The rapid pace of change in our society has led to the term “21st century skills.” Tony Wagner gives a good explanation in his video when he points out that knowledge is now a commodity. It’s free, like water. With the growth of technology and the Internet, knowledge on any topic is readily accessible. Using the Periodic Table and state capitals as examples, he notes that it’s no longer necessary to memorize such information since it can be quickly googled. As a result, it’s no longer “what you know, but what you can do with what you know” (Wagner).
As our world is changing so quickly, it becomes important that our students are educated in the skills necessary to participate constructively in society, hence the term “21st century skills.” The skills identified by Wagner are basically the same as the ones mentioned on many other sites. After talking to educational, business and industry leaders, he identifies the following skills as critical for all students to develop:
- critical thinking / problem solving
- collaboration
- agility and adaptability
- initiative and entrepreneurism
- communication
- accessing and analyzing information
- curiosity and imagination
Wagner believes that 21st century skills are essential for a student to gain a global perspective, to compete in the economy of the future, to be a participatory citizen, and to be a continuous learner (Wagner).
21st century skills have been a hot topic this year in my school, Bristol Central High School, since we just participated in our NEASC evaluation. As part of the process, we revised our curriculum, rewrote our mission statement, and created school wide rubrics, all in an attempt to incorporate 21st century skills into every student’s education. Our new mission statement sums up our priorities: “Bristol Central High School promotes an environment wherein all members of its community employ 21st century skills to become creative thinkers, conscientious problem-solvers, collaborative learners and committed citizens in a global society.” Implementing our new curriculum has been successful; teachers have been revising lessons, activities and assessments to align with the Common Core and incorporate 21st century skills.
As a faculty, we also collaborated to create school wide rubrics to assess problem solving, technology, communication, and collaboration, which were the skills we targeted as the most essential. Utilizing the school wide rubrics across disciplines has proven difficult. I think we are more accustomed to assessing content, not skills. In the video, 21st Century Skills Assessment, by the Buck Institute for Education, the rubrics proved helpful to the students. They were able to monitor their progress over the course of their high school experience. They seemed to understand specifically what they needed to do to improve. Unfortunately, such has not been the case here. If we are going to use the rubrics effectively, we need to commit to educating students and teachers on when and how to use the rubrics. We also need to figure out how the evaluations will be recorded. Personally, I have not found the rubrics very informative. I believe it’s important to assess both content and skills; an assignment-specific rubric that incorporates both is more helpful to students and teachers.
Of the 21st century skills, I believe the top priorities are communication, critical thinking and creativity. As an English teacher, I focus on reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The ability to support one’s ideas and convey them clearly to others has always been extremely important. Brilliant ideas don’t benefit anyone if no one knows about them. In a changing world, critical thinking is important. We don’t even know the problems we will have to solve in the future. We know that information is available, but we need to be able to evaluate what we find, use reasoning to interpret the information, and finally figure out how to apply it. Creativity is closely related to problem solving and critical thinking. We need to be able to think outside the box, as Jeff did when tossed a crumpled piece of paper in the paper airplane video. I worry that with the focus on standardized testing and scores, creativity is in jeopardy. Education has become data-obsessed, and creativity is difficult to measure. Unfortunately, it is not always emphasized but may be the most important skill of all.
Demonstrating and assessing 21st century skills is another matter, and an important one. In order to be fairly evaluated, students need to have a variety of ways to demonstrate their learning. Technology offers many possibilities. Google Doc is is a favorite of mine for writing because it allows for collaboration and ongoing formative assessment through the editing and commenting features. The Edutopia article points out that creating authentic products should be a priority (Boss). Whether students are creating a presentation, a video, a publication, artwork, or a multimedia presentation, they should do so with an audience in mind.
With multiple opportunities available to demonstrate learning, how to assess the 21st century skills is the next step. Frequently, I use rubrics to assess the content and the skills. Since I already use Google Classroom, I would like to try the rubric integration apps, Doctopus and Goobric, which Josh recommended in our hangout last week. The more I read about assessment, the more I like the idea of self-assessments. When students complete a project, I often have them fill out the rubric themselves, providing a reason for their rating on each of the points on the rubric. In other cases, I may have them write about the challenges they faced in the project, their strengths, and what they might do differently next time. I also have students write responses to literature on a daily basis in reading logs. I would like to move towards having students create a blog of their responses. At the end of the book, they could review their entries, choose their best response, and justify it. Keeping a blog would enable the student and teacher to analyze progress over time. Students could also respond to blog posts on one another’s blogs, providing another form of assessment. Just as technology provides multiple avenues for showcasing learning, it provides a multitude of means of assessment.
Despite all the emphasis placed on 21st century skills, cognitive skills aren’t all the only ones needed to be successful. I like the NPR article “Nonacademic Skills Are Key to Success, But What Should We Call Them?” Among the skills mentioned, my favorites are character, grit, and being socially and emotionally competent. While I don’t have a name for these “nonacademic skills,” they are critical if a person is to become a contributing member of society and live a happy, fulfilled life.
Finally, with all the hype about 21st century skills, I really don’t think they’re that new. Most of my formal education occurred during the 20th century and most of the “21st century skills” were a huge part of my education. A good education has never been limited to the acquisition of knowledge. True education has always been about knowing how to apply what you know to benefit yourself, others, and society.
Citations
21st Century Skills Assessment. (2009, June 25). Retrieved June 9, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2WKCBxeoxU
Boss, S. (2011). Classroom Guide: Top Ten Tips for Assessing Project-Based Learning. Retrieved June 9, 2015, from http://www.edutopia.org/10-tips-assessment-project-based-learning-resource-guide
Kamenetz, A. (2015, May 28). Nonacademic Skills Are Key To Success. But What Should We Call Them? Retrieved June 9, 2015, from http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/05/28/404684712/non-academic-skills-are-key-to-success-but-what-should-we-call-them?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=plus.google.com&utm_medium=social
McMillan, M. (2010, March 3). Paper Airplane Movie by Michael McMillan. Retrieved June 9, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37TQZyDMEP8
Wagner, T. (2014, February 25). Tony Wagner Ted Talk - 4 Min. Video. Retrieved June 9, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7eFyNvA1uU
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