Frequently Asked Questions | FAQs

DoDEA’s 21st Century Teaching, Learning, and Leading Professional Learning Framework (PLF) is designed to expand the use of instructional strategies in order to improve all learning experiences by engaging, empowering, and educating students to be critical thinkers, intentional learners and be prepared for a global, dynamic, and digital world.

We are expanding the ways we educate, engage and empower students to be critical thinkers and intentional learners to be prepared for the world they will live and work in.

21st Century Teaching, Learning, and Leading (CTLL) is important because:

• We recognize that the careers our students will have in this century may not even exist yet. We also know that students may have multiple careers in their adult lives.
• We want all DoDEA students to be critical thinkers, intentional learners and to be prepared for college and citizenship in a global, dynamic, and digital world.  Students need to know how to communicate effectively, collaborate with others, and use their creativity to solve problems they have never faced before.
• Teaching and learning must accurately reflect (and capitalize on) the globalization and technological advances of the 21st Century.
  

The 21st Century Teaching, Learning, and Leading Professional Learning Framework is important because:

• The PLF is important to all learners as a continuous learning cycle.  Only through continuous learning, discussions about new knowledge, and its application to real world problems can we impact our world with new products and solutions.  The PLF supports our personal and professional learning needs.
• The PLF cause learners to engage in new learning, empowers them to apply the learning in different ways, and then educate others more deeply as a result.

DoDEA’s 21st Century Teaching, Learning, and Leading is aligned with the Community Strategic Plan (CSP) as evidenced in the Vision and Mission Statement to educate, engage, and empower each student to succeed in a dynamic world.

It is also aligned with the Core Values of the CSP:

• each student can realize his or her fullest potential;
• educating the whole child fosters academic, social, and emotional well-being; and
• learning environments are student centered, stimulating, and relevant.

DoDEA’s 21st Century Teaching, Learning, and Leading will challenge each student to maximize his or her potential and to excel academically, socially, emotionally and physically for life, college and career readiness.

It will also develop and sustain each school to be high-performing within an environment of innovation, collaboration, continuous renewal and caring relationships.

Professional learning is both an individualized and social process of identifying meaning, shaping understanding, transforming practices, and sharing inspiration.  Professional learning also helps craft a culture of collaboration that drives craftsmanship and ingenuity as a model for students and peers.

CRITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING

Students will need to be a “knowledge worker “and have the ability to ask the right questions to become critical thinkers and problem solvers.

COLLABORATION ACROSS NETWORKS AND LEADING BY INFLUENCE

Students need the ability to learn and work fluidly understanding how collaboration can be most effective and where their skills can most influence the learning task.

AGILITY AND ADAPTABILITY

Students will think, be flexible, change and be adaptable and use a variety of tools to solve problems. Students will understand that there can be multiple solutions to a problem.

INITIATIVE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Students will be self-directed in determining ways to seek out new opportunities ideas, and strategies for improvement. 

EFFECTIVE ORAL AND WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

Students will be able to communicate their thoughts clearly and precisely through energy, passion and authentic voice.

ACCESSING AND ANALYZING INFORMATION

Students need to be able to access and evaluate information from many different sources.  Students need to conceptualize and synthesize multiple sources of data.

CURIOSITY AND IMAGINATION
Students will develop original ideas and create products by applying critical thinking, research methods, communication tools and collaborative processes.

The 21st Century facility design creates a shift from traditional teacher-centered classrooms to student-centered classrooms.

• Focus on active rather than passive learning,
• Emphasis on deep learning and understanding,
• Increased responsibility and accountability on the part of the student,
• Increased sense of autonomy in the learner,
• Increased interdependence between teacher and learner,
• Based mutual respect within the learner teacher relationship,
• Focused on a reflexive approach to the teaching and learning process on the part of both teacher and learner.

Reference: Lea, S. J., D. Stephenson, and J. Troy (2003). Higher Education Students’ Attitudes to Student Centred Learning: Beyond ‘educational bulimia’. Studies in Higher Education 28(3), 321-334.

• Focus on innovative pedagogical practices and the integration of technology and the learning environment to extend student learning.
• Grounded in collaborative practices to create job-embedded, on-going learning for student academic growth.  21st Century Teaching, Learning, and Leading embraces the DoDEA’s Community Strategic Plan to “Engage, Empower, and Educate” all students.