While exploring the website Partnership for 21st Century Skills I was amazed at the amount of information that they offered in the area of teaching 21st century skills to our students. I was impressed with the amount of resources they listed, including a healthy number of publications (available in PDF format, or by ordering hard copies). They also give access to standards, assessments, and professional development ideas that they have partnered on with several states. They also give access to several of their professional development PowerPoint presentations.
I was surprised to see the inclusion of creativity and innovation in the framework. I think these get overlooked in today's high-stakes testing educational philosophy. I feel as if we spend so much time getting students ready for a one-size-fits-all standardized test that we do not have time to allow much creativity and innovation from students, let alone to teach it. This is not to say that we have tried to stifle creativity, only that it is has become harder to encourage it when everyone must complete the same test in the same way.
I was also surprised to see the inclusion of initiative and self-direction (and really the whole life and career skills section) in the framework, for many of the same reasons as the creativity framework. Again, it often feels that we are required to spoon feed a certain amount of information to our students so they can spit it back out on the test. Teaching initiative and self-direction is a very important skill, but it takes time. And time is always at a premium. Some students will pick up on it quickly, but those who do not can quickly fall behind.
I cannot say that I disagreed with any of the posted framework on the site. I would have liked to see technology integration and skill development play a slightly larger role in the framework, I suppose. Teaching the core subjects is important of course, but without a true integration of technology in them, I still feel that our students will lack what they need to know in the workplace.
The implications for my students is the fact that they must face a ever changing, more difficult future with as many skills as I can help them develop. Unlike in generations past, students today must gain new global skills such as learning new languages, technology skills, and working collaboratively with people from all over the world. For me as a contemporary teacher, it means that I must integrate many of these skills within the core subjects. Life skills, and even technology skills, are no longer skills that I can develop outside of the core subject areas. There just is not enough time. Instead I must seek a way to integrate them into all areas of school. That will be the only way to prepare my students for the future.
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Shannon,
ReplyDeleteWhen you mentioned technology integration and skill development playing a larger role, it did reveal to me that the "purple" section of the framework was slightly smaller. Do you think if we effectively apply those skills they will spill over into the other portions of the framework?
I looked for any explanation of the 'size' of the sections, but had no luck. I don't the focus should be the size of the pieces. As with anything in education, balance is key. I was just glad to see all the components can be/are being applied to America's schools.
Eno,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a great point...If we are preparing our students for cookie-cutter standardized test we are not allowing much room for creativity. I really think that this is a problem with teaching today. We should be teaching students to think critically, analyze and problem solve rather than memorize and regurgitate. Obviously students need math and grammar skills, but without the critical thinking and problem solving skills we are missing a HUGE part of the puzzle. I think that we all agree that we need to prepare students for the real world. Frankly, the real world does not depend on standardized tests.
I agree with you that teaching initiative and self-direction is very important, it is also one of those things that is difficult to teach, it is not like teaching a math lesson for example. I try very hard to help my students develop these types of skills especially since they are in high school and will soon be relying on themselves. When my students first come into my class, they are often surprised by how much I put on them and that I don't "take them by the hand" and lead them through everything. I leave many decisions and responsiblies on them. At first, they think they "scored" with a teacher that doesn't pay attention to what they are doing but they soon realize that just because I don't lay things out specifically for them doesn't mean they are not responsible to get things done. I give them the "what" has to get done and I just leave the "how" it gets done up to them. If I walk them through everything, then what will they do when I am not there (or someone else to guide them). I think these types of skills are crucial in the work place where they will be given a certain number of responsiblities that need to be taken care of and they can't keep asking someone to direct them through it.
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