21st Century Skills
I just recently visited the Partnerships for 21st Century Skills website (www.p21.org) and my initial thoughts were "wow, what a teacher's dream!" The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) standards for everything I had hoped my classroom would be before I became a teacher. I envisioned students collaborating to solving critical thinking problems, eagerness to use constantly available technology, and an overall eagerness to learn. This is everything we want our students to be and our curriculum to involve, yet is it truly feasible with everything else that must be included in our teaching? With standardized testing a common standards always on the docket, where are we supposed to find time to include these skills?I am a believer in these 21st century skills, because they are the skills our students need in order to be successful in the future. Part of what P21 promotes is the learning of core subjects, something we have been doing since the dawn of education. Now, P21 says that it is time to evolve a little, and I could not agree more. I always knew that 21st century skills included a lot on technology and collaboration on a world-wide level, but I did not know that there were some many other areas of interest such as health, entrepreneurship, civics, and media to name a few. I also thought that 21st century skills were more geared towards the subjects of math and science, because I associated it with engineering, architecture, and computer programming. Twenty-first century skills are coming to the forefront of education because they are the skills necessary to keep the world functioning and to be more efficient at doing so. Communication skills are just as important as math and science skills, because we will need to communicate with other countries when we are trying to fix global issues.
The P21 website has a great deal of information on what they are all about. They have an entire framework that defines what they believe 21st century skills are, and their mission is to make 21st century skills the focal point of K-12 education in the United States. The information presented by P21 has made me take another look at my role as a teacher. Should I just be the math teacher that makes sure they can solve equations, graph lines, and find area? Or should I be the teacher who teaches them how to think critically and prepares them to take on challenging real-world problems that require them to apply their knowledge? I think one way teachers can promote 21st century skills is by providing as many real-life situations as possible, whether it be with problem solving scenarios or guest speakers. Our students need to have the validity that what they are learning is going to be useful to them at some point in their future.
I think many of us get so hung up on getting through all of the curriculum (especially in a core subject like math) that we forget about the other skills students need to learn in order to be successful in society. We need to mix these other skills into our lessons. We can still teach Algebra while having our students thinking critically and working collaboratively with others. You are right, we need to demonstrate to students how math is used in real-life situations. Student are always asking when they will ever need to know this stuff!
ReplyDeleteHi Ricky,
ReplyDeleteI loved reading your blog. Just like you, I believe the skills needed today are ever increasing especially in the educational world. Before I started teaching, I worked in the automotive industry and sat on several committees. Within our meetings, we were always faced with a problem or situation that was effecting production. We basically had to pull people from every department; engineering, quality control, administrative, and workers to fix these problems. The same Twenty-first Century Skills spoke about now were the very things we used from critical thinking, problem solving, communication skills, and teamwork and collaboration.
As our country grew, from an agricultural society to a more industrial society, the influx of technoloy became more apparent. Now, as we continue, to move to a more technological/information society, new skills have emerged. Creative and innovative thinking is at the forefront with the creation of the internet, smartphones, GPS, and other PDA devices. Also, with this technology there comes more information literacy to understand and information technology to analyze in order to use these tools efficiently.
Ultimately, as our workforce continues to change, we must equip our students with the means and the know how to be productive and participating members of this ever changing society. Also, you mentioned, we should at every possible moment teach real-life situations to make learning more relevant and I totally agree. This would allow them to use those skills needed down to road in their future careers.
One of the things that I find most exciting about being an teacher is that we are truly at the crossroads of education. Looking at where education has been and where it is headed is always fascinating, but I think that right now the identification of effective strategies and the technologies necessary to support them make this a critical time that just screams out for change.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher, I feel almost bipolar in my attitude toward throwing myself headlong into the 21st century skills movement. Philosophically, I am totally on board with everything related to upgrading our existing beliefs and objectives with an eye to the future. As you mention in your post, our changing society has required a variety of skill sets that fit the times. Clearly, the current generation of students needs an educational system that mirrors the accelerated technological environment of society at large, and I have no doubt that schools can function in this way because of teachers that are willing to break the mold that has been in place for decades. On the other hand, my enthusiasm wanes somewhat when I ponder what the change might actually look like. There is no doubt that our curriculum needs to be deeper. Currently, it is very broad, and we often do not have time to explore essential subject matter fully. Promoting critical thinking skills across the curriculum requires an investment of time that states and school districts will have to balance against their mandated goals as defined by standardized testing for students and expected improvement for school sites. I hope that the P21 movement forces the issue and creates genuine controversy that federal, state, and local institutions will have to address. Until these bodies are forced to prioritize WHAT they require students to know and allocate time and resources to make it happen, systemic change is unlikely. In the meantime, we will see only gradual improvement within the system as a whole, despite the efforts of teachers and students to move beyond the current boundaries.
I agree with Bob's statements about my attitudes towards 21st century skills. When I first read about what we should be doing for the students to prepare them for life, it is both practical and intimidating to me. In an ideal world, I would love the ability to spend indefinite time on developing critical thinking skills. However, our education system can sometimes be backwards with their way of thinking in regards to how to properly assess student growth and teacher evaluations. Ultimately, I agree with your thoughts about being a teacher who expects and gets student growth in all facets of life, not just "the math teacher that makes sure they can solve equations, graph lines, and find area". Great post.
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