Understanding 21st Century Learners

Face-to-face bullying has been a pervasive problem among adolescents (Sugarman & Willoughby, 2013; Jones, Manstead & Livingston, 2011). With the affordances of social media technology, adolescents are bullied not only offline but also online. The onslaught of cyberbullying can be constant and relentless. Many studies indicate some adolescent victims of cyberbullying suffer from mental health issues and weak grades, and in some cases victims resort to inflicting self-harm and attempting suicide (Cassidy, Faucher & Jackson, 2013).  Currently, many anti-cyberbullying educational programs have been successful in transmitting right, wrong and consequences of cyberbullying knowledge but appear less effective in influencing a shift in cyberbullying intentions. In addition, most programs focus on victims and bullies of cyberbullying and less on bystanders— people who witnessed cyberbullying. Positive Bystanders play a critical role in supporting victims and preventing cyber bullies from further humiliating the victims. Therefore, this study explored how anti-cyberbullying lessons can be designed to encourage passive bystanders to take the positive bystander role. The four stages of Kolb’s experiential learning and the theory of planned behaviour were adopted to guide the lesson design, allowing adolescents space to explore their emotions through perspective-taking, reflection and testing out positive bystander strategies. This research project took place in two phases that involved students between the ages of thirteen to fifteen years old from a Singapore public school. At the first phase, the adult-researcher and seven student-researchers co-designed three anti-cyberbullying lessons. At the second phase, the student-researchers co-taught with their teachers to secondary three peers while the adult-researcher collected data through lesson observations, lesson artefacts, class discussions, focus group interviews and pre-and-post survey. Data was collected to answer the following research questions:
(i) To what extent did the lesson design encourage Singaporean secondary school students to want to shift from passive bystanders to positive bystanders role during cyberbullying incidents?
(ii) What were the influencing factors that encouraged them to work towards being positive bystanders?
(iii) What were the inhibiting factors that discouraged them from becoming positive bystander?
Findings and themes emerged informed both theory and practice that addressed student learning needs and preferences.

This mixed method study explores the perceived social and learning challenges postgraduate adult learners faced, and the type of support needed. The following research questions guided this research. RQ 1: What are students’ perceived supports provided in the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) environment? RQ 2: How satisfied are students with the support provided? This research was conducted at a higher learning institution in Singapore and participants were chosen by convenience sampling first then purposeful maximal variation sampling. The participants consist of the 30 participants (n=15). A survey was conducted followed by an interview. The survey revealed students' perceived support provided and their satisfaction. The interview uncovered underlying reasons for some phenomena, and gaps in the data. Students opined that the module could be 1) more engaging and communicate goals clearly; 2) help participants to put in place more learning support to reduce cognitive load; 3) spend more time to explain, or consolidate answers; 4) allow preferred groups and structure social support between adult learners especially for group work and before critique; 5) design lessons to allow adult learners to self-pace and choose activities. 6) allowing adult learners more time to acquire the skills required to succeed in innovative pedagogy. These requests from learners are only in partial agreement with the six broad categories from literature that are essential for learning support in technology-enhanced learning environments. These are 1) cognitive; 2) social; 3) teaching; 4) learner; 5) technology; and 6) pedagogy. In conclusion, the idea of having certain essential support is not as crucial as the literature suggests. On the contrary, the participants found ways to compensate for the shortfall in support provided, like self-pacing by posting questions and answers online in advance, seeking consultation via email, or video conferencing instead of physical meetings. In short, the most important support above all may be the instructors’ willingness to be flexible with the lesson design and to guide students beyond the stipulated contact hours.

Learning difficulties may arise from learning disorders such as dyslexia, specific language impairment (SLI), dyspraxia, dysgraphia, auditory processing and many others. In addition, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and socioemotional issues can also lead to barriers to learning. The situation can be made worse if a student diagnosed with any learning disorder displays socioemotional issues which manifest as disruptive behaviours that are disturbing not only to the student but peers around him as well. In an increasingly complex world, teachers have to be aware of which diagnosis is impacting more on the learning difficulties of students as this would suggest how the learning needs are to be met and how a class with such students can be managed efficiently. Teachers teaching a class of varied profiles of learners would find classroom management demanding as behavioural challenges surface. It is well-documented that a teacher will not be able to teach efficiently if he/she has to handle emotional and behavioural issues of students. At the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS), students with learning challenges are identified and support given to the Educational Therapist on how the learning needs of such students can be met. This paper will highlight 4 case studies of students who display emotional and behavioural issues apart from dyslexia. Strategies and suggestions are provided to enhance the joy of learning for these students.