Recently, an article was published on EHL Insights entitled “5 Trends in Education that Continue in 2022” (Debetaz, 2022). The article centers around trends that educators should focus on in order to maintain engaging learning environments. While these trends of course connect to classroom learning, the Effective Student Executive Function Curriculum incorporates each of these elements into lessons implemented with students we coach. Let’s investigate further how the Effective Student Curriculum tackles these 5 trends.
Trend 1: Growth of Technology
In the article, the influx of technology into the world of education is addressed. Growth of technology and improvements in these resources have increased the flexibility and variety of instruction strategies available to teachers. Many schools have switched to more online access to materials such as textbooks, learning resources, and assignment planners. But, with all the increased access to online technology tools, students are left to engage in learning through online platforms that can be challenging to navigate themselves. (Debetaz, 2022).
How does Effective Students incorporate technology into the learning process for students? Lessons focus on engaging with the list of resources available to students in ways that improve learning and are meaningful to students. For example, students learn to create their own study tools via online gamified learning sites and evaluate their knowledge via self-testing. Students also work with coaches to learn navigation of their schools’ learning management systems to discover the information they truly need to find in order to successfully stay on target with due dates and assessments thus building their time management and planning skills.
Trend 2: Soft Skills Training
Debetaz discusses how some of the most critical abilities of employed people center around more soft skills versus the trade-specific skills that were more of a focus in previous years. Skills such as “critical thinking, problem-solving, people management, and creativity” are some of the most important skills for future leaders to master within the workplace. (Debetaz, 2022). As teachers, we have all experienced students who struggle with flexible thinking in our classrooms.
While teachers in the classroom must incorporate these skills into their lesson plans, Effective Students actively incorporate soft skills into the curriculum via activities that build and reward flexible thinking skills and self-awareness. Effective Student Coaches work with students giving consistent and constructive feedback in order for students to gain increased self-awareness with their own learning, strengths, and weaknesses. Students are equipped to confront weaknesses, giving them the tools to learn how to overcome these for themselves, leading to success.
Trend 3: Student Trend of Decreasing Attention Spans
Mentioned in the article by Eric Debetaz is a study conducted by Microsoft related to the attention spans of individuals. This study, run from 2000 to 2015, found that students’ ability to stay focused decreased from 12 seconds to 8 seconds over the course of this time period. There are many different theories as to why this has changed over time – from access to technology or constant need for stimulation. But, either way, students are clearly needing more consistent engagement during class in order to stay focused on their learning. As Eric Debataz mentioned in the article, “modern students want to be challenged, and they value interaction”(Debetaz, 2022).
Through incorporating an Executive Function Curriculum into the classroom or through one-on-one coaching, students learn ways to recognize their own ability to pay attention and foster engagement through study action time. Effective Students focuses on study actions, instead of study strategies or duration, as ways to teach students to identify ways to engage in multisensory activities for test preparation, as opposed to rote memorization or passive studying. Students become active participants in their education, including evaluating their content knowledge and preparation steps thus creating opportunities for deeper engagement and problem-solving in their own futures.
Trend 4: Facilitating Learning vs Teaching
Throughout the addition of technology into classrooms, along with greater access to information worldwide, the job of the classroom teacher has evolved into a guiding role as students learn to obtain information using their own resources. The author of “5 Trends in Education that Continue in 2022” mentions how teachers must guide students to “understand how to learn, to love learning, and how to uncover and understand the information they find” (Debetaz, 2022). Eric Debetaz goes on to explain how the “best teachers will be those who can help students take ownership of their learning” (Debetaz, 2022).
At Effective Students, our mission when working with students is to help them learn to understand themselves as learners and to take ownership of their own learning, just as Debetaz mentioned. As we work with our students through the Executive Function Curriculum, students learn to become more self-aware, self-sufficient, and independent. Our focus as educators is to help students learn to tackle challenges that arise and be unafraid to engage in struggles. It’s not whether students will encounter struggles, but rather how they respond to them. The Effective Student Curriculum is intentionally designed to build this competency in students.
Trend 5: Lifelong Learning Trend
The final trend reflected upon in this article is how the current job market has created careers where individuals must continue updating their education after joining the workforce. With how quickly markets, technology, and careers shift in today’s society, it has become impossible for companies to stay current without continuous engagement in learning from their employees. Thus, Debetaz argues that teachers must now create further opportunities for “teaching self-learning so that students can continue to learn and engage in their chosen fields” (Debetaz, 2022).
At Effective Students, engagement in learning and continued desire to progress forward in one’s education is a key component of the curriculum. Coaches work to encourage students to find motivation in educational pursuits. Students learn self-direction and self-reflection throughout the curriculum how to identify their own scheduling and time management constraints, which creates opportunities for them to also identify ways to get ahead on what’s coming next. Furthermore, students work on how identifying their own weaknesses and strengths through consistent self-reflection. These skills directly translate to engaging with the modern workforce, where time management, getting ahead, and self-reflection are key to learning more and helping move a company forward.
The article “5 Trends in Education that Continue in 2022” focused on classroom trends that are occurring around the world today. At Effective Students, though, we see these trends as lasting new methods of addressing an ever-changing classroom and work environment. Thus, the Effective Students Curriculum focuses on engaging learners in their own learning process and helping them gain the self-awareness necessary to be active participants in their education moving forward.
Cited Sources:
Debetaz, Eric (2022). 5 Trends in education that continue in 2022. Retrieved from: https://hospitalityinsights.ehl.edu/education-trends-2022
