Active Learning: Creating Excitement and Enhancing Learning in a Changing Environment of the 21st Century

Abstract

The environment is changing very fast, it is reshaping at a rapid pace specifically because the emergence of
new technologies is changing the society, changing the way we live, the way we communicate and do
business and also the way we learn. Consequently, our educational systems are facing significant pressure
to change the way we educate our children too in order to adequately prepare them to live, learn, and
work in a global, digital age. Education is all about change and creativity, therefore there should be
creative models for engagement in learning in a shifting educational landscape. Education in the 21st
century is different from what it used to be in the 17th or 18th century because of the changes overtime
and subsequently the variations in the learners’ needs particularly in this world of technological
advancement. Teaching and learning process should be more effective by constant renewal in the
knowledge impacted and shared with the students all the time. The mode of instruction delivery needs to
change from traditional teacher-centred to new learning that is learner-centred and globally acceptable as
is the case with the USA and other countries where education is undergoing a major paradigm shift
(change) from traditional learning environments focused on the teacher as the “deliverer” of knowledge to
new open learning environments focused on the learner as information seeker. Although the movement in
the USA and other developed countries took root first at the primary and secondary levels of education, it
has had an impact on tertiary education as well. Likewise, there should be turn of the tide in the Nigerian
Educational System.