Keeping up with teaching trends in 2019

Just like the ever-evolving digital world we live in, every year is a new challenge when it comes to keeping up with teaching trends. It is also of the utmost importance to keep up with these to ensure that your teaching style moves with the times and your environment is a place where you can grow. While 2018 was a momentous year for STEM education, with scientists and teachers running for office in unprecedented numbers and a steady stream of news reports on the value of a STEM degree, 2019 is gearing up to be even bigger.

Improving teaching perceptions

The teaching profession has suffered a lack of prestige. Most parents don’t actually want their children to become teachers. When they have dinner parties with their friends, they prefer their children to rather go with the influencer option. But teaching is getting its mojo back. There is also broad respect among the public for teachers who protest for better pay. Recent polling found that 73% of respondents said they would support public school teachers in their community who went on strike for higher pay.

Research by the Colorado School of Mines has found that STEM teachers experience greater job satisfaction than other STEM professionals, and a team of organizations has taken that research and developed resources to debunk related myths about teaching.

Later high school start times

Growing evidence shows that most high school students are sleep deprived as they try to squeeze school, homework, after-school activities and oftentimes college prep into a very long day (NPR, 2018). Researchers at the University of Washington studied Seattle students from two schools that moved their start time from 7:50 am to 8:45 am (2016-2017) with positive results, which recently appeared in the journal Science Advances. In summary, they discovered that students – as a whole, got 34 minutes more of sleep each night, which was also linked to academic improvement and a reduction in tardiness to school.

Schools will be places where children and teachers will thrive

Schools are too often environments where only children can thrive and not teachers. Research shows that the only sustainable path to student success is through schools where teachers and students thrive.

In 2019, we are hoping to see greater efforts from school administrators and governments to build stronger work environments for teachers and invest in their personal development.

Other popular trends in education

Self-directed learning, alternatives to letter grades, artificial intelligence, micro-education, modular education, sociocultural/socioeconomic equity, flipped classroom (see also blended learning), scenario-based learning, adaptive learning algorithms, BYOD/BYOT, social media in the classroom, digital portfolios.

Let 2019 be your year for yourself and your students to flourish!