21st Century Learning and Teaching

Research shows that interests powerfully influence our academic and professional choices. When we're interested in a task, we work harder and persist longer, bringing more of our self-regulatory skills into play.

What Interest Can Do For Us

Interest is at once a cognitive state and an affective state, what Silvia calls a “knowledge emotion.” The feelings that characterize interest are overwhelmingly positive: a sense of being energized and invigorated, captivated and enthralled.

As for its effects on cognition: interest effectively turbocharges our thinking. When we’re interested in what we’re learning, we pay closer attention; we process the information more efficiently; we employ more effective learning strategies, such as engaging in critical thinking, making connections between old and new knowledge, and attending to deep structure instead of surface features. When we’re interested in a task, we work harder and persist longer, bringing more of our self-regulatory skills into play.

PracTICE ideas:

- https://globaleducationandsocialmedia.wordpress.com/2014/03/22/practice-learning-about-sustainability-up-from-the-early-age-a-must/

For David Preston, the term “open source learning” -- a variation on inquiry learning or passion-based learning --  is about helping students choosetheir own learning path, an approach that already has some well-known champions among educators.

The association’s purpose, he says, would be “inviting people to the policymaking table that don’t normally have a direct voice. And I’m not just talking about learners and tech-savvy teachers and administrators. I am also talking about neurologists, leaders in the Internet culture,” and people across other contemporary professions.