I am fairly familiar with the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website. Over the past year my school has been incorporating there list of skills deemed necessary to succeed in the 21st century. When I think of 21st century skills, I often think of technolgy, media, etc. however, when viewing the website I was surprised to see how such skills really should be integrated into the entire school foundation. For example, the skills should be used as an avenue to teach core subjects not isolated experiences. This is evident in the viewing of the framework for 21st century learning graphic.
I find it difficult to disagree with anything on the site. During our professional development we were asked to demonstrate how we currently address each of these skills in our classrooms. At the end of the day every teacher was able to provide multiple examples of how these skills are currently being implemented in our lessons. This only reinforces the importance of the work that this organization represents.
While I understand the importance of these skills, my students may not understand there relevance necessarily. I need to enforce the importance of these skills in a quickly changing technological age in order to produce students who are independent self-directed learners.
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Hi.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned that your school is incorporating 21st century skills. How are they doing this? Are they consistent with the skills mentioned on the website we evaluated? I really like that you mentioned the skills should be used as an avenue to teach core subjects, not taught in isolation. I think that's the beauty of technology! We CAN use it in conjunction with that which we are all ready required. The key, I think, is to make sure we are open to this! Not all are. Are you?
Liz,
ReplyDeleteBefore our course, I too thought of twenty-first century skills as mainly dealing with technology integration. I think many people have this perception. Fortunately, twenty-first century skills, as you mention, are skills that can be applied in all course subjects. These skills are skills such as collaboration, creativity, problem solving, and communicating effectively. These skills belong in every classroom around the world.
What are some of the ways that you currently address these skills in your classroom? Which skills do you find to be the most challenging to integrate? I find that my students have difficulty with lessons that require problem solving skills. I try to overcome this by having them work in pairs or small groups. Students working in groups have a higher rate of success (Marzano, Pickering, Pollock, 2001). Another way to effectively incorporate these skills is, of course, through the use of technology (Richardson, 2009). I feel there needs to be a balance between using technology and doing things the old fashioned paper and pencil way.
What grade specifically do you teach? I find it disappointing that high school students are not aware of the necessity of twenty-first century skills. If this is the case, these students will be at a disadvantage when the workplace shifts again.
Kristy Brown
Grade 6 Geography
References:
Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D. J., & Pollock, J. E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.