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As Hazard (2019) mentioned, “identity, literacy and education are socially constructed”. This sentence shows that many factors of a society in which a student grows up will affect this person’s study and education. At the same time, it should be also realized that students’ identity could be also influenced by various communication ways in life, such as communication with parents, communication with teachers and communication with peers. Therefore, to improve a student’s literacy, we should not only focus on reading and writing, but also should pay attention to communication methods and take cultural background factors into account in teaching.
In this case, educational strategy should be adopted with the object, environment and time, and students should be taught based on their aptitude. For example, twenty years ago, primary students did not need to learn computer skills and how to utilize social media platforms. However, in the current digital era, students need to handle these skills from very young age, a fact which means that our teaching content is trying to adapt to the development of science and technology.
Furthermore, in order to better recognize and meet students’ needs, teachers should encourage adaptive learning mode, which can fully respect students’ personality development and be student-centered in teaching. As Martin (2022) explained, adaptive learning system adjusts content according to students’ abilities.
To sum up, to teach and evaluate the skills that students need in the 21st century, teachers need to shift from traditional methods to dynamic and student-centered practice. As Hazard (2019) said, the teaching method should be adjusted to meet the diverse needs and ensure that all learners have equal opportunities to adapt to the challenges of the new era.
Reference
Hazard, A. (2019). Identity, literacy, and education: A framework for the 21st century. Educational Press.
Martin , E (2022). Culturally responsive pedagogy: A systematic overview.
Human interaction is powerful and leaves it’s mark, so we must be intentional when it comes to learning and how that is done. Leo I believe as educators, we have stepped into those different modes of communication when it comes to learning- we just have to embrace and be creative with those changes, example technological. I agree that as technology evolves, so teaching must adapt to equip students with relevant skills, learning model, to suit individual differences and adjusts to students’ needs. This will encourage personal growth which is great – not an overnight success, but will take time for it to be truly successful. This means a continual shift from traditional methods, so that educators can ensure all students are prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the modern world.
Communication is the bed rock of every teaching and learning process, as without communication there is no learning. I appreciate your highlighting of the way communication with family and peers molds a student’s literacy and identity. You are correct Leo in saying that the push to expand literacy to include digital and other multimodal forms of communication is part of an “evolving landscape.” I completely agree with you that teaching must be adapted not only to the individual “aptitudes and different ways of expressing oneself” that students possess, but also to the “cultural contexts in which students live. To satisfy the varied needs of a diverse array of students, teaching methods must be flexible and responsive to different cultures.