A typical catch phrases used in professional literature focused upon 21st Century pedagogy is “voice and choice”. It speaks to the student-centered nature of this approach to learning. Rather than determining how student will demonstrate their mastery of learning outcomes why not let them decide how they can best do this?
When students have a firm conceptual understanding of the content learned and evaluated they will be able use information in an appropriate and informed manner. They can now leverage that information to strengthen an argument and to make decisions about how it can be applied and interconnected to solve different problems.