ERP Insights >> Magazine  >> January - 2021 issue

Emerging Trends in K-12 Education Sector

Author : Kavitha Jain, Director, MDN Edify Education
Thursday, January 21, 2021

Kavitha Jain, Director, MDN Edify Education

ilbert Keith Chesterton, an English writer and philosopher once said: “Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.” Education is the light that spreads brightness everywhere. It is vital to human resource development and empowerment in the stages of growth of a nation. Unfortunately, the school education system in our country assess a learner for basic literacy and numeracy skills, for one's ability to remember and repeat in a standardized test approach, developing critical thinking skills has been little explored, whereas the ancient Indian education system laid great emphasis on ‘Learning by doing and life skill training’.

With the evolving technologies and trends in the education sector, changes and development is natural. K-12 segment is the largest segment in the education industry. As per a report given by EY-FICCI more than 1.4 million schools in the education sector are K-12 schools. Hence, the teachers and administrators need to stay informed with the current advancements to improve how children learn and to keep them aware of the present scenarios.

“Collaborative learning is also quickly emerging as one of the biggest trends in K-12 education”

Firstly ‘Understanding and Implementing different learning-teaching methodologies’- Different learner has different ability to understand or perceive what is taught, hence the instructor should understand the various learning approaches and accordingly deal with the learners. Some of the different learning styles are Aural where learners learn through sound and music, Kinesthetics where learners learn through movement and touch, social where learners learn in pairs or group. Secondly ‘Personalized learning’, it seeks to tailor classroom work to individual students’ various learning styles and ability levels. The old school style of ‘One lesson for all’ is now substituted with the personalized learning techniques. Thirdly ‘Flipped classroom’ is another emerging trend that has changed the extent of learning from classroom to home. It is a type of blended learning that changes the learning environment from the typical one to a much more fun-based and activity-oriented.

Traditionally the classroom environment was like the teacher running the entire show whereas now it has changed to project-based learning, collaborative classrooms and lots more. With the boom in the educational technology, schools have become more technology friendly in their teaching approaches. Mobile learning has extended the teaching-learning spaces making it flexible for the students and teachers to connect even outside the classroom because ‘Learning is just isn’t a classroom thing’. Technology-enhanced communication is filling the gap between teachers and parents by introducing parent application which gives them enough information about their child’s progress. With all this, the major change that occurred was in the thinking of Parents who earlier emphasised the scores of their children more than his/her conceptualized learning. Collaborative learning is also quickly emerging as one of the biggest trends in K-12 education. Every student likes a class that is engaging, fun-filled and less book and pen oriented. PBL or Project Based Learning is one of the strategies to create collaborative classrooms where children learn by developing projects which give them a practical insight of things they just mug up. These enhancements in the education sector build up learners’ confidence, encourage them and build leadership skills to face the real world.

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