| Title | Chapter 1: The 21st-century teacher: Setting the scene |
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| Contributor | Magda Kloppers(author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.4102/aosis.2025.BK458.01 |
| Landing page | https://books.aosis.co.za/index.php/ob/catalog/book/458 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Elize Küng, Magda Kloppers & Rhelda Krügel. Licensee: AOSIS (Pty) Ltd. The moral rights of the editors and authors have been asserted. |
| Publisher | AOSIS |
| Published on | 2025-12-11 |
| Long abstract | Twenty-first-century skills are tools that can be applied by all to enhance the way we think, learn and live in the modern, fast-changing world. Equipping learners with 21st-century skills provides the foundation for success in the real world. These skills include, among others, critical and creative thinking,problem-solving, metacognition, the ability to communicate and collaborate with others, and global citizenship. In preparing young people for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and equipping them with 21st-century skills, teachers need to ensure that by the time learners leave school, they are flexible, can adapt to a constantly changing work environment, can work cross-culturally and are able to take on positions of leadership. For teachers to meet the needs of 21st-century learners, they must, in a holistic fashion, be adaptors, lifelong learners, technology-savvy collaborators, visionaries and leaders. No longer can a teacher rely on chalk and talk to convey knowledge. Even in the most rural schools, teachers must move beyond the physical classroom to prepare their learners for a fast-changing world. This introductory chapter aims to contextualise the 21st-century teacher and learner within the complex South African education landscape. |
| Print length | 17 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
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Elize Küng is the Deputy Dean of Community Engagement and Stakeholder Relations in the Faculty of Education at NWU, South Africa. She has over 20 years of experience teaching at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Her research interests focus on the role of educators in creating and maintaining successful public schools in South Africa. She is a member of the Education and Human Rights in Diversity (Edu-HRight) Research Unit. She has a long-standing passion for community engagement and recognises the important responsibility educators have towards their communities. Over the years, she has participated in various community projects and non-profit organisations outside NWU. She has presented papers at both national and international conferences and has published in accredited journals. By combining her passion for the role of educators in ensuring successful public schooling with her commitment to fostering social responsiveness in future educators, her publication focus has shifted towards the development of socially responsive pre-service teachers.
Magda Kloppers completed her Bachelor of Science (BSc), PGCE and BEd (Hons), MA and PhD degrees at NWU, South Africa. With 20 years of teaching experience in the secondary education sector, Kloppers has gained valuable skills and knowledge that she now applies as a senior lecturer in professional teacher education. She taught Mathematics, Computer Applications Technology (CAT) and Computer Typing at the school level before joining NWU in 2006. She serves as an associate professor and deputy school director of the School of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in the Faculty of Education at NWU. She is a member of the Research Unit SDL and has presented papers at various national and international conferences. She is also a member of the Institute for the Advancement of Cognitive Education and a lifelong member of the Institute for the Advancement of Vedic Mathematics. She has published articles in both national and international journals and is recognised by her academic peers at other higher education institutions as an expert in critical thinking, critical thinking dispositions, SDL and mathematics. She is working on several research projects approved by the Research Unit SDL and the Research Office of Education. Additionally, she has supervised several postgraduate students.