Abstract:

Concepts like 21st century learning, 21st century learners and 21st century skills are often written about and chanted in the field for education. Being cognizant of these ideas is admirable and indicates synergy between education and technology and market change to help prepare students for a new and dynamic workplace. Traditional classrooms designed for knowledge transmission are unsuitable for building the skills for 21st century learning and a movement has begun to transform existing physical spaces for learning. This presentation will show how a new learning space has impacted teacher pedagogy and student learning behavior in Malaysian schools. A mixed method research design using an online questionnaire, classroom observations, and focus group interviews were employed to collect data from both teachers and students. The findings reveal that teachers were employing varied pedagogical practices to help bring about better teaching and stimulate better learning. Students were enjoying more learner centered activities with easy access to technology, personalized learning, developing better information, communication, and negotiation skills while engaging in better learning and understanding with improved levels of motivation and interest.

Keywords:

Pedagogical practices, student learning behaviour, motivation, interest, technology.