A book for the curious and passionate 21st century language teachers and teacher trainers. Tired of reading about the wonders of technology enhanced project-based learning but not knowing where to seek inspiration to start to adopt this teaching approach? A team of in-service teachers, teacher trainers, pre-service teachers and researchers have worked together to present a simple, engaging and practical book to offer fellow education professionals stimulating ideas for their teaching practice. Joint efforts for innovation: Working together to improve foreign language teaching in the 21st century offers: Inspiring classroom projects and innovative teaching experiences. A compilation of digital tools and resources for the foreign language classroom. Pioneering proposals to open up the classroom doors. Problem-solving and inquiry-based tasks that promote team work. Honest reflections from practitioners on their classroom practices. This book includes accessible examples of teacher-led classroom research small-scale studies. calls for teachers to do research in their classrooms. personal accounts on the importance of school internships for pre-service teachers. This book is an invitation for practicing teachers and teacher trainers to be creative and to develop learning skills, literacy skills and life skills. Are you ready to become an innovative 21st century educator?

Plurilingual Classroom Practices and Participation contributes to a better understanding of plurilingual education in Catalonia by providing a description of the interactional resources mobilised by learners as social actors. This volume is a collection of studies that show interactions containing plurilingual and multimodal sequences that illustrate moments of potential acquisition of aspects of language use. Analysing data collected through ethnographic fieldwork, the studies explore interactions in primary, secondary, and tertiary milieus as well as non-formal settings and examine how participants organise their interaction, their ways of participating, and the resources they mobilise for them. The linguistic policies of the educational settings studied establish the use of a given language but contain samples of plurilingual practices in which languages like Arabic, Catalan, English, French, Greek, Mandarin, Punjabi, Riffian Berber, Spanish and Urdu come into play. The chapters explore the links between these practices and the construction of participation in the ongoing interaction. Although focused on language education in Catalonia, results can be transferred to classrooms worldwide which host plurilingual learners. Thus, the volume is an excellent resource for teachers and researchers interested in plurilingual education and can be used as a reference book in doctoral studies and teacher training programmes in this research field. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

A book for the curious and passionate 21st century language teachers and teacher trainers. Tired of reading about the wonders of technology enhanced project-based learning but not knowing where to seek inspiration to start to adopt this teaching approach? A team of in-service teachers, teacher trainers, pre-service teachers and researchers have worked together to present a simple, engaging and practical book to offer fellow education professionals stimulating ideas for their teaching practice. Joint efforts for innovation: Working together to improve foreign language teaching in the 21st century offers: Inspiring classroom projects and innovative teaching experiences. A compilation of digital tools and resources for the foreign language classroom. Pioneering proposals to open up the classroom doors. Problem-solving and inquiry-based tasks that promote team work. Honest reflections from practitioners on their classroom practices. This book includes accessible examples of teacher-led classroom research small-scale studies. calls for teachers to do research in their classrooms. personal accounts on the importance of school internships for pre-service teachers. This book is an invitation for practicing teachers and teacher trainers to be creative and to develop learning skills, literacy skills and life skills. Are you ready to become an innovative 21st century educator?

In order to develop student competencies in K-12 and Higher Education environments, evidence-based tools and concepts are essential in ensuring the development of student skills and proficiencies. Evidence-based pedagogical practices leading to student learning preferences culturally and internationally are essential to educational success. Challenges and Opportunities in Global Approaches to Education is an essential research publication that provides evidence-based tools and concepts to develop student competencies in the K-20 environment. Chapters in the monograph cover topics in a theoretical context such as how technology, online learning, and culture inform evidence-based development of student competencies. This book is essential for curriculum teachers, designers, instructional designers, administrators, professionals, researchers, academicians, and students concerned with the management of expertise, knowledge, information, and organizational development in different types of educational communities and environments.

This second volume of papers from the ATC21STM project deals with the development of an assessment and teaching system of 21st century skills. Readers are guided through a detailed description of the methods used in this process. The first volume was published by Springer in 2012 (Griffin, P., McGaw, B. & Care, E., Eds., Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills, Dordrecht: Springer). The major elements of this new volume are the identification and description of two 21st century skills that are amenable to teaching and learning: collaborative problem solving, and learning in digital networks. Features of the skills that need to be mirrored in their assessment are identified so that they can be reflected in assessment tasks. The tasks are formulated so that reporting of student performance can guide implementation in the classroom for use in teaching and learning. How simple tasks can act as platforms for development of 21st century skills is demonstrated, with the concurrent technical infrastructure required for its support. How countries with different languages and cultures participated and contributed to the development process is described. The psychometric qualities of the online tasks developed are reported, in the context of the robustness of the automated scoring processes. Finally, technical and educational issues to be resolved in global projects of this nature are outlined.

Americans have long recognized that investments in public education contribute to the common good, enhancing national prosperity and supporting stable families, neighborhoods, and communities. Education is even more critical today, in the face of economic, environmental, and social challenges. Today's children can meet future challenges if their schooling and informal learning activities prepare them for adult roles as citizens, employees, managers, parents, volunteers, and entrepreneurs. To achieve their full potential as adults, young people need to develop a range of skills and knowledge that facilitate mastery and application of English, mathematics, and other school subjects. At the same time, business and political leaders are increasingly asking schools to develop skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and self-management - often referred to as "21st century skills." Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century describes this important set of key skills that increase deeper learning, college and career readiness, student-centered learning, and higher order thinking. These labels include both cognitive and non-cognitive skills- such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, effective communication, motivation, persistence, and learning to learn. 21st century skills also include creativity, innovation, and ethics that are important to later success and may be developed in formal or informal learning environments. This report also describes how these skills relate to each other and to more traditional academic skills and content in the key disciplines of reading, mathematics, and science. Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century summarizes the findings of the research that investigates the importance of such skills to success in education, work, and other areas of adult responsibility and that demonstrates the importance of developing these skills in K-16 education. In this report, features related to learning these skills are identified, which include teacher professional development, curriculum, assessment, after-school and out-of-school programs, and informal learning centers such as exhibits and museums.

This important resource introduces a framework for 21st Century learning that maps out the skills needed to survive and thrive in a complex and connected world. 21st Century content includes the basic core subjects of reading, writing, and arithmetic-but also emphasizes global awareness, financial/economic literacy, and health issues. The skills fall into three categories: learning and innovations skills; digital literacy skills; and life and career skills. This book is filled with vignettes, international examples, and classroom samples that help illustrate the framework and provide an exciting view of twenty-first century teaching and learning. Explores the three main categories of 21st Century Skills: learning and innovations skills; digital literacy skills; and life and career skills Addresses timely issues such as the rapid advance of technology and increased economic competition Based on a framework developed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) The book contains a video with clips of classroom teaching. For more information on the book visit www.21stcenturyskillsbook.com.

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.