific challenges. We then try to find valuable experiences, theories and practice which can solve specific problems in the process of teacher education, also addressing how local and global factors impact it. In this regard, our approach does not strictly separate pre-service teacher education from teachers’ in-service professional development, adopting an integrative perspective. Further, we believe the respective social and cultural contexts must also be taken into account. Lastly, we call for teachers’ knowledge and individual character traits to be accounted for in the education of high-quality teachers.

Empowering learners for life requires a fundamental shift in higher education curriculum design. New priorities, pedagogies, technologies, spaces, and assessment strategies are required to enable learners to take ownership of their learning. “Student-centeredness” concepts are still prescriptive in nature as most decisions on curriculum, assessment, teaching, and learning approaches are still teacher-centric. Teachers are developing student-centered learning environments without the involvement of the learners in the planning, decision making, and/or design process. In addition, some lecturers are still practicing the traditional approaches of content delivery and conventional assessment methods rather than experimenting with innovative practices suited for student-centered approaches. Therefore, there is an ongoing need for research focused on the importance and effectiveness of a paradigm shift in education that involves student-teacher partnerships, fueled by innovative teaching and learning designs, where students take an active role and contribute as partners in learning. Transforming Curriculum Through Teacher-Learner Partnerships captures experiences and evidence among teachers in exploring the possibility of active student participation in curriculum design, delivery, and assessment through teacher-learner partnership. The chapters address issues of teacher-learner partnerships in designing the learning environment and how student-centered methods create resilient, adaptable, and future-capable learners. While highlighting topics within this scope such as learner autonomy, learning performance, self-efficacy, and teaching pedagogy, this book is ideally intended for teachers, administrators, teacher educators, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in issues related to the teacher-learner partnership.

Currently, many states are adopting the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) or are revising their own state standards in ways that reflect the NGSS. For students and schools, the implementation of any science standards rests with teachers. For those teachers, an evolving understanding about how best to teach science represents a significant transition in the way science is currently taught in most classrooms and it will require most science teachers to change how they teach. That change will require learning opportunities for teachers that reinforce and expand their knowledge of the major ideas and concepts in science, their familiarity with a range of instructional strategies, and the skills to implement those strategies in the classroom. Providing these kinds of learning opportunities in turn will require profound changes to current approaches to supporting teachers' learning across their careers, from their initial training to continuing professional development. A teacher's capability to improve students' scientific understanding is heavily influenced by the school and district in which they work, the community in which the school is located, and the larger professional communities to which they belong. Science Teachers' Learning provides guidance for schools and districts on how best to support teachers' learning and how to implement successful programs for professional development. This report makes actionable recommendations for science teachers' learning that take a broad view of what is known about science education, how and when teachers learn, and education policies that directly and indirectly shape what teachers are able to learn and teach. The challenge of developing the expertise teachers need to implement the NGSS presents an opportunity to rethink professional learning for science teachers. Science Teachers' Learning will be a valuable resource for classrooms, departments, schools, districts, and professional organizations as they move to new ways to teach science.

A learner-centred curriculum provides space for the learner to be actively involved in knowledge production and learning. Such can only happen if the learner's confidence is boosted by a feeling of control and ability to manage his or her progress towards acquiring a qualification. The twenty-first century teacher must create an environment that not only supports the Four Pillars of Learning but also leads to learners being allowed a voice to ask pertinent questions. The teacher should be able to guide the student to full physical and mental maturity and should help to develop critical thinking, and the students should be encouraged to practice the truth and have self-respect and respect for other people. This can happen if the learner is afforded the opportunity to self-accept. If the learners fail to do so, they are likely to have lack of confidence, which will lead to lack of independence.