The year is 1999. Cellphones are clunky, Napster has been launched, the Matrix was just released, and the euro is created. Show
Fast forward to now — phones and tablets are sleek and ever-changing, streaming services have changed how we consume entertainment, and an increasingly global economy has transformed how we do everything from grocery shopping to vacations. In the face of such rapid change, educators and activists are promoting 21st century skills to prepare students for an unknown future and jobs that have yet to be created. What are 21st century skills?21st century skills are a range of competencies, taught across all levels of education, that give students the skills they need to navigate an ever-shifting workforce. According to Bernie Trilling and Charles Fadel, authors of 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times, 21st century skills reflect the idea that “the world has changed so fundamentally in the last few decades that the roles of learning and education in day-to-day living have also changed forever.” The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) notes that 21st century skills transform students into “versalitists,” that is, students who can “apply depth of skill to a progressively widening scope of situations and experiences, gaining new competencies, building relationships and assuming new roles.” Since the late 1980s, teachers and school leaders have sought to address the need for 21st century skills with makerspaces, flipped learning classrooms, genius hour, gamification and even elements of common core math. Why 21st century skills are importantThe OECD has described ongoing trends of globalization, technological progress and demographic change that aren’t likely to slow down in the near future. Technology is improving at an exponential rate. Goods and services are routinely transported around the globe every day, and a study from Psychology Today found millennial workers switch jobs every 4.4 years, on average. According to the OECD, “We live in a fast-changing world, and producing more of the same knowledge and skills will not suffice to address the challenges of the future.A generation ago, teachers could expect that what they taught would last their students a lifetime. Today, because of rapid economic and social change, schools have to prepare students for jobs that have not yet been created, technologies that have not yet been invented and problems that we don’t yet know will arise.” Emphasize adaptability, technological skill and all the other 21st century skills listed below to help your students thrive in the face of new challenges. 21st century skills in educationStudents need to be able to solve complex problems as they occur. Effective problem solving involves several elements:
Solution fluency asks students to define a problem, develop and deliver a solution and evaluate the process and results. There are six key steps to solution fluency:
With these skills, students can master any new problems they might encounter, both in the classroom and the workplace. Analytical thinking is a crucial step that comes before critical thinking. To think critically about something, students need to analyze it and break it down. Analytical thinking can involve:
Your students need to be comfortable with these steps before they can assess reliability and interpret information. Analytical thinking is the fourth level in Bloom’s Taxonomy, a way to order cognitive skills for student learning. Source:Wasabi Learning In the classroom and in daily life, students don’t just passively receive information. They’re following, sharing and liking online content — so teaching them to think critically about source and meaning is essential. Critical thinking, the step after analytical thinking, encourages students to develop metacognition skills and think more deeply about the problems they encounter. As one study states, “Merely having knowledge or information is not enough.To be effective in the workplace (and in their personal lives), students must be able to solve problems to make effective decisions; they must be able to think critically.” To foster critical thinking skills in your students, encourage questions like:
Engineers, musicians, teachers and accountants — in every occupation, workers need to use creative thinking skills to develop innovative solutions to complex problems. Creative solutions involve using digital and non-digital tools to come up with unique and useful ideas, or make connections between previously unrelated ideas. When students use creative thinking skills, they’re taking information from their analysis of a problem and the conclusions from their critique, and using them to create something new. To teach creative thinking, teachers need permission from school leadership to approach classroom teaching, student assignments and achievement goals from different angles. This can include:
Collaboration is essential when it comes to working and living in a cooperative society. Globalization and new communications technology have changed the way we think about cooperation in the workplace — and outside of it. Want to encourage collaboration in your school? Try these techniques:
In both digital and physical spaces, students should be able to develop ideas and work on projects together. According to the OECD, literacy today is about managing “non-linear information structures,” like the internet, and learning to separate information from misinformation. This means when students receive information (passively scrolling through Instagram) or seek out information (writing a research paper), they should be able to find trustworthy sources, identify relevant information and interpret what they’re consuming correctly. In your school, you can encourage teachers to:
Today’s students use technology to achieve goals differently.Instead of heading to the library and browsing stacks to find research material, they head to the internet and browse hundreds of online databases filled with information. “the skills to use information and communications technology to efficiently search, select and organize information to make informed decisions about the most suitable sources of information for a given task.” So, what does this look like in your building?
The old adage, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” is still true today.According to Julia Freeland Fisher, director of education research at the Clayton Christensen Institute, “Amid arming 21st-century high school graduates with all sorts of hard and soft skills that modern life and work demands, we should also aim to arm them with a strong, reliable and diverse network.” Network gaps are as harmful for students as skill gaps, and can contribute to inequality. Economically or socially disadvantaged students are often less able to make professional connections early on, or even realize they need to. To give all your students a boost when it comes to networking, there are a few things you can do:
How to promote 21st century skills in your schoolNot just limited to STEM subjects, 21st century skills look different in every school. A focus on 21st century skills might be part of your school mission statement, or just one part of building prepared students. However you choose to emphasize them, there are several strategies that can promote 21st century skills in your school: EdTech tools help students learn relevant course content in an engaging and applicable way, and they often teach computer and digital literacy skills. In a survey of North Carolina teachers, 85% responded that they believed digital tools can provide immediate, ongoing information about student understanding and increased learning. Here at Prodigy, we want to make sure every student has the skills they need to become lifelong learners. Our engaging, game-based math platform encourages students to love learning math and gives teachers access to essential tools that make classroom learning even more effective — and teacher accounts are free. Teachers can access Reports, differentiate content for individual students, and prepare students for standardized tests. Our adaptive algorithm ensures students are always working in their zone of proximal development and gives them the confidence they need to tackle more challenging problems. Sign up for your free teacher account today! Sign up nowTeachers know what their students need, but they often lack access to tools, resources and training. As Bev Purdue, former governor of North Carolina, writes, “District and state leaders must give teachers theprofessional developmentopportunities they need to bring their classrooms into the 21st century, along with the infrastructure to support digital learning for all students, not just those from affluent districts.” Here’s what that could look like in your school:
Run workshops that equip teachers to use new teaching strategies or educational software, giving them hands-on demonstrations and offering concrete entry points to bring it into their classroom. Personalized learning involves students in their own learning process, teaching them several valuable skills:
While it can take many forms depending on your school’s needs, personalized learning changes the way both teachers and students approach learning. Want to know more? Check out our 7 Personalized Learning Strategies and Examples post! Encouraging diversity in the classroom can prepare students to communicate and appreciate the diversity they’ll encounter when they start working. Here are some ways you can start:
Hire diversely — A staff that reflects the diversity in your school and in real life will expose your students to different ideas and teaching styles, making them stronger as a result. One of the best ways to encourage students to think critically and draw conclusions between data, mediums and subjects is interdisciplinary teaching. As global barriers break down, it feels appropriate to mirror that in the classroom. With interdisciplinary teaching, students will:
You can encourage interdisciplinary teaching in your school by pairing subject-specific teachers with each other and challenging them to come up with a project, or by offering professional development for teachers that shows them how to best approach interdisciplinary teaching. For more ideas, check out 10 Interdisciplinary Teaching Activities and Examples! Final thoughts about 21st century skillsIn today’s quick and constantly shifting world, 21st century skills are essential. When students are able to adapt to new requirements and overcome unexpected obstacles, they’ll thrive no matter where their life takes them. Your focus on 21st century skills should move beyond just a line in your school mission statement and into practical classroom and school-wide applications. Start slow, and work your way up if it seems daunting. Students will reap the benefits in and out of the classroom. Want an effective EdTech tool that can support your students as they develop 21st century skills? Try Prodigy — the engaging, curriculum-aligned math platform used by teachers and school leaders around the world. Teachers can use Prodigy to:
What is integrating 21st century skills in teaching/learning process?“21st century skills are tools that can be universally applied to enhance ways of thinking, learning, working and living in the world. The skills include critical thinking/reasoning, creativity/creative thinking, problem solving, metacognition, collaboration, communication and global citizenship.
How you can integrate 21st century education in the curriculum elaborate?3 Ways to Integrate 21st Century Skills in Curriculum Planning. 21st Century Skills as Overarching Unit Standards. Incorporate a 21st century standards menu into your curriculum map. ... . Text box for Reflection on 21st Century Skills. Create a new category. ... . 21st Century Skills as an Addition to Existing Categories.. How can we integrate in our teaching methods strategies the 21st century approach?5 Essential 21st Century Teaching Strategies. Teaching Strategies to Be Able to Teach to All Learners. Being a 21st century educator means having the ability to be able to teach and reach all learners. ... . Be Able to Implement Technology. ... . Be Able to Foster Student Relationships. ... . Be Forward Thinking. ... . Be Able to Embrace Change.. How can you promote the 21st century teaching and learning?Run workshops that equip teachers to use new teaching strategies or educational software, giving them hands-on demonstrations and offering concrete entry points to bring it into their classroom. Personalized learning involves students in their own learning process, teaching them several valuable skills: Communication.
|