Teaching With the 21st-Century Competencies: The Impact of Psychology and Philosophy on Teacher Work to Identify and Manifest Meaningful Learning

Background

Colloquially, teaching and learning are logically placed together in this simply structured deductive argument: when something is taught, then it is learned. James McClellan described this as the Generic Concept of Teaching. McClellan (1976) first described this as the Generic Teaching Claim: that if A teaches B and then B learns X (McClellan, 1976). This statement has the structure of a logical statement that can, in essence, be traced back to Socrates’ Meno. In Meno, Socrates used logic, deduction, and a sequence of questions to teach a student about triangles. However, the student simply responded “affirmative” to almost all questions, which communicates no meaningful learning and the purpose is unknown. The generic claim above implies that a teacher, A, and student, B, have a simple transaction and that therefore a learning outcome, X, is the direct and unquestionable result of the interaction. This is the simplest premise of teaching: ‘If teaching occurs, then learning emerges’. This is how the classroom and learning environments were constructed, during the 20^th century; teaching was really a one way interaction (Feldman, 2018). In the 21^st century, the interpretation and the implementation of the Generic Teaching Claim is more fluid than in the past. It is clear that the teaching profession and the practice of knowledge is more complex; more culture and context is needed. Arguably, with increased demand on digital tools and virtual learning, the interactions of teacher and students are more complex than ever, and the importance of learning is more necessary in the 21^st century.