The evolution of education has been an irresistible yet necessary process to suit human development. From the stone age period, human beings’ used tools to facilitate work and building; hence education commenced. Evolution in tools and technology did not happen exclusively; education followed a similar fashion. Ardently, education has embraced new trends this decade, attributing to the problematic start it has endured dealing with the pandemic. On account of the pandemic, technology-dependent learning has been implemented throughout the educational spectrum. According to Uruthiralingam & Rea (2020), the evolution of technology offers revolutionary learning methods. Soft skills training is a new trend adopted in tertiary education lately. On the contrary, we have also experienced negative educational trends, particularly the decreased concentration spans in students at multiple levels. These trends would give an insight into the learning environment this decade.
Discussion of Three Trends
Soft Skills Training at the Tertiary Education Level
Adopting soft skills training at the tertiary education level is one of the new trends adopted at the tertiary education level. The transition from the classroom to the working environment has not been smooth in recent years, and since then, institutions have moved with speed to address this phenomenon. Equipping learners with these soft skills have transformed learners into ideal professionals who could fill any capacity in the job market. For instance, leadership skills and creativity are some of the skills imparted to these learners citing increased time spent on problem-solving in the work environment.
Furthermore, education experts have cited overreliance on technology, which has created a fixed mindset among students; hence, students produced in the job market lack essential soft skills such as communication. The transformations in the labor market are affected by technology, but employers favor a mix of hard and soft skills in recruiting staff (Ternikov,2022). modern management trends show that employees prefer candidates who can work in teams and excel in cooperating with colleagues. Therefore, the recent focus on interpersonal skills has been attributed to the changing job markets to keep the graduates from different institutions relevant.
Implementation of Technology Dependent Learning
Intrinsically the pandemic served as a wake-up call for most institutions at the turn of the decade. These institutions felt the need to adopt remote learning, which helped students proceed with their learning regardless of location. Positively after the pandemic, the institutions did not revert to their old means but have since depended on technology to solve most of the challenges previously faced. Remote learning is now regular, and students in the United States are encouraged to use social media in networking and job seeking. Notably, with most professionals ardent about social media, institutions have now accepted this new norm, allowing students to build their profiles, interact with these individuals, and learn from them.
Decreased Concentration Spans among Learners
On the contrary, some negative trends are reported among learners owing to the cognitive nature of their development. Increasing a kid’s concentration is a significant problem for teachers and parents (Elsayed & Salama, 2020). Students in this era are synonymous with reduced concentration spans, associated with different issues in their upbringing. This has been attributed to the varying stimulation that technology offers viewers, which education is currently trying so hard to cope with. Alarmingly, the cognitive gap between what interests them and what education offers threatens to get bigger unless educational experts can work quickly.
In addition, the new developments have resulted in a change in teaching methods. The new generations teaching methods have to be attractive and pleasing to the learner’s eye to capture their attention. Previous studies showed that learners were more likely to increase their concentration if they participated in physical activities(Buchele Harris et al., 2018). However, the types of games encouraged in these children are different from those in previous years. Parents would like their children to contest on a technology matter these days rather than being stuck in the old teaching content such as arithmetic contests. Therefore teachers have no option but to keep up with the trend or risk being left out altogether. Thus their training methods are pretty modified compared to what teachers were trained on some years back.
Personalized and Paced Learning a new approach to Education
The disparity of students’ cognitive ability has always been an issue in the United States, and the controversy continues lately. Students from all walks of life respond differently to the same concepts, and the level of mastery may never be uniform. Therefore the modern solution to this debacle has been deemed personalized and paced learning. According to Lee et al. (2018), despite the increasing interest in Personalized Learning, it is difficult to be implemented because it can be complicated, costly, and even impossible without the help of powerful and advanced technology. Consequently, the adoption of such measures has been projected to cause a change in education in the future. The modern educational setting has also encouraged the development of the practice.
Technology and Personalized Learning
Technology implementation in learning has enhanced personalized learning to some extent. Students who struggle to catch up with the rest have been encouraged to pursue personalized learning to enhance their learning abilities, and technology avails this option. A student can access a wealth of information through the internet and choose the most appropriate way they want to learn. Further, teachers can now embrace tailored learning for each student and help a student develop at their own pace. With such convenience availed by technology, all facts point to experts now resorting to personalized learning as the only means to achieve educational goals for all students.
A chance for inclusivity and equality in education
The United States has been relentless in its pursuit of equality and inclusivity throughout the country. The importance of ensuring equal learning has been investigated and encouraged in all institutions (Marras et al., 2021). Ideally, students should be accepted for being different, and the government warrants that they should be taught equally, their different cognitive attributes notwithstanding. Considering this mentality, it would not be a surprise if the government urges the education sector to embrace personalized education as an approach in the future. The infrastructure for the implementation of personalized learning is also a non-issue. Hence there would be nothing stopping experts and the government from taking up this approach if their recent stand on equality is anything to go by.
Conclusion
Education is expected to transform at a fast speed considering based on the recent developments. Technology has been the hallmark of transformations in every aspect of human life, and education has not been left out. Technology has now been virtually incorporated into education in the United States. Additionally, a new trend now being experienced is how soft skills have taken center stage in learning. However, the concentration span levels of students are dropping disturbingly, and educational experts have been forced to curtail their expectations towards meeting the learners. Notably, a contemporary issue in education is how the sector is quick to embrace personalized learning. This has been fueled by the calls for inclusivity being experienced throughout the United States.
References
Buchele Harris, H., Cortina, K. S., Templin, T., Colabianchi, N., & Chen, W. (2018). Impact of coordinated-bilateral physical activities on attentionand concentration in school-aged children. BioMed research international, 2018.
Elsayed, M., & Salama, R. (2020). Educational games for miss-concentration students (ADHD students). International Journal of Innovative Research in Education, 7(1), 26-31.
Lee, D., Huh, Y., Lin, C. Y., & Reigeluth, C. M. (2018). Technology functions for personalized learning in learner-centered schools. Educational Technology Research and Development, 66(5), 1269-1302.
Marras, M., Boratto, L., Ramos, G., & Fenu, G. (2021). Equality of learning opportunity via individual fairness in personalized recommendations. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 1-49.
Ternikov A. (2022). Soft and hard skills identification: insights from IT job advertisements in the CIS region. PeerJ. Computer science, 8, e946. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.946
Uruthiralingam, U., & Rea, P. M. (2020). Augmented and Virtual Reality in Anatomical Education – A Systematic Review. Advances in experimental medicine and biology, 1235, 89–101. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37639-0_5
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