Recommendations for Future Research
This study provided insight into how one school prepares its students for the 21 st
century, discussing its pitfalls and successes. The school from the case study embodied
the beliefs of a high performing school with high standards for its students. Therefore, it
was prudent to begin this research with a school that has expressed its confidence in the
implementation of a 21 st century educational program. This information rich setting
exposed any discrepancies of how the staff interprets 21 st century education while
offering possible recommendations for the future. The dilemma of how to accurately rate
and assess school programs would be another area of research that can be explored. The
study revealed that even a school with students earning proficient scores on state tests,
winning accolades and gaining public acclaim, is not comprehensively effective in
implementing 21 st century educational classroom instruction that is aligned with the
needs of the 21 st century workplace.
Future research would be necessary to continue to learn, revise and shape how
schools are tackling this daunting task of not only incorporating the skills needed for the
21 st century, but gradually changing the pedagogical beliefs of teachers. This study
focused on simplifying the overwhelming picture of 21 st century education by breaking it
down to Rigor (the skills), Relevance (the student centered classroom) and Resources
(the use of technology). Perhaps future research could be performed more narrowly in
just one area in one school or multiple schools. Multiple observations over a longer
period of time would also provide more insight into classroom instruction. In addition,
more than three teachers in one school could be interviewed and studied. In this study
Teacher 2 was the most in tune with a student-centered classroom with high levels of
student engagement and rigor. It would be interesting for future research to examine the
methods of teachers who do embrace 21 st century pedagogical beliefs. It may be
beneficial to investigate why teachers stick to traditional methods of teaching and outline
ways to break through the barriers that make them resist student driven classrooms.