This week we were to spend some time exploring the website
of the Partnership for 21st Century
Skills. From my understanding this
is an organization to promote change in the educational field by building
partnerships between education, business, community, and government entities. They feel there is a need for specific skills
to be concentrated on to close a gap between the knowledge and skills in
today’s schools and the knowledge and skills of the typical community and
workplace of our current society. In
order for this to be successful they must align classroom environments with
actual environments by bringing together the core subject (3R’s) and the skills
needed for success in college and careers which include critical thinking,
communication, collaboration and creativity (4C’s). The website itself appears to be very
organized with links to resources they use to support their mission. They have
a well thought out framework and additional resources for educators, policy
makers and the community. They have a
blog with resident writers and that stays current to communicate with those
interested in their operation. I like
the extent of the core subjects they included.
It seems to be well rounded and aligned to more traditional
education. It seems they do not want to
take out what is being taught, but add to it. They added what they call 21st
Century themes to their list of subjects.
These themes include global awareness, financial literacy, civic
literacy, health literacy, and environmental literacy.
While the framework is fairly extensive, I wonder how to
allocate time for the additional lessons while still trying to teach the standards
that are to be tested by the end of the year.
You can always add a little on a plate to make the meal look more appetizing,
but the plate can overflow and you are left with more that it can hold and you
have a mess to deal with. Much of our
curriculum is dictated by the district.
We do have some freedoms of how to present it, but with constant observations
and new programs that are being implemented, this would have to be a decision the
higher-ups have to agree with before we can fully commit to this model of
education. That means removing some of
the restrictions or expectations of what they consider conventional teaching.
Even though I created a vigorous curriculum for my students
and have a technology component to foster some of the skills that are mentioned
in the website, I still feel I need to do some more research with the 21st
century skills in mind and refine how I present the information as well as the
expectations of my students’ work. I may
not be able to hit all the components the Partnership addresses, but I can try
to implement a few to get them started.
Reference
Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). Parntership for
21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/
I need to look more in-depth as well, perhaps join the mailing list, and follow them on twitter!
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the website does appear to be organized and contain a great deal of useful information. However, with our current curriculums and state tests students are currently required to teach to it is difficult to begin adding in new standards. In order to prevent the plate from overflowing as teachers we should begin to modify our current lessons to incorporate some of these standards. Although states have different standards these 21st century standards can be utilized to increase students understand of problem solving, collaboration, and technology. I think as you mention starting with a few at first. It would be extremely difficult to begin to implement every standard at first. It is the small changes at first that begin to make an impact.
Nicole
I agree that it often seems that our plates as educators seem to be take on a lot! It also seems that organizations like these just want to add more. However, I think that this is an important piece to add. I also believe that we can incorporate many of the skills they are talking about without adding on too much addition but rather modifying what it is we already do. For example, in my district's curriculum we focus on two, what we call, thinking and academic success skills. These skills are pretty much what are referred to as the 4Cs within the website. While it seems like something else you have to add on, it is stressed to us that it something we too incorporate. Often it is a matter of asking a specific question at the end of the lesson or changing how the students work together to encourage those skills. As educators we constantly have to adapt and modify what we know in order to help our students. I think this is exactly what we have to do in order to help them gain these skills.
ReplyDeletePartnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). Parntership for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/