Role of Content Knowledge & Student Skills

It's true: I live to read, write, and teach.  One of the many privileges I have as an English teacher is that I get to participate in a profession that allows me to engage in my natural and personal interests on a daily basis.  Whether it is teaching a literary time period, perfecting students' grammar skills, developing their knowledge of vocabulary, or helping students practice the craft of writing, English content knowledge is the foundation for what I am as an English teacher, as well as what I use to get students engaged in partner and whole-group discussions and activities and support them in making interdisciplinary connections.

Here are my thoughts on the role of content knowledge in the future, and the skills students will need to master in order to effectively understand and apply such material in 2025:

          The role of content knowledge in the year 2025 will serve as a student’s most fundamental self-teaching tool.  Since learning will be entirely student-centered, adolescents will use a discipline’s curriculum to make real-world applications, connect interdisciplinary concepts, formulate historical-based patterns, and pose original theories while collaborating with classmates who will manipulate the same content knowledge and yield their own results.  Similar to the way in which Draves and Coates (Nine Shift, 2004) describe the current transition of management and performance from a hierarchical-based order to an equalized networking system, the role of content knowledge will be directed by the collaborative effort of students and their peers who will adjust its format via digital annotations, video and audio productions, and analytical data produced from future technology. 

          Content knowledge will be the foundation of a broader curriculum that demands divergent findings, student-taught patterns and relations, and wiki-based digital learning activities that nourish the current frequency of change and innovation via the World Wide Web.  Teachers will serve as the driving force behind the establishment, distribution, and purpose of content knowledge in past, present, and future history.

          In order for students to be productive in 2025 and perform all of the tasks made possible by the fusion of content knowledge and the various technological resources and available applications, adolescents will need to master the following skills: self-discipline, diligence, and practicality.  First, self-discipline will be the most important skill for students as they will need to stay on task, meet deadlines, and set priorities despite the demands of extracurricular activities and distractions from their learning, work, or domestic environments.  Self-discipline will also assist adolescents in managing a diverse and rigorous course load that is digitally mandated with shorter deadlines, faster turn-around and feedback capability, and easier access.  Second, a student’s diligence will play a significant role in how well their assignments will be completed.  A student’s ability to pay attention to detail and extend one’s depth of knowledge to the point of absolute thoroughness and accuracy will certainly prove this skill, as well as their demonstration of a predominantly intrinsically motivated work ethic. 

          Finally, students who master the skill of practicality will be able to make sound judgments despite psychological, physical, emotional, or intellectual fatigue.  For instance, adolescents will have to acknowledge and speak out when they feel stressed or overworked, overshadowed or undervalued in group projects or peer discussions, or need help understanding content knowledge, assignments, or using digital tools.  Yet, keeping a level-head while participating collaboratively and working with new technologies through the skill of practicality will be sure to lessen one's potential for physical or mental exhaustion.