Well, about that I’ll start by saying something that may sound controversial. These Cs are not 21st-century skills. Not even 20th-century skills. I believe these Cs have always been present and permeated most of our educational history, although in varying degrees. They are definitely important skills to develop, don’t get me wrong, however, there are other Cs we should be looking at.
How can teachers do that? American high school science teacher, Joe Ruhl, might have an answer for it in his TEDx Talk. He says we should add two more Cs: Choice and Caring. Choice relates to students’ autonomy and self-direction, elements that are known to science for boosting intrinsic motivation. Caring has to do with rapport and emotional intelligence, factors that need to be taken into consideration if we want to design a memorable learning experience. It is in being freer to choose and make mistakes that students will be the most creative and critical versions of themselves. It is through caring that students will engage in meaningful communication and truly collaborate with their peers.
How do I know that? It is all backed by research. A lot of research in fact. I’m referring to the fields of social, developmental, and cognitive psychology, as well as cognitive neuroscience, and pedagogy. These areas are intrinsically connected when we’re talking about education. Their individual contributions are great on their own, but, when brought together, their potential takes another level. That is the mission of the Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) science.
MBE is a multidisciplinary field that translates what these sciences have produced into something more readily usable for teachers and students in the classroom. It looks at traditional psychological research and neuroimaging studies from cognitive neuroscience to provide support to the findings and it also discusses potential classroom practices based on that. It is truly remarkable and potentially revolutionary.
That’s what I study at the MSc in Psychology of Education at the University of Bristol. As a matter of fact, my dissertation is about it. I’ve been reading hundreds of classroom practices based on MBE authors and I can tell you this: the most powerful Cs might not be the conventional ones and teachers should know more about the MBE science.
If you are interested in this conversation, please join me at the 12th Annual Fischer International Conference in Bucharest on September 5th and 6th. It will be a pleasure to have you in my session and I hope we can not only communicate, collaborate, be creative and critical, but also choose what to do if the knowledge we exchange and care more for our students by letting them choose more what and how to learn better.
Join the conference by clicking here!
