When educators embrace student-centered learning, classrooms transform, authentic learning comes alive, and outcomes improve. A culmination of Lee Watanabe-Crockett's ten-plus years of work with schools around the world, Future-Focused Learning details ten core shifts of practice--along with simple microshifts--you can use with your students immediately, regardless of your core curriculum or instructional pedagogy. These proven shifts offer a clear pathway for taking the great work you are already doing and making it exceptional. Use this book to improve student-centered learning in the classroom and support authentic learning outcomes for the 21st century: Study over 50 specific examples of classroom microshifts that make the larger shifts in practice simple to achieve as a collective group. Connect the six essential fluencies--solution fluency, information fluency, creative fluency, media fluency, collaboration fluency, and global digital citizenship--to the shifts of practice that develop students' key 21st century skills and higher-order thinking. Explore topics in student-centered learning competencies such as project-based learning, essential questions, STEM education, and digital skills. Learn why fostering connections to learning --from improved emotional connections to the value of clear learning intentions--improve student-centered learning outcomes and higher-order thinking. Improve formative assessment practices to be more mindful, ask the essential questions, and further student engagement by involving them in the assessment process. Access an exclusive online bonus chapter that examines the value of solution fluency across a range of applications. Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: Essential and Herding Questions Chapter 2: Connection Through Context and Relevance Chapter 3: Personalized Learning Chapter 4: A Challenge of Higher-Order-Thinking Skills Chapter 5: Information Fluency for Research Skills Chapter 6: Process-Oriented Learning Chapter 7: Learning Intentions and Success Criteria Chapter 8: Learner-Created Knowledge Chapter 9: Mindful Assessment Chapter 10: Self- and Peer Assessment Epilogue Appendix

When educators embrace student-centered learning, classrooms transform, authentic learning comes alive, and outcomes improve. A culmination of Lee Crockett's years of work with schools around the world, Future-Focused Learning details ten core shifts of practice-along with simple microshifts--you can use with your students immediately, regardless of your core curriculum or instructional pedagogy. These proven shifts offer a clear pathway for taking the great work you are already doing and making it exceptional. Use this book to improve student-centered learning in the classroom and support authentic learning outcomes for the 21st century: Study over 50 specific examples of classroom microshifts that make the larger shifts in practice simple to achieve as a collective group. Connect the six essential fluencies--solution fluency, information fluency, creative fluency, media fluency, collaboration fluency, and global digital citizenship--to the shifts of practice that develop students' key 21st century skills and higher-order thinking. Explore topics in student-centered learning competencies such as project-based learning, essential questions, STEM education, and digital skills. Learn why fostering connections to learning --from improved emotional connections to the value of clear learning intentions--improve student-centered learning outcomes and higher-order thinking. Improve formative assessment practices to be more mindful, ask the essential questions, and further student engagement by involving them in the assessment process.

In the twenty-first century, educators around the world are being told that they need to transform education systems to adapt young people for the challenges of a global digital knowledge economy. Too rarely, however, do we ask whether this future vision is robust, achievable or even desirable, whether alternative futures might be in development, and what other possible futures might demand of education. Drawing on ten years of research into educational innovation and socio-technical change, working with educators, researchers, digital industries, students and policy-makers, this book questions taken-for-granted assumptions about the future of education. Arguing that we have been working with too narrow a vision of the future, Keri Facer makes a case for recognizing the challenges that the next two decades may bring, including: the emergence of new relationships between humans and technology the opportunities and challenges of aging populations the development of new forms of knowledge and democracy the challenges of climate warming and environmental disruption the potential for radical economic and social inequalities. This book describes the potential for these developments to impact critical aspects of education – including adult-child relationships, social justice, curriculum design, community relationships and learning ecologies. Packed with examples from around the world and utilising vital research undertaken by the author while Research Director at the UK’s Futurelab, the book helps to bring into focus the risks and opportunities for schools, students and societies over the coming two decades. It makes a powerful case for rethinking the relationship between education and social and technological change, and presents a set of key strategies for creating schools better able to meet the emerging needs of their students and communities. An important contribution to the debates surrounding educational futures, this book is compelling reading for all of those, including educators, researchers, policy-makers and students, who are asking the question 'how can education help us to build desirable futures for everyone in the context of social and technological change?'

A forward-looking guide to helping leaders in education and other fields better prepare students for such challenges as globalization, demographic shifts, and advances in technology.

"In her new book, The World of Work (WOW) Advantage: A Roadmap for School Teams, author Suzette Lovely provides a compelling guide that encourages educators to reimagine their work so that they can best prepare their students for the future. In this book, Suzette explains to the reader the importance of focusing on the future. The book aims to develop in the reader an understanding of the future ready learner and provides instruction on how to turn students into future ready learners. In order to achieve this, the book focuses on learning as the focal point for action and introduces the reader to four touchstones that will guide their development towards a more future focused classroom. Each touchstone provides educators with the methods and strategies for implementation necessary to develop their students into future ready learners. Through this book, readers will learn how to bring their classroom into the 21st century and teach students the learning skills necessary to succeed in the future"--

What are "essential questions," and how do they differ from other kinds of questions? What's so great about them? Why should you design and use essential questions in your classroom? Essential questions (EQs) help target standards as you organize curriculum content into coherent units that yield focused and thoughtful learning. In the classroom, EQs are used to stimulate students' discussions and promote a deeper understanding of the content. Whether you are an Understanding by Design (UbD) devotee or are searching for ways to address standards—local or Common Core State Standards—in an engaging way, Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins provide practical guidance on how to design, initiate, and embed inquiry-based teaching and learning in your classroom. Offering dozens of examples, the authors explore the usefulness of EQs in all K-12 content areas, including skill-based areas such as math, PE, language instruction, and arts education. As an important element of their backward design approach to designing curriculum, instruction, and assessment, the authors *Give a comprehensive explanation of why EQs are so important; *Explore seven defining characteristics of EQs; *Distinguish between topical and overarching questions and their uses; *Outline the rationale for using EQs as the focal point in creating units of study; and *Show how to create effective EQs, working from sources including standards, desired understandings, and student misconceptions. Using essential questions can be challenging—for both teachers and students—and this book provides guidance through practical and proven processes, as well as suggested "response strategies" to encourage student engagement. Finally, you will learn how to create a culture of inquiry so that all members of the educational community—students, teachers, and administrators—benefit from the increased rigor and deepened understanding that emerge when essential questions become a guiding force for learners of all ages.