Education has been an interesting issue brought out by different authors, but what are the most thrilling issues in education nowadays? We have to face that there are different phenomena that have been affecting us since globalization has been presented as a worldwide phenomenon, different learning methodologies, the usage of Communication and Information technologies and so forth.
Thus, we, as future teachers and people who will be involved in education issues, have to see the future of education through different eyes. In 2004, Patrick Griffin highlights that education is now expected to help and support in the development of values since family and social class patterns may no longer shape these. There are a key set of values and virtues connected with education, for example, learning, thinking, integrity, honesty, growth, and excellence. These values and virtues reflect the general goals and standards of behavior among educators, educational institutions, and families. These values and virtues define what is judged as important in the educational process and what types of character traits are seen as reflecting these values.
Another issue concerning a challenge in education is to promote and to encourage students to use social networks and internet to access to different kinds of information. Web sites have emerged to chronicle the burgeoning numbers of virtual education initiatives. “Further evidence of this increased activity is presented in some recent studies that have examined the processes of “e-education” (Bjarnason et al., 2000; Cuningham et al., 2000; Erhmann, 2000; Kerry et al., 2000, Johnston et al., 2001).
By doing so students are more likely to be in touch with recent information that makes them be more critical and judge what is true and what it is not. This process makes students think critically and judge whether a source really contains facts that help them in the gathering of information instead of obtaining only useless information.
The previous issue leads us to “virtual education”, -another challenge- it may seem we are referring to a far away future topic, but now more and more people are attracted to this new way of learning. Teachers have to develop alternative methodologies to make students gather information, write essays, participate in forums, and to interact with people that are not in the same place, city, state or even country.
The final "ingredient" necessary to creating an ideal education is the student. Students need to be inquisitive, enthusiastic, and eager to learn in the classroom. Students who like and feel comfortable with the education they are receiving are more interested in going to school regularly and in continuing their education after graduating from high school. Students need to be encouraged by themselves as well as by teachers and parents. Students have the responsibility of completing their assigned projects on time, being attentive and willing to learn in the class, and they must govern their own study habits and methods of working. A student has to have his priorities straight so that he knows not to neglect his studies.
A challenging education cannot be achieved with one or two "pieces" of the puzzle missing. All three "pieces" -- parents, teachers and students -- must be in place in order for the puzzle to be complete. The three components work together. For instance, a teacher and a student alone cannot work effectively toward the goal of a perfect education. The child's parent (or parents) must be in communication with the teacher to know how the child is doing academically. The parent also must communicate with the child in order to know how the child feels he or she is doing and to know how the child feels about his or her progress. The child, the parent, and the teacher must work together in order to create and maintain a perfect educational system.
By teaching effectively during the second decade of the 21st century skills that will increase their marketability, employability and readiness for these students will be the right techniques to get a profitable job. Teachers from today face this challenge to provide the right tools so that employers will hire them, some of the skills needed by employers pursue now a days are:
• Thinking critically and making judgments about the barrage of information that comes their way every day—on the Web, in the media, in homes, workplaces and everywhere else. Critical thinking empowers people to assess the credibility, accuracy and value of information, analyze and evaluate information, make reasoned decisions and take purposeful action.
• Solving complex, multidisciplinary, open-ended problems that all type of students, in every kind of workplace, might face. The challenges workers face do not come in a multiple-choice format and typically do not have a single right answer. Nor can they be neatly categorized as “math problems,” for example, or passed off to someone at a higher pay grade. Businesses expect employees at all levels to identify problems, think through solutions and alternatives, and explore new options if their approaches don’t pan out. Often, this work involves groups of people with different knowledge and skills who, collectively, add value to their organizations.
• Creativity and entrepreneurial thinking—a skill set highly associated with job creation (Pink 2005, Robinson 2006, Sternberg 1996). Many of the fastest-growing jobs and emerging industries rely on workers’ creative capacity—the ability to think unconventionally, question the herd, imagine new scenarios and produce astonishing work.
• Communicating and collaborating with teams of people across cultural, geographic and language boundaries—a necessity in diverse and multinational workplaces and communities. Mutually beneficial relationships are a central undercurrent to accomplishments in businesses—and it’s not only top managers who represent companies anymore. All students must be skilled at interacting competently and respectfully with others.
• Making innovative use of knowledge, information and opportunities to create new services, processes and products. The global marketplace rewards organizations that rapidly and routinely find better ways of doing things. Companies want workers who can contribute in this environment.
Thus as seen in this brief essay, the challenges in education one of the most important is the teacher and how well his/her students need to be prepared to face a more competitive world. Every day people need to be prepared to get a job. It makes the teacher’s job more defiantly to assure the society that he/she‘s prepared to undertake any activity.
This challenging world will make us be better teachers and to improve our teaching methods, by doing this students will have better opportunities in a more defiantly world.
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