Lauded as the 21st century’s “critical skills”, communication, critical thinking, collaboration and creativity have become buzzwords among educators, and it is quite easy to see why.
Rote learning, memorization, mnemonics are aspects of what what I call one-directional learning. Students absorb information from the teacher (one direction) and then are required to regurgitate that information back to the teacher in the form of tests, essays and homework (also one direction). The focus in this type of learning is on retention and comprehension.
However, the 4Cs are also nothing new. Despite the above described stagnant educational style, great minds have nonetheless flourished, and constructed the edifice of knowledge as we know it today. There is no doubt that Newton, Einstein, Turing, Tesla, Freud and the rest of our societies scientific and intellectual giants needed to exercise tremendous amounts of critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication, which was perhaps a part of their natural genius, or encouraged by enlightened mentors.
Tags: e-learning • Higher Ed • K-12 • teachers