© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 1

21st Century Skills:

An Educator’s Guide

Richard Halkett

Director of Strategy & Research Cisco Global Education

March 17, 2009

This slide deck can be seen with the accompanying video on

GETideas.org

www.getideas.org/coge

© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 2

A World of Change in Baseline QualificationsApproximated by percentage of persons with high school or equivalent qualifications in the age groups 55–64, 45–55, 45–44, and 25–34 years

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© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 3

A World of Change in Baseline QualificationsApproximated by percentage of persons with high school or equivalent qualifications in the age groups 55–64, 45–55, 45–44, and 25–34 years

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1990s 1980s 1970s 1960s

1. Excluding ISCED 3C short programmes 2. Year of reference 2004

3. Including some ISCED 3C short programmes 3. Year of reference 2003

© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 4

A World of Change in Baseline QualificationsApproximated by percentage of persons with high school or equivalent qualifications in the age groups 55–64, 45–55, 45–44, and 25–34 years

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ted

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3. Including some ISCED 3C short programmes 3. Year of reference 2003

© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 5

New Assessments on the Horizon

PISA (Program for International Student Assessment)

NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress)

“I'm calling on our nation's governors and state education chiefs to develop standards and assessments that don't simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test, but whether they possess 21st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking and entrepreneurship and creativity”

President Barack Obama, March 2009

© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 6

The Three Benefits of Learning

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The Three Benefits of Learning

LearningLearning

£$¥₨元

£$¥₨元

Economiccompetitiveness

Economiccompetitiveness

© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 8

The Three Benefits of Learning

LearningLearning

Social & environmental

wellbeing

Social & environmental

wellbeing

© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 9

The Three Benefits of Learning

LearningLearning

Lifelongpersonal

prosperity

Lifelongpersonal

prosperity

© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 10

The Three Benefits of Learning

LearningLearning

£$¥₨元

£$¥₨元

Economiccompetitiveness

Economiccompetitiveness

Lifelongpersonal

prosperity

Lifelongpersonal

prosperity

Social & environmental

wellbeing

Social & environmental

wellbeing

© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 11

The World Is Changing—Fast

GlobalizationGlobalization

SustainabilitySustainability

TechnologyTechnology Demographic change

Demographic change

Peace & securityPeace & security

© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 12

How the Demand for Skills Has ChangedEconomy-wide measures of routine and non-routine task input (U.S.)

Mean task input as percentiles of the 1960 task distribution.

40

45

50

55

60

65

1960 1970 1980 1990 2002

Non-Routine Interactive

Non-Routine Analytic

Routine Manual

Routine Cognitive

Non-Routine Manual

The Dilemma of SchoolsThe skills that are easiest to teach and test are also the ones that are easiest to digitize, automate, and outsource.

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21st Century Learning

Education 2.0

Education 3.0

Education 1.0

Supported Through an Adapted Reform Agenda

High-quality Infrastructure &

Technology

Leadership, People & Culture

21st Century Skills

Curriculum, Pedagogy & Assessment

Achieved in Holistic Transformation

Education 3.0

Traditional Education Systems

Curriculum

Teachers

Accountability

Leadership

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Elements of a 21st Century Curriculum

Basic Skills

Core Subjects and Technical Skills

Disciplinary Knowledge

21st Century Skills

Ethics, History, and Citizenship

Specialized Subjects

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21st Century Skills: Many Perspectives

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Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21)

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The OECD

1. The great collaborators and orchestrators

2. The great synthesizers

3. The great explainers

4. The great versatilists

5. The great personalizers

6. The great localizers

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The Debate

“The same ideas were iterated and reiterated by pedagogues across the twentieth century. Their call for 20th century skills sounds identical to the current effort to promote 21st century skills.”

Diane Ravitch, Research Professor of Education,

New York University

“The error at the heart of P21 is the idea that skills are all-purpose muscles that, once developed, can be applied to new and unforeseen domains of experience.”

E.D. Hirsch, Jr., former Professor of Education and Humanities,

University of Virginia

© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 19

A False Dichotomy

Not knowledge OR skills—knowledge AND skills

Not LESS knowledge—MORE knowledge through skills/relevance

Not summative OR formative assessment—BETTER summative and MORE formative assessment

The world's great thinkers have always possessed these skills, BUT:

Never systematically taught to students

Neglected due to emphasis on knowledge

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In Summation: 21st Century Skills

Many consistent themes

A critical debate

Support from the Obama administration

Demands interpretation on a local, regional and national level by professional educators

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21st Century Skills in Action

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New York City iSchool

Interdisciplinary, problem-based modules

Self-paced, individualized online coursework

College preparatory core experiences

Off-site field work

Integration of 21st century skills into all aspects of high school life Leadership

Collaboration

Interdisciplinary problem solving

Personal accountability/advocacy

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Established by the UK Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce

Built on the RSA Opening Minds framework

Five categories of competence

Learning

Citizenship

Relating to people

Managing situations

Managing information

RSA Academy, UK

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High Tech High, San Diego

Project-Based Learning

Integrated study project

Authentic audience and product

Student activities

Identification of life forms

Student written history

GIS mapmaking technology

Observations, reflections, commentary

100% of students graduate and attend college

© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 25

What Does This Mean for School Systems?

Save time—use technology to extend learning beyond the classroom

Incorporate 21st century skills across subjects

Listen to student feedback on what works

Monitor NAEP assessment movement toward 21st century skills

Don’t teach to the test every day—be brave!

© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 26