I had an opportunity to view the Partnership for the 21st Century Skills website. I was quite impressed with the amount of information they have included within their website. It appears that over 16 states have taken some initiative into this idea; although Tennessee is not one of them and this is the first I had heard of the concept.
Since this was entirely new information to me, the entire website helped me develop a new understanding. Part of their (P21) mission statement says,
“To successfully face rigorous higher education coursework, career challenges and a globally competitive workforce, U.S. schools must align classroom environments with real world environments by fusing the 3Rs and 4Cs:
· The 3Rs include: English, reading or language arts; mathematics; science; foreign languages; civics; government; economics; arts; history; and geography.
· The 4Cs include: critical thinking and problem solving; communication, collaboration; and creativity and innovation.”
I agree with the 3Rs and the 4Cs- those are very important subject areas and great skills to learn in order to be successful in the future. The most surprising and helpful tool they put on their site were their 21st century skills maps. I teach fifth graders, so I took a look at the fourth grade. It provided certain standards that should be reached under the 3Rs and 4Cs and examples on how to reach it. It appears like they meet a lot of the new common core standards that are starting to be implemented and add a technology piece to them.
I am not sure there is anything I disagree with on the website, just some concerns and frustrations. The frustration is that I had never heard of P21 before, yet many states are involved with it. Because of my lack of knowledge, some of the items on the website were a bit confusing to me. So I will continue to explore and read. The concern would be that I think the skills are great but states are becoming so concerned with passing tests and I am not sure how much state assessment tests match up with P21.
New or not new, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills has supported the fact that we need to teach differently. Our students may possess jobs in the future that do not even exist today. Jobs are changing. We need to adapt our teaching to properly prepare our students for the changing workplace. Our students will need to be able to communicate, collaborate, use creativity, and be able to problem solve. Teaching “old school”- paper and pencil, test at the end of the chapter, and independent learning won’t cut it in the real world today. Not everything has to be done with technology, but technology does play a very big part of our workplace and the world. Therefore, technology needs to be incorporated and explored within the classroom.
Reference:
http://www.p21.org/ (2011)
Great insights, P21 skills, will require us to "evolve" as educators, we will definitely have to move from paper and pencil, and stress more collaboration, project-based learning, is now at its peak. Last summer I attended a workshop called FSU-Teach, which approached teaching mathematics and science from a different perspective, some of the strategies they use are based on the P21 framework. Check out this site http://fsu-teach.fsu.edu/index.php. I like this program because they STRESS collaboration, and inquiry based learning.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the website. I am always looking to not reinvent the wheel, yet try new things. Do you have a favorite collaboration, project-based learning that you use in your classroom.
DeleteIt is hard to get away from paper and pencil when that is the way I was taught. It definitely takes stepping out of my box and challenging myself to be better.
Renee,
ReplyDeleteThe idea, from a statement you make at the end of your blog, that our students will have jobs that are not yet created is a scary concept because how do we begin to prepare them for what they will face? Is education going to be about merely being able to create new ideas and solutions? Does everything need to revolve around technology? I do know that the biggest shift in our new curriculum--which will begin for the 2014-2015 school year--focuses heavily on informational text and research. And not extensive research, but smaller/quicker research is the best way to describe it right now.
Mark-
DeleteI do not not know where to begin. That is part of the reason I signed up to take get my masters. I want to learn how to prepare my students for the future. Unless our world changes, it does appear that most things will be based around technology, doesn't it? My students hate to read informational texts. Do you have a creative way to present informational texts in your classroom that engage your students? I have a lot to learn to prepare my students.
Like you, I have not heard about p21 until this class. My concern is how this will fit in to every subject. I like your statement that not everything needs to be done with technology. I do like the 4C's because it makes the students think more and have better communication.
ReplyDeleteThanks Debbie-
DeleteI do believe that technology makes things easier, quicker, and more 'flashy'; but sometimes it is okay to not use technology. There will still be jobs in the future that do not require technology.
I agree- the 4Cs were great. I hope to start focusing on them more in my classroom because I think it will make more students better learners.
How do you think we missed P21? Am I that out of current discussions?
Hi Renee, I really enjoyed looking at the site’s 21st century skills maps as well. As a visual learner, I appreciated the layouts and descriptions provided. I would like to think that most educators already teach using a similar framework. The 3R’s and 4C’s are hopefully concepts we are already instilling in our students as a natural and authentic part of our curriculum and teaching practice. However, it was nice seeing these ideas in organized maps for all content areas and ages.
ReplyDeleteRenee, We had a new-teachers meeting with our Assistant Superintendent a few weeks ago and we found out that in 2014-2015 our schools will be focused more on collaboration and critical thinking. We were shown some initiatives similar to P21, however, these our state is actually backing these, and it is believed that our standardized tests will be all online, and they will be based on critical thinking, not just answering a,b,c, or d.
ReplyDeleteIt is reassuring to know that standardized tests are changing, as they definitely should, but my fear, is that schools that do not have necessary technologies, because they cannot afford them, will suffer.
You mentioned "technology needs to be incorporated and explored within the classroom," which I completely agree with, but my question is, What about schools that lack the funding? What do we do for them?