21st Century Classroom Skills

Learning in the classroom is an excellent process to learn because you as a learner use your all senses in the best possible way. Your behavior in the class makes a huge difference in your success. Improve your study skills or classroom skills also known as 21^st century classroom skills so that you may get more from the classroom.

Every student comes in the class to learn more and more but some learners achieve extra ordinary achievement while others lag far behind in studies. What might the possible reasons for this gigantic difference between success and failure. Its answer is simple: there are some significant 21^st century classroom skills which, if followed, can lead you on the heights of success in studies.

Let us understand 21^st century classroom skills one by one for sharpening classroom skills and adopt them in our own studies to improve our standard in studies.

Prepare yourself for the class

Be prepared for your class so that you can get more benefits. The more active you are while attending the lectures, the more knowledge, you get regarding your classroom. Take all the lectures actively and don’t miss them. Be an active part of class discussion.

Here are some tips to follow for a better class experience:

• Be punctual in your class and learn to manage the time. Don’t show irresponsibility by arriving late in class.  
• Class discussion sessions are beneficial for retaining the information and getting more knowledge. Don’t sit quietly and ask questions if you are not able to get any point.
• Taking notes in the proper form using any effective format like Cornel note taking system can be very fruitful for your retention of long term knowledge.
• Bring textbooks with you daily and read the whole syllabus.
• Review your lessons daily by using effective methods of reading like SQ3R method of reading.

Don’t skip your lectures; your absence from class may harm you in many ways.

• Repeated absence from class may result in your poor performance and then consequently lower grades.
• By skipping one or more lectures you will not be able to understand the next lectures because every lecture is based on the previous one.
• Due to your absence from class, you lose the opportunity for class discussion provided by the professor.
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Become an active listener

There is a difference between listening actively and hearing simply. Don’t just hear to your instructor, be an active listener. In active listening you don’t just hear to what the instructor is saying but understand each point with full concentration. Give your full attention to the teacher and take notes. Stay motivated and practise the tips of active listening skills to keep yourself involved in the process.

Becoming an active listener is major among 21^st century classroom skills.

Develop a Personal Note-Taking System

Taking notes in the classroom is a very effective way to get academic success. It is difficult to remember each point till the exams without notes. Make sure to take accurate notes so that you can remember key points discussed during class. It can benefit you in many ways:

• By taking notes, you can easily review the important points later without discussing the full lecture.
• Additionally, notes enable you to easily concentrate on the topics which are important for exams.
• At the end of the lecture, compare your notes with your friend’s notes, so that you can also write the details which you have forgotten but your friend wrote.
• Effective note taking methods also prevent you from different distractions in class.
• While taking notes, it is important to keep your writing neat and clean because there is no benefit of taking notes if you can’t understand your writing while reviewing the notes.

You, as a student, can use the following techniques to develop your personal note taking system.

• Use your own words which you would be able to understand to take notes.
• Don’t use full sentences; use phrases, abbreviations, signs, symbols and diagrams for time management.
• Clarify headings and subheadings by using different colours or highlighters.

3 styles of note taking

• Some students use outline method of taking notes in which they just make the outline and later on write the details after the class.
• Students having visual learning style feel easy by drawing pictures, graphs, images and charts. This method is called visual method of taking notes.
• Cornell note taking method is also very effective because much detail can be written while taking notes.

Matching note taking style and learning style

In the conventional method of teaching and learning, all the students used one method of taking notes; but, in the 21^st century classroom skills, students having different learning styles use different methods of taking notes.

There are four methods of learning. Everyone has her own learning style. Note taking method is more beneficial when you take notes according to your own learning style. A single technique cannot be beneficial for all the learners; instead, different techniques suit different learners.

• If you are a visual learner it will be more beneficial for you to take notes by using pictures, colours and diagrams. Visual learners can find this method of taking notes more helpful to recall the information later. Use highlighters, pens or pencils of different colours to organise your notes.
• For the auditory learners, the best strategy is to record the lectures of your professor and listen to them later to remember the information. The other method is to record your voice by calling the information out loud and then listen to your ideas and thoughts later.  This will prove beneficial for auditory learners in analysing and remembering the key points of the lectures.
• Read and write learners love to write the information and then read and analyse it later. The technique they can use for taking notes is to write the key formation in sentences instead of writing in points.
• Kinaesthetic learners understand the information by doing the different activities and performing themselves. They can take breaks while writing down the notes. They can also use the flashcard for taking their notes.

For taking the best and effective notes, you need to know your own learning style and match your note taking style to your own learning style. It will enable you to improve your style of taking notes and consequently you will also improve in terms of grades. This skill of identifying your learning style and matching it with your note taking system has a key place in 21st century classroom skills

Learn to make effective presentations

Giving presentations in class is one of the most important 21^st century classroom skills as it trains you for future leadership and management. In all the graduation programs, presentations are considered very important because these skills polish your both verbal and nonverbal communication.

 To speak in front of the fellows, sometimes, may feel challenging for some students. But, it is not a big issue and you can easily cope with it by learning public speaking skills. Once you become successful in overcoming this issue, you will get better each time.

Here are given some ideas to improve your presentation skills.

• Be punctual and reach in class before the time of your presentation so that you can adjust yourself to the environment and feel relaxed.
• Connect your audience by showing your passion and don’t be nervous. Be relaxed and enthusiastic. Once your audience connects with you, they will respond your actions.
• While preparing your presentation, you need to make it easy and understandable for your audience so that they can get your point of view and respond to you.
• While giving a presentation, concentrate on the core message of your presentation and keep it simple. You should be able to communicate your key message to the audience in an easy but brief way.
• Making eye contact with your audience is the most important step for an effective presentation. If you smile and maintain your eye contact, it will not only help you in feeling less nervous but also help your audience to connect with you.
• The beginning of your presentation must be effective. You need to grab the attention of your audience and hold it throughout the presentation. One tip for that is to start by telling a story or entertaining your audience instead of giving your introduction and telling them who you are.
• Keep your presentation brief and simple. Your presentation should not last more than 20 minutes.
• Humans love to listen to stories. If you start your presentation by telling them a story, you can quickly grab the attention of your audience. Stories also help in remembering the information for a long time.
• Your tone of voice and body language are crucial in communicating your message. Be confident and move around the stage or in your audience instead of sticking to one place.

While giving a presentation, be relaxed, enjoy yourself and also entertain your audience instead of being and making others too serious and nervous. Practice giving presentation at home so that you should feel confident while giving them in class.

In a nutshell

Exact knowledge and application of that knowledge regarding 21st century classroom skills is a sure way to achieve academic success for the students, especially studying at university level.