This week I spent some time looking
around the website for Partnership for 21st Century Skills. The
website is devoted to helping US students develop skills needed to compete in
the 21st century global economy. While the website recognizes the need
for teaching the three R’s (reading, writing, and arithmetic), it introduces a
need for also teaching the four C’s (critical thinking, collaboration,
communication, creativity). My state of
Georgia has not adopted this initiative, but does implement STEM lessons, is
adopting the Common Core Curriculum, and is also moving towards a more critical
thinking format of testing with the PARC assessment.
I believe this website can be a useful
tool for teachers to gain resources and make connections with other community
members who are adopting 21st century practices. On this website I
read an article about skills assessment; while our nation is focused on assessment, it is mostly multiple choice
and not task oriented. The lack of applicable
use of the 21st century critical thinking skills shows that U.S.
students are learning the material but are not learning how to apply it.
Regarding 21st Century
Skills, something I disagree with is the comparison of education in the United
States to other nations. The theme seems
to be that our nation is falling behind other nations in technological development and
education standards. While I do believe that to be true, when we compare the
student population to that of our foreign competition I believe we will find a
vast difference. In other countries it is a privilege to go to school, and not
all children attend school. In the United States we educate all students, and
not all students are going to excel at critical thinking, and creative problem
solving. Comparing the entire student populations’ test scores to the test
scores of an elite student population is certain to produce skewed data.
Regardless of our nation’s
education ranking and performance, the future of our students will require 21st
Century skills. It is up to me as a teacher to provide opportunities for
students to practice critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and
communication. I need to expose students to technology and allow them to become
confident in using it so that they can take these skills and become innovative
with them.
Sarah,you highlighted a point that got by me on the Partnership For 21st Century Skills site. I hadn't thought much about foreign populations and how comparing our student population to their 'elite' population is much like comparing the attributes of an apple to the attributes of a orange. We in the US educate all students. Students who have learning challenges, behavioral challenges,and severe medical challenges are all afforded a public education. Do these countries that we are being compared to also serve all of these student populations? It is absolutely true that overall, our schools are not profiles of 21st Century Learning because we lack the digital tools to compete on that level.
ReplyDeleteI am also asking my students to dig deeper and think harder about a topic, and I am finding that they might never have been asked to do this before, or at least with any regularity. I receive the dreaded, "I don't know". In a world where "I don't know" will no longer suffice, it's hard to move students to deep thinking when by middle school level many have never had this challenge previously. Workbooks, handouts, and questions at the end of the chapters do not necessarily produce this deep level of critical thinking. We as teachers need to start building those skills into our curriculum so when students get to my middle school level, instead of responding, with a unified "I don't know", they instead say, "let's think about this".
Like Stephanie, I also had not considered the caliber of student populations that are being assessed in other countries. If other countries only educate a portion of their children after elementary or middle school, then the difference between the achievement of American students and foreign students makes much more sense. This being said, our students are still in need of 21st century skills like critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creative problem solving. I also think that teachers should not let a lack of resources stop them from striving to teach these skills. Providing opportunities for students to exercise these skills, like encouraging students to question new information and dig deeper as Stephanie stated, is pivotal for our students’ growth. The P21 website provides a Math Map (http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/P21_Math_Map.pdf) with examples for teaching each 21st century skill in a math classroom for grades 4, 8 and 12 which I found to be very insightful and helpful. Some of them involve using technology while others can be done in classrooms that may lack these resources. All of these strategies involve more thought and planning on the teacher’s part but are far more worthwhile in the long run.
ReplyDeleteSara- I agree that regardless of how or where our nation ranks globally (although I do wonder how our top-ranked U.S. students compare to other nations), 21st century skills are necessary in today's and future society. In Virginia, while not listed as one of the states signed up to implement 21st century skills, these skills are embedded in differentiation strategies that include cooperative learning, technology integration, project-, research-, and action-based assignments. We also participate in the STEM program. I have personally signed up one summer to "co-facilitate" a team of middle school students enrolled in the summer camp program. The program, held at Dahlgren Naval Base in Virginia, involved creating and programming a robot to complete specific missions in a crisis situation. Students were observed and evaluated on leadership, collaboration, communication, problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity and innovation skills related to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). I believe Virginia will eventually become a member of the partnership.
ReplyDeleteI liked how the four C’s (critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity) and the 3Rs (cognitive, interpersonal, intrapersonal) intertwine together to target student learning to prepare students for college and the workforce.
ReplyDeleteHawaii has adopted the Common Core State Standards, however, we are in the process of developing curriculum guidelines for content areas. We have the general idea we need to fine tune our next steps are.
Absolutely, this website can be a useful tool for teachers to gain resources and make connections with other community members who are adopting 21st century practices. The importance of assessment was a refresher for me as well. I understand the importance; my problem is to be consistent in the process.
I agree that the future of our students will require 21st Century skills. It is our responsibility as educators to provide opportunities for students to practice critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and communication.
As we learn and recognize the value of incorporating 21st century skills in our classrooms we will better equip our students with the knowledge and learning they will need to be successful in the future.