21st Century Classrooms What Skills are Necessary to Ensure Future

Success?

Changes in Today’s Education

• The incredible technological advances of the 21st century have demanded a change in our educational system in order to best position our students for future success

“We should seriously consider the claim that we are now undergoing one of the most significant technological revolutions for education since the progression from oral to print and book based teaching.”Dr. Douglas Kellner, UCLA, New Media and New Literacies: Reconstructing Education for the New Millennium

Survival Skills of the 21st Century

• Research by Tony Wagner, Harvard University – Conducted hundreds of interviews with CEOs

from business, non-profit, and educational sectors

– Identified seven skills necessary for students to succeed in the 21st century

Source

Survival Skills of the 21st Century

•Group work is critical for students to understand the different roles within a group, and how to both lead and listen

Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by

Influence

•Cultivating dynamic classroom environments prepares students to quickly and comfortably adapt to changing situations

Agility and Adaptability

•Students should be active participants and meaningful contributors to their world

Initiative and Entrepreneurship

•Lessons should build student’s confidence in identifying problems and thinking critically to solve them

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

•Despite ever-changing technology, communication skills will always be a necessary element in success

Effective Oral and Written

Communication

•Students should be able to effectively locate and make sense of the vast resource of online information made available to them

Accessing and Analyzing

Information

•Teachers should encourage students to exercise creativity and foster their imagination

Curiosity and Imagination

Survival Skills of the 21st Century

Partnership for 21st Century Skills

• Organization committed to overhauling our school systems by incorporating 21st century skills into classroom instruction

• Seek to mix traditional school subjects with 4 “C” skills they believe are necessary to compete in today’s global economy

Source

Partnership for 21st Century Skills

• Believe schools should be “laced with a project-based curriculum for life aimed at engaging students in addressing real-world problems, issues important to humanity, and questions that matter.” – Incorporating these lessons prepare students

not only for higher education, but for successful careers/lives

Source

Partnership for 21st Century Skills

Critical Thinking and Problem

SolvingCommunication

Collaboration Creativity and Innovation

Supporting Research

• Critical thinking skills are positively correlated to a student’s future educational and employment success (Miller, Sadler, & Mohl, 1993)

• Strong interpersonal skills, including communication, is a significant college and career readiness indicator (Committee on the Assessment of 21st Century Skills, 2011)

• Creative thinking is a better predictor for a student’s college GPA than their high school GPA or SAT scores (Sternberg, 2006)

• Learning that occurs in collaborative group environments is more long-lasting than learning individually (Saner et al., 1994; Webb, 1993)

Source

“The highest ranked skills for students entering the workforce were not facts and basic skills; they were

applied skills that enable workers to use the knowledge and basic skills they have acquired.”

(Key Findings: Are They Really Ready for Work? Conference Board 2006)

How Schools Can Cultivate These Skills

• These four skills all relate to the thought processes and behaviors of students

• Most important aspect of today’s education is teaching students key concepts/content that can then be utilized in an interdisciplinary way so they can store – Permits students to learn and apply knowledge in

different settings

• Schoolwork should reflect real life situations that are relevant to students – Relevant information is more easily remembered

How Schools Can Cultivate These Skills

• Technology is also an important piece – Very important for students to identify what

technological tools will best complete tasks + then use these tools to create and distribute information

• Students should be “creators as well as consumers of published information” (Apple, 2008)

– Scratch is one such program that enables students to create their own content and examine the work of others

Scratch

• Program that allows students to create interactive art, stories, games, and simulations + share them online– Integrates 21st century learning skills – Promotes:• Technological understanding/skills• Communication skills• Collaboration• Critical thinking • Creative thinking

Scratch

Further Reading

• Partnership for 21st Century Skills • Tony Wagner’s Official Site• National Education Association: 21st Centu

ry Skills • Assessing 21st Century Skills: Integrating R

esearch Findings• 21st Century Skills: Preparing Students for

THEIR Future• Twenty-first-Century Skills and Implication

s for Education• Scratch: About