The 21st Century Junior Learner

When junior learners enter the classroom, they are entering a world that is more complex and demanding than they have ever experienced before. At this age, these “tweens” are excited to discover more about themselves and the world around them and as teachers we have a responsibility to give students a safe space where they can become creative, independent thinkers. In order to meet the varying strengths and needs in the junior classroom, it is important for teachers to look at the “whole-child” – that is, they are not just learners in our classroom, but they are social and emotional beings as well.

The Junior Learner: A Web of Characteristics and Influences

One way for teachers to get to know the “whole-child” is to learn about their students preferred learning styles and multiple intelligences. Learning styles refers to how students prefer to learn and are typically divided into three categories: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. The theory of multiple intelligences was identified by Howard Gardner, and it describes different ways that students can demonstrate intellectual ability. Today, we know of nine types of intelligence: naturalist (nature smart), musical (sound smart), logical-mathematical (number/reasoning smart), existential (life smart), interpersonal (people smart), bodily-kinesthetic (body smart), linguistic (word smart), intra-personal (self smart), and spatial (picture smart).

While many students have abilities in all nine categories of intelligence, they typically favour one or two of the intelligences. In order to meet the overall needs of the Junior student, teachers should get to know their student’s strengths and weaknesses in terms of their preferred learning style and types of intelligence. In my classroom, I always start the year with a project on multiple intelligences – first we learn about the different types of intelligences and relate each intelligence to real-life people, then students complete a self-assessment to determine their dominant intelligence, and finally, students complete the project by learning about their dominant intelligences in depth creating a product that demonstrates their understanding. Students are encouraged to create a product that reflects their dominant intelligences – for example, if a student is music smart, they might write and produce a song about their learning needs, or if they are spatial smart they might draw a picture or create an infographic depicting their learning strengths and weaknesses.

Learning about different learning styles and multiple intelligences suits the needs of the 21st century learner because teachers are able to tailor and individualize instruction and assessments, so all students are able to use their strengths to be successful. Having junior students learn about their individual strengths and weakness, and of the strengths and weaknesses of their peers directly relates back to the six competencies of the 21st century (as discussed in a previous blog post here). By learning about the way they learn and think, students gain a deeper understanding of themselves which will ultimately enable them to think more critically and creatively, and gives them the opportunity to better communicate with others about their learning needs. By learning about the way others learn and think, it teaches students how to value others strengths and weaknesses (which falls in line with character education & citizenship) and also promotes better collaboration. By teaching our students about the way they think and do, we are ultimately giving them the tools they need to be successful not only in the classroom but also in the real world.

In 2006, the Ministry in Education of Ontario produced a guide for students, parents and teachers on effective literacy instruction for junior learners. While this guide does provide many valid and valuable suggestions on how junior students learn and what teachers can do to aid in the development of these students, I found that some of the ideas were a little outdated. Let’s consider one of the 6C’s of 21st century learners: collaboration. While the document does suggest working in groups or partners as a means to promote social and emotional development, in terms of strategies of teaching and learning the document seems to favour “instructional approaches that are highly structured” (p. 15). Certainly students do need some form of structure in their daily learning and activities, however I believe that “highly-structured” can restrict collaboration and also creativity and critical thinking. Again, going back to my post on the 6C’s of 21st century learning, I discussed the idea of an enigma project as was demonstrated by Wooranna PS students. In my opinion, the very nature of this project is unstructured because it gives students the freedom to discover any topic they are interested in and passionate about. Of course there must be some type of structure in terms of expectations and connecting learning to the curriculum document, however if we were to add more structure this type of project, it might limit the ideas and creativity our students are able to bring to the classroom.

To read more of the Ministry’s thoughts and ideas on literacy instruction in the junior classroom, click here. What other ways might you change this document to meet the needs of 21st century learners? How would you use learning styles and multiple intelligences in your classroom?