Three emerging pedagogical trends have been observed: a move to opening
up learning, making it more accessible and flexible; the classroom is no
longer the unique centre of learning, based on information delivery through a
lecture; an increased sharing of power between the professor and the learner;
manifested as a changing professorial role, towards more support and negotiation
over content and methods, and a focus on developing and supporting
learner autonomy – on the student side, this can mean an emphasis on
learners supporting each other through new social media, peer assessment,
discussion groups, even online study groups but with guidance, support and
feedback from content experts; an increased use of technology not only to
deliver teaching, but also to support and assist students and to provide new
forms of student assessment (Contact North 2012). And at least seven developments
have impacted on how teaching is structured and how and where
learning happens:
• hybrid learning
• collaborative approaches to the construction of knowledge/building
communities of practice
• use of multimedia and open education resources
• increased learner control, choice and independence
• anywhere, anytime, any size learning
• new forms of assessment; self-directed and
• non-formal online learning. (Contact North 2012)
The emergence of prosumer participatory culture challenges twenty-firstcentury
education to seriously address the ‘creativity crisis’ mentioned earlier.
How can the school curriculum help learners understand the different human
approaches to being creative? How can new technologies be integrated into
the curriculum and pedagogies to make learning more efficient and effective?
How are educators questioning themselves and their students about
the way people produce ideas, the approaches adopted to incubate problems
and discover possible solutions, the extent of their curiosity, willingness
and ability to ask questions, and their tolerance level with risk taking and uncertainty? How are policy-makers, administrators, teachers, students and
parents challenged to explore what motivates them and where their passions
and commitments lay? How is the education sector poised to encourage its
inhabitants to build their confidence and competencies in being creative and
innovative? How are creative ideas and practices shared with others and
how are good ideas put into practice? What assessment tools should replace
simple memory-and-recall of facts, fill-in-the-blank and short-answer essay
questions, and multiple-choice tests?