21st Century Skills

As today’s individuals leave the realm of formal schooling and enter the work world, they require a specific set of skills and competencies to meet the expectations of their potential employers and exist as productive, contributing members of society. These 21^st century skills include core subjects and 21^st century themes, learning and innovation skills, information, media, and technology skills, and life and career skills (P21, 2011).   

Core Subjects and 21st Century Themes ·       Core subjects include: English, reading or language arts, world languages, arts, mathematics, economics, science, geography, history, government, and civics ·       Global awareness ·       Financial, Economic, Business, and Entrepreneurial Literacy ·       Civic Literacy ·       Health Literacy ·       Environmental Literacy

Learning and Innovation Skills ·       Creativity and Innovation ·       Critical Thinking and Problem Solving ·       Communication and Collaboration

Information, Media and Technology Skills ·       Information Literacy ·       Media Literacy ·       ICT (Information, Communications and Technology) Literacy

Life and Career Skills ·       Flexibility and Adaptability ·       Initiative and Self-Direction ·       Social and Cross-Cultural Skills ·       Productivity and Accountability ·       Leadership and Responsibility

The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills website is a fantastic resource for educators, parents, and policy makers. It is a well-organized and visually appealing collection of information, links, articles, and videos pertaining to the implementation of these skills. The website provides information on the various organizations and individuals that have collaborated with the United States Department of Education in the creation of this coalition. It includes representatives from many respected organizations, such as AOL Time Warner Foundation, Apple Computer, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Microsoft Corporation, and the National Education Association.

              The mission of this partnership is “to serve as a catalyst to position 21^st century readiness at the center of US K12 education by building collaborative partnerships among education, business, community, and government leaders”(P21, 2011). This group believes that the U.S. education system can “keep up by fusing the 3Rs and 4Cs (critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation)” (P21, 2011). In this example, the 3Rs represent the core subjects. Links from the website allow you to view the specific state initiatives of the sixteen P21 Leadership States. These states have made a commitment toward incorporating the 21^st century skills into their statewide curriculum.

              I found this website to provide a wealth of knowledge. As an educator in one of the sixteen P21 Leadership States, the topic of 21^st century skills and dispositions has been at the forefront of recent curricular discussions. In fact, last year, I sat on two separate curriculum-mapping committees.  As a part of these committees, my team came up with ideas for the incorporation of the 21^st century themes. I regret not having access to this website during the process, as I feel it would have been a wonderful asset.

              One aspect of the website that I found especially interesting and thought provoking was the Critical Skills Survey presented under the “What Employers Say” section. This survey provided data from employers across the county on the skills they require of their employees and those they expect to require in coming years. It also showed the lack of these necessary skills that employers are reporting in their current staff and those applying for positions within their companies. This data was motivating to see because the correlation between the 21^st century skills and those being reported as necessary was very apparent. We, as educators, hold the responsibility of preparing our students for the future. Here we can see evidence of what they will need and support for helping prepare them for it. After viewing this data, it becomes clearly imperative to incorporate these skills into my instruction.

              I had a very difficult time finding information or an opinion on the site that I disagreed with. However, I did find one area in which more development is needed. The section in need of improvement deals with 21^st century assessments. The coalition has determined that assessing the 21^st century skills is the “essential foundation” of this type of education (P21, 2011). They explain that the assessments must use modern technologies to be “effective, sustainable, and affordable,” and they must measure the five areas of core subjects, 21^st century content, learning skills, ICT literacy, and life skills (P21, 2011). While the Partnership has outlined that schools should use a “balance of assessments, including high-quality standardized testing, along with effective classroom testing” (P21, 2011), they do not get into the specifics of their recommended assessments. They do not suggest the creation of a universal standardized test, nor do they share ideas for different types of effective classroom assessments. In an earlier course, though my Walden University program, we learned about the effectiveness of planning with the end result in mind. I understand that the partnership has identified the end dispositions and skills that students should possess, but it does not appear that they have clearly identified how they would like students to prove this possession.

              Through reading the course resources and exploring the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website, I have been convinced of the necessity of including these skills in my instruction. The combination of teaching these skills through the framework of the existing content material will help to prepare my students for their futures. Collaboration across the subject areas and the utilization of technology and project-based learning will help to meet all of the standards’ requirements. The length of the school year will not change, but as a teacher, I have now been challenged even more to increase the quality and quantity of learning my students receive.

References

The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills. (2011). The partnership for 21^st century skills [Website]. Retrieved from http://www.p21.org.