The Sound of Future-Ready Learning Spaces

From the Edutopia post "Visualizing 21st Century Classroom Design"

As I mentioned in my post last week, the physical learning spaces our students enjoy today are transforming as we embrace the shifts in the education our children need to be successful.  In Mr. Glimco's blog post this week, he talks more about the future of our learning spaces as discussed and envisioned by our District 107 Future Planning Committee.  Articles like "Why The 21st Century Classroom May Remind You of a Starbucks" and "21st Century Education for a 21st Century Economy" helped shape the vision for what we want our future classrooms to look like.  Flexible learning spaces with room for collaboration and innovative technology are at the forefront of this vision.  But in addition to what a classroom looks like, to me it is equally important to think about what a future-ready classroom sounds like.

What will our future-ready classrooms sound like?

Loud!
Students should be collaborating, tinkering, and actively "doing" on a regular basis.  This requires oral communication between students, as well as regular guidance from the teacher.  This doesn't mean the teacher is telling students what to do; rather the teacher is asking strategic questions to get students thinking at higher levels and is providing specific feedback when students veer off-track.  Students should also be engaging in similar types of discourse with one another as they analyze and critique the reasoning of their peers during problem-solving processes.  When students are building, creating, and experimenting, it is important to hear the sound of materials being assembled and disassembled, the sounds of videos being recorded and revised, and the sounds of hard work.

Inquisitive!
As educators, it is our goal to promote autonomous problem-solvers and critical thinkers.  To do this,  teachers must encourage students to question their own thinking and the thinking of others to help them understand how to applying their learning to novel situations.  Teachers should not be the only ones asking the question; students should be asking questions too!  Asking good, thoughtful questions forces cognitive dissonance, which leads to the acquisition of new information or a new way of thinking.  A blog post I wrote back in October, 2015, discusses how students can use technology meaningfully to engage in higher level thinking tasks, which can include investigating the answers to their own juicy questions.

Reflective!
Reflection is another important component of a future-ready classroom.  While teachers certainly coach, question, and support students through specific feedback, it is important that students are also thinking critically about their experiences themselves.  Asking themselves questions like "What was successful and why?" and "What didn't work, and what do I think went wrong?" will help students learn from their experiences to improve their thinking in the future.  Thomas Edison epitomized this reflective nature when he said, "I have not failed.  I've just discovered ten thousand ways that don't work."

Supportive!
In a future-ready classroom, risk-taking is embraced and encouraged.  We know from Carol Dweck's research on the Growth Mindset that failure provides great learning opportunities.  Synapses fire in the brain when mistakes are made, which leads to learning.  The goal in a future-ready classroom is to provide students with a safe, supportive environment where failure is accepted and even encouraged since teachers know this is when the richest learning opportunities occur.  There are an abundance of books about failures detailing how such experiences have led to learning and great success.  It is important to remember that encouraging perseverance and patience throughout this process is what leads to the greatest growth after failure so learning can truly occur.