Trends in Education: Lifelong Learning in the Twenty-First Century

"The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil. It is not for you to choose what he shall know, what he shall do. It is chosen and foreordained and he only holds the key to his own secret." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Curriculum and modes of learning are constantly evolving as educational policy and theory changes. Some trends circle in and out of fashion and others become fads and are then discarded. Some are true and necessary innovations based on sound science or detailed and lengthy observations and others are mere knee-jerk reactions to the political climate of the day, or to the desire to avoid the pitfalls of previous methods. Whatever their direction, and whatever the reason, curriculum changes are a phenomenon that is central to education and to the very act of teaching itself. As curriculum and methods are constantly changing, it is important for teachers to understand the trends currently taking place, as well as to anticipate the developments to come in the future. This paper will address both current and ongoing trends in education and those that are just beginning to emerge. It will begin with a general perspective, and then move into a more discipline-specific view by discussing trends in my particular field of interest, college-level writing education. This will give the reader a good idea of what trends are going to be involved in revolutionizing education in the next ten years and beyond, as well as a sense of how curriculum will change in the field of writing.

Perhaps the most important trend in education is the most recent: technology. Technology will revolutionize curriculum development and delivery as we know it. Not only will curriculum be delivered using technology, but it will also be developed and shared using technology. We have seen the very recent development of online schools - entire schools that operate using a mode of technology unheard of by the majority of the public less than twenty years ago. Other modes of technology that have also affected classroom instruction have been new methods of curriculum delivery in the classrooms, such as smartboards, interactive TV, and videoconferencing. Looking at how much technology has affected education in the last ten years, it is hard to predict how much of an effect it will have in the next ten. The only certain thing is that technology will have an impact on curriculum.

Wiles and Bondi (2002), co-authors of the book Foundations of Curriculum and Instruction, offer some predictions on where technology will take us. They state that the internet will revolutionize teaching and learning in the twenty-first century: "This wonderful knowledge tool, both scary in its scale and exciting in its possibilities, has completely altered traditional conceptions of schooling, teaching, and learning" (p.3). The first big change that came with new technology, they explain, came in simply purchasing the equipment. While schools purchased the expensive new equipment to avoid the risk of seeming out-of-date, the purchases actually changed nothing for students. A major problem occurred when it came to implementation of the new technologies as learning and teaching tools: teachers didn't know how to use them (Wiles and Bondi, 2002). How were teachers, unfamiliar with the technologies themselves, going to use them to inspire students? And how were old curriculums, so focused on single texts and paper worksheets, going to make use of a technology that far surpassed the need for single-page documents? The answer is what we see finally beginning to happen - train the teachers on how to effectively use the new technology, and offer student support in learning the technology as well. Before technology can be used as a learning tool, students in the younger levels must become familiar with it and teachers must know how to effectively use it as a teaching tool. While many students now have computers in their own homes and are quite comfortable with technology, and many teachers (especially younger ones) may already be familiar with the use of computers for many purposes, schools cannot assume that this is the case. Needs analysis needs to be done in all cases when introducing and using technologies that some people may not be familiar with so that all people can be on the same level and can effectively use that technology for learning or teaching.

This is what we will see happening in terms of technology and curriculum in the next ten years. We will see more teacher-training programs to help teachers make the best use of all the technologies available to them in their classrooms, as well as student technology classes in the lower levels. Time spent in the computer cluster will increase and we will see students spending more free time where computers are available to them instead of study halls with only traditional texts available. We will also see students at younger ages doing more of their research on the computer as opposed to in a library as more free online resources are emerging. Finally, we will see online modes of curriculum implementation used more frequently through programs such as Web-Quest encouraging interactivity rather than simple power-point presentations of information.

Wiles and Bondi (2002) also hypothesize that the Internet will result in more students being schooled from home, whether through an online school or being homeschooled. Traditional schools, they believe, will find it more and more difficult to compete with the high customizability and low cost of delivering education through online media. They quote from the National School Boards Association to prove their point: "there will be as much change in the next three decades in America as there was in the last three centuries" (p. 6). As shocking as this prediction sounds, I believe it to be true. Schools are already starting to see requirements being put into place to ensure all students have equal access to technology education, for example, Title II D of the No Child Left Behind Act. Title II D is called Enhancing Education Through Technology and requires states to show "how technology will be integrated through all of their curriculum and instruction by December 31, 2006" (Wolf & Hall, 2005, 1).

Besides technology, how else will curriculum change? I believe we are starting a trend of individualization of curriculum. Instead of simply broadening traditional curriculum as has been done in the past, for example, adding arts and physical education to the traditional three R's, schools will be adding options for students. For example, students at the high school level may be given a choice of "major" or allowed to take classes following a particular line of interest, in addition to the regular classes. Basic skills will be taught more within contexts at the middle school and high school levels. English classes at the high school level will begin to focus more on literature, centering writing assignments on literary topics. This shift will be the result of a school-wide focus on writing across the curriculum, with history, geography, and even science and math teachers requiring more writing. Following this line, we will see education in general become more interdisciplinary, with geography teachers using math, math teachers requiring reading or activities other than repetitive problems. Reading and writing and will be used more throughout content classes and the outdated practice of drills or repetitive exercises will slowly fade out.

Another trend in education coming in the next ten years is that there will be more of a process-oriented approach. Instead of showing students the mistakes in their work and focusing on the correct and the incorrect answer, teachers will continue the current trend to focus on teaching students the process involved in any activity whether it be conducting research, doing a math problem, or writing a persuasive essay. Students will be given credit for having done the steps correctly even if an arithmetic or copying mistake caused them to get the wrong answer. They will also be allowed to have more of their own opinion on things and more choices in their learning as we shift from a teacher-centered or school-centered to a student-centered approach. For example, if a student finds an alternative way to solve a math problem, teachers will commend the student for ingenuity rather than criticizing him or her for not following the steps outlined. Rather than giving students a statement to argue in an essay, students will be given a choice and told to take one stance and support their position. Rather than being told the whole class is going to study South America, each student will choose a country and create a lesson, game, or presentation to teach their country to the rest of the class. Learning will become more task-oriented and more problem-based and will more closely mirror real life (Morreale, 2002).

Now that we have seen how curriculum in general will change, lets look at anticipated changes in the curriculum of my field of interest, that of college-level writing education. After graduating from this program, I will hopefully be able to be involved in creating and maintaining all of the trends I am about to discuss. The first trend involves all college-level (and indeed, some high-school level) students, although it does present a unique challenge when it comes to teaching writing: lifelong learning. With more and more older students starting or going back to college - in one study only 23% of students were so-called traditional (Jongbloed, 2002) - curriculum needs to change. In order to meet the unique needs of this population, schools need to not only offer courses after 5:00, but also to offer them asynchronously. They need to not only offer traditional-length courses, but also accelerated ones. The complexity of offerings and the flexibility must increase, and I think we will see this happen, beginning in the next 10 years. As Joengbloed (2002) puts it

Lifelong learning poses a large number of threats and opportunities for the traditional higher education institutions. Not just programme offerings and means of delivery will have to be restructured, but, more fundamentally, universities and colleges will have to rethink and reshape their business concept, that is: their way of creating value and maintaining their competitive edge over other providers in the education system." (p.413)

This quote reminds us of the fact that education, like any other business, is competitive. Colleges and universities must make the changes mentioned above in order to continue to survive and thrive as institutions. Put another way, they will have to respond to recent trends in the world - trends that Joengblod defines as "mass individualization, new economy, information and communication technologies and E-commerce, and globalization" (p. 413).

This trend toward lifelong learning presents some unique challenges for the communication field in general and the field of writing in particular. Firstly, writing is not as easily offered online as a typical content-area class would be. Conferencing, both teacher-student and peer-peer is an essential element of writing education. Many writing classes depend upon a discussion of the issue or topic at hand in order to get students thinking about their position on a paper. Teaching writing as a process rather than a product can be difficult to demonstrate in an online setting where the finished product is all that is seen Writing teachers need to work together to come up with innovative solutions to these problems in the coming years. If we want to continue to remain competitive over options such as workforce education we need to be able to make these adaptations work.
Another aspect of college-level writing instruction that I believe needs to change and will change in the next 10 years is the way we teach ourselves. While many writing teachers focus solely on teaching writing to the exclusion of literature, this is not reflective of what they have been taught. A study done by Keith Kroll (1994) found that

"Although 84% of full-time and 92% of part-time faculty reported that their teaching responsibilities were leaning toward or heavy in writing, their graduate education emphasized training in literature. For example, full-time faculty had completed a mean number of 4 graduate courses in composition and rhetorical theory compared to a mean number of 15 graduate courses in literature." (Formal education, 1)

I believe teachers in the future will have to choose a specialization, whether it is literature or writing, or, much like a double major, choose both and take extra classes. Undergraduate classes may focus more on literature, since high school teachers generally teach both subjects, while masters level courses will focus more on teaching writing and rhetorical theory for those who plan to teach writing. Many more people will have to be trained to teach remedial writing as the number of high school students accepted into universities increases, the standard of writing expected of high school students remains stagnant or goes down, and the expectations of employers remain the same or rise. For this reason I think we will see more training for potential college-level teachers that is specific to remedial writing instruction
Charles Bazerman (2005) writes: "Parallel to current trends in communication across the curriculum (CXC), the field of writing across the curriculum (WAC) earlier experienced a shift from generalized writing-to-learn emphases to more discipline-specific writing research and instruction" (p. 86). This is the third aspect of writing education that will change in the future - that there will be more focus on Writing in the Disciplines (WID). WID is a system of education where students are taught higher-level writing in content courses in their discipline. For example, engineering students are taught the conventions of writing in that field, while literature students are taught the very different conventions in their field. This follows the general trend to a more practical education. While there is some benefit to teaching all students how to write a persuasive or expository piece, teachers are beginning to acknowledge that professional writing differs widely among the different fields and that students need to be prepared to write well according to the conventions in their particular field.
The final change that I believe we will see happening with writing education, beginning in the next ten years and continuing beyond that, is a less technical approach. We have seen schools go from teaching grammar, phonics, five-paragraph essay construction etc. to realizing that in many cases these kinds of knowledge happen on their own when children are ready for them. Just as grammar is assimilated by contact with the language rather than consciously learned through repetitive exercises and rules, so can one learn to be a good writer by contact with good writing. An essay by Arthur Applebee (1981) called "Looking at Writing" explains. He says that early studies done about how to improve students' writing made two mistaken assumptions. First "that we understand the characteristics of good writing," and secondly "that we need only discover what is 'missing' from students' writing compared to 'good' writing, build a unit to teach the missing characteristics and thereby improve writing instruction" (p. 458). The writing we see in professional journals or elsewhere that we would consider as good writing, Applebee argues, does not follow techniques we teach undergraduate students to improve their writing. For example, most paragraphs in the professional journal do not start with topic sentences. Also, most "successful writers" do not start writing by doing an outline, another popular improvement technique (Applebee, 1981). Instead of focusing on the end product, we should be focusing on teaching students what good writers do, that is, the process of prewriting, writing, and editing that results in finely polished and authentic pieces of writing.

With this focus on the process of writing comes a new understanding of error. In the product approach to writing, errors tell us where we have failed and are useful as diagnostics. In the process approach to writing, errors are not a simple instance of failing to learn the proper way to use a language item, they are "a natural part of learning a language; they arise from learners' active strategies." In the process approach, errors are not bad and "often indicate progress rather than mistakes" (p. 460) - that the learner is making mistakes in areas he or she previously did not may simply mean that the student's mind is working on learning another concept. Some theorists would argue that correcting mistakes in student papers - a cornerstone of writing education for centuries - is an exercise in futility. Students must learn how to write on their own, through authentic experiences such as reading, writing, editing and rewriting, and they cannot be told to learn something, which is essentially what one is doing when pointing out a mistake on a student paper. In the future, we will see grades based more on holistic scoring than on the number of grammatical errors, and we will see more acceptance of creative usage in writing curricula.

In this essay, we have looked at the ways which education might change in the next ten years and beyond. We have seen that current trends in using new technology to foster learning will continue, and that technology will become increasingly important and relevant in education as well as in the world. We have seen how the internet will allow us to go from expensive texts that we must carry around to a virtually unlimited garden of information at our fingertips wherever we go; how nontraditional options, customizability and a focus on the task or process will begin to rule over single-minded and authoritarian approaches; how learning will happen over a lifetime rather than a specified number of years, and how a classroom will no longer be the best or the only place where learning takes place. We have seen a shift from a focus on the teacher as an expert to the teacher as a facilitator amidst a plethora of other resources that the student of the next decade will have at his or her disposal. Finally, we have at last seen a shift to a student-centered approach to learning, where individualization is becoming more and more practical as well as prevalent in today's educational world. It is a great time to be in education on the brink of all of these exciting changes, both for teachers and students, and for those of us who will always be both.

References

Applebee, A. N. (1981). Looking at Writing. Educational Leadership, 38(6),

458-462.

Bazerman, C. (2005). A response to Anthony Fleury's "Liberal Education and

Communication Against the Disciplines": A view from the world of writing.

Communication Education, 54(1), 86-91.

Jongbloed, B. (2002). Lifelong Learning: Implications for institutions. Higher

Education, 44(1), 413-431.

Kroll, K. (1994). A profile of community college English faculty and curriculum.

Community College Review, 22(3), 37-54.

Morrelae, S. (2002). Problem-based learning, service-learning, trends and

instructional resources. Spectra, 38(11), 6.

Wiles, J. & Bondi, J. (2002). Foundations of Curriculum and Instruction,

University of Phoenix Ed. Pearson Custom Publishing: Boston.

Wolf, M.A. & Hall, S. (2005). Fighting the Good Fight. T H E Journal, 32(12),

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