Did you know that today’s Kindergarten students will begin thinking about retiring in the year 2077?
The term “21st century skills is generally used to refer to core competencies such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving that advocates believe schools need to teach and help learners thrive in today’s world (edweek.org, 2010). Conceptually, 21st century learning requires ‘knowing how to learn’. In order to do so, students (and teachers) must develop strong critical thinking and interpersonal communication skills; preparing for life-long learning. This paradigm shift is from ‘knowing things’ (core knowledge in subject areas) to ‘finding out things’; a habit of mind that allows people to think and reflect critically. 21st century skills are learner-centered and personalized so that students can enter into a highly competitive, technology-driven global society.
“Retooling Schooling”
The framework in which to think about 21st century learning falls into three areas: learning and innovations skills, digital literacy, and life and career skills. Schools need to move beyond core subjects and include 21st century skills to prepare citizens to work and compete in a 21st century economy (P21 Framework Definitions, 2009). According to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills LLC, the essential 21st century skills include:
- Accountability and Adaptability – set and expect students to meet high standards in the classroom and teach students to set standards and goals for themselves;
- Communication Skills – students need to be able to read, write and understand multimedia communication in a variety of forms;
- Creativity and Intellectual Curiosity – help students develop, implement and communicate new ideas to others, being open and responsive to other perspectives;
- Critical Thinking and Systems Thinking – exercise sound reasoning and understanding with your students to make complex choices, and help students understand the interconnections among systems;
- Information and Media Literacy Skills – help students to analyze, access, manage, integrate, evaluate and create information in a variety of forms and media;
- Interpersonal and Collaborative Skills – help students develop teamwork and leadership skills, helping them adapt to various roles and responsibilities. Students need to learn how to work productively with others, respecting diverse perspectives;
- Problem Identification, Formulation and Solution – teach students how to frame, analyze and solve problems;
- Self-Direction – help students learn how to monitor their understanding and learning needs, locating resources, and transferring learning from one domain to another;
· Social Responsibility – help students to act responsibly keeping in mind the community at large, to demonstrate ethical behavior in personal and school contexts.
What is 21st Century Curriculum?
21st century curriculum is interdisciplinary, project-based, and research driven. It incorporates higher order thinking skills, multiple intelligences, technology and multimedia, multiple literacies and authentic assessment (Hopper and Seaman). The classrooms are expanded to include the greater community; students are self-directed as they work both independently and interdependently. Instructional design will foster challenges for all students. Curricula themes will include global awareness; financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy; civic literacy, health literacy, and environmental literacy. Because today’s life and work environments require far more that thinking skills and content, students will have to pay attention to life and career skills in a globally competitive informational society.
21st Century Professional Development
Teachers will capture opportunities to integrate 21st century skills into their classroom practice. This will require a balance of direct instruction and project based teaching methods. This requires a deeper understanding of subject matter so that problem solving and critical thinking can be enhanced. Teachers will create environments that support differentiated teaching and learning.
What Needs to Change?
Significant curriculum changes are necessary, as evidenced by the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). These standards will ensure equity in education; students will have access to learning that prepares them to be productive citizens. The CCSS does not add to what is currently being taught, but rather approaching instruction differently for 21st century learning. (Hooper and Seaman, 2009)
The Learning Environment
Preparing students for success in the 21st century also requires a shift in the learning environment. It must foster student experimentation, exploration and peer interactions. Rather than a single classroom serving as the individual unit, a learning community extends to involve several teachers and groups of students. Students and teachers work together to enhance and amplify each other’s learning. In addition, schools are environmentally friendly, energy efficient and ‘green’.
Randall Fielding, AIA,(2006) identifies six essential elements that define facility design for 21st century learning.
1. Supporting teaching and learning from ‘turf-centered” classrooms to collaborative, interdisciplinary centers. (Collaborative spaces, individual spaces, presentation areas, etc.)
2. Maximizing physical comfort and well -being. (Architectural elements can be designed to foster and define individual and small group spaces and to distinguish instructional spaces.)
3. Connecting school and community. (Community learning center, upgrades libraries and media centers, parent resource rooms, landscapes.)
4. Leveraging best-practices. (Explore a large quantity of ideas makes a better solution.)
5. Inclusive, outcome-based process. (Developing a vision linking learning and the facility, continuous evaluation of design, learning spaces are diagrammed with educators.)
Existing buildings can be transformed with creative solutions that are shaped by a vision for the future of learning!
“It is our challenge to match the needs of our learners to a world that is changing with great rapidity. To meet this challenge, we need to become strategic learners ourselves by deliberately expanding our perspectives and updating our approaches” (Jacobs, 2010).
Marion Anastasia, Ed.D.
Principal, East Montpelier Elementary School
Edweek.org (2010). How Do You Define 21st-Century Learning?
Fielding, R., (2006). Best Practice in Action: Six Essential Elements that Define Educational Facility Design. CEFPI Planner, December
Hopper, J., and Seaman, J. (2009). Transforming Schools for the 21st Century.
Jacobs, H.H., (2010). Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World. Alexandria, VA
A Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2009) PD21 Framework Definitions: Learning for the 21st Century. (www.21stcenturyskills.org)
