21st Century Skills

This week I spent a lot of time on the website for the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills (www.p21.org).  What I found is a group deeply vested in the future of our education system.  It is an organization supported and founded by not only groups like the National Education Association and the U.S. Department of Education, but by corporations like Apple, Microsoft, Disney, and Verizon to name a few.  All of them share my own belief that: “There is a profound gap between the knowledge and skills most students learn in school and the knowledge and skills they need in typical 21^st century communities and workplaces” (http://www.p21.org/about-us/our-mission).  Together they have come up with a relatively simple “list” of skills and dispositions which students should leave the educational system with in order to succeed in the increasingly global world.  Beyond the skill identification, they have a slew of resources to help integrate these skills from the classroom all of the way up to national policy.

The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, or P21, is not the first group to come up with such lists.  As we saw earlier this week, others such as David Thornburg (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011) have come up with very similar lists.  The beauty of P21 is not only their support and organization, but also the way in which they have wrapped the skills they deem so critical.  As opposed to an exhaustive list they have layered the main skills into four superseding categories for ease of application (see image at end of post).  The four categories are:

1) Life and Career Skills

2) Learning and Innovation Skills

3) Information, Media, and Technology Skills

4) Core Subjects – 3R’s and 21^st Century Themes

Each of these can be further divided, however these larger categories allow users a more practical beginning without being overwhelmed by another laundry list.  Though many of the smaller categories are not new, Creativity and Information Literacy for example, I appreciate the addition of values like Environmental and Health Literacy.  If P21 stopped here, with another list to add to the plates of educators, I would not give them much thought.  However, they have thought it through and realized in order to be effective in long-term application of these complex skills, a strong support system must be in place.  These include:

            1) Standards and Assessment

2) Curriculum and Instruction

3) Professional Development

4) Learning Environments

They realized that both students and staff are going to need support all of the way up the chain of command in order to integrate these skills successfully into our education system.  Along those lines, they provide an enormous amount of resources and links for support, ideas, and implementation guides for the classroom teacher up to the national policymaker.  I really like the series of self-assessments they offer educators and districts to see where they stand on implementation of 21^st century skills and guide them towards beginning implementation.     

One thing I did not agree with one hundred percent was P21’s push for virtual schools.  This may seem ironic coming from a student in an online graduate program, but hear me out.  As far as I can tell, P21 is pushing for virtual schools across all grade level and subjects.  I agree with them that virtual classes can be great for the right type of higher education program.  I also agree that they can be an incredible supplement for districts not able to offer a wide variety or advanced classes.  However, I cannot see virtual classes completely taking over as they are now.  There are still many advantages to being in a physical classroom with a teacher and fellow peers.  Even at higher levels, online education cannot replace all courses.  One reason I did not pursue a graduate program in biology online is that all of the programs currently offered online appeared to be a compromise in terms of equipment, research, and support.  I do see the value in offering some classes for upper grades, but do not see our society ready, socially or technologically, for a complete switch.

That point aside, the Partnership for 21^st Century Learning is spot on with what I believe I should be doing with my class.  I also believe they provide a ton of resources to help me get there.  The biggest challenge toward full integration is that to truly work, we need to apply 21^st century skills in everything and every way we teach.  This means that it cannot just go on in my science classroom, but must be system wide.  I am realizing that in order to succeed I cannot be a one-man army.  If we want these kids to really take on the skills they will need, we are going to have to push for change all of the way up.  This does not just mean my class, department, or even school.  We can plant the seeds there, but in order for our nation to be strong in the future, we are going to have to fight for nationwide implementation and support.  However, we have to start where we have the most effect, in our own classrooms.

Resources:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Skills for the 21st Century [DVD]. Available from Walden University.

Partnership for 21^st Century Skills (P21). (2011).  Accessed at http://www.p21.org