Module 6 21st Century Skills

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Module 6 - 21st Century Skills
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Objectives

• Discuss rationale for teaching and learning 21st
  Century Skills
• Provide process for looking more closely at
  Iowas 21st Century Skills
• Examine 21st Century instruction

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Characteristics of the 21st Century Learner . .
.

• . . . will use technologies that havent been
  invented
• to do jobs that dont exist.
• . . . networked
• . . . multi-tasker
• . . . digitally literate
• . . . craves interactivity
• . . . strong visual-spatial skills
• . . . tethered to the Internet
• . . . wants to learn things that matter
• . . . wants to be challenged to reach own
  conclusions

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Looking deeper at . . . . . . digital literacy
. . .

• information creation
• innovation
• activism
• global citizenship
• responsibility
• Born Digital Understanding the First
  Generation of Digital Natives Palfrey and
  Gasser, 2008

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Why 21st Century Skills?

• Growing consensus that schools need to be
  accountable for more than basic academics.
• Creativity is as important in education as
  literacy, and we should treat it with the same
  status. -Sir Ken Robinson, 2006
• The top 10 jobs for 2010 werent even created in
  2004
• - Diana G. Oblinger, President
  EDUCAUSE
• Leads to reframing instructional practice
  perhaps change structure of our schools

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The Global Achievement Gap

• Our teens leave school equipped to work only in
  the kinds of jobs that are fast disappearing from
  the American economy.
• Why even our best schools dont teach the new
  survival skills our children need and what we
  can do about it.
• -Tony Wagner, 2008
• Harvard Graduate School of Education

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Seven Survival Skills for Teens Today(Global
Achievement Gap, 2008 by Tony Wagner)

• Critical thinking and problem-solving
• Collaboration
• Agility and adaptability
• Initiative and entrepreneurialism
• Effective oral and written communication
• Accessing and analyzing information
• Curiosity and imagination

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Connections in Iowa

• Integrating 21st century skills into teaching
  and assessment, then, is not only an economic
  imperative, driven by changes in the workforce,
  but a vital aspect of improving student
  learning.
• Measuring Skills for the 21st
  Century, 2008 - Silva

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21st Century Skills

• Iowa legislature defined 21st Century Skills as
• Financial literacy
• Health literacy
• Technology literacy
• Civic literacy
• Employability skills
• Essential concepts and skills are complex
• Will require a deep understanding by educators
• Structure of schooling will need to be
  re-examined by all stakeholders

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Cross Walk Process 21st Century Skills Work
Teams

• Developed after thorough investigation
• Partnership for 21st Century Skills - 7th state
  to join this initiative
• enGauge - McRel
• SCANS - original report in 1990s
• Contextually related national standards

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21st Century Skills and Instruction

• Video clip The Blood Project
• 1. What 21st century skills are evident in this
  example?
• 2. What are students/teachers doing that
• supports 21st century learning?
• 3. What characteristics of effective
  instruction are illustrated?

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From video exampleInstruction for 21st Century
Skills

• Relevant to student outside the classroom
• Student is highly engaged
• Student has a choice and voice in his/her
  learning
• Student takes ownership for own learning
• Includes higher order thinking - creativity and
  innovation
• Learning tasks elicit evidence of learning

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21st Century Learners

• Video clip Dollars and Sense
• Math and Financial Literacy
• Charter School in Chicago
• 1. What 21st Century Skills essential concepts
  and skill sets do you see?
• What contributes to the level of student
  engagement?
• Which characteristics of effective instruction
  are illustrated?
• Think about possible connections to outcomes of
  the implementation plan.

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Supporting Instruction of 21st Century Skills

• Educator professional development
• 21st century instruction
• Authentic assessments
• Collaboration
• Among teachers and students
• Community
• High expectations
• Each and every student
• Educators
• Community

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Supporting Instruction of 21st Century
Skills (continued)

• Expect a changing school environment
• Project-based learning
• Time allocation
• Student ownership of learning
• Technology
• Tool for learning
• Breadth of options
• Community connections

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School wide classroom focus
District Focus
Classroom Focus

• Where are 21st Century Skills being addressing?
  
• At what depth are they being addressed?
• Which 21st Century Skills are not being
  adequately addressed?
• How might we restructure programs to ensure 21st
  Century Skills are adequately addressed?

• What 21st Century Skills am I addressing in my
  class?
• At what depth are they being addressed?
• How do I know students are getting it?
• How do I restructure my class and instructional
  activities to increase learning of the 21st
  Century Skills?

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Some possibilities

• Lens of 21st Century Skills
• Using 21st Century Skills handouts
• Inventory
• Focus on Employability essential concepts
• Select a unit of study that is currently taught
• Explicit instruction/assumed understanding
• How is this assessed?
• Share findings from inventory

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Other questions to consider

• How will we operationalize the concepts embedded
  in the 21st century skills?
• What might we expect as evidence that students
  have learned the skills?
• How will our teachers collaborate to determine
  alignment of learning experiences to these
  skills?
• To what depth (level of cognitive complexity)
  will be expect the skills to be evidenced? Will
  we need rubrics? Quadrant D lesson assessments?

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Some creative possibilities

• Identify creative approaches to ensure each and
  every student in your school is learning the 21st
  century skills.
• Share out . . .

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Possibilities for incorporating 21st Century
Skills . . .

• Project based learning
• School-wide projects where students explore
  passions
• Internships
• Student driven action research projects
• Authentic service learning
• Creative alignment of educators
• Other . . . .

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A Final Thought . . .

• It is a world in which comfort with ideas and
  abstractions is the passport to a good job, in
  which creativity and innovation are the key to
  the good life, in which high levels of education
  - a very different kind of education than most of
  us have had - are going to be the only security
  there is.
• -New Commission on the Skills of the American
  Workforce, 2006

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