Initially, I was quite overwhelmed when I reached the website “Partnership for 21st Century Skills” (http://www.p21.org/index.php ). This reaction was due in part to the vast amount of information available within the website. In a short amount of time, however, I realized it was quite easy to navigate around the site and find what I was looking for. Being an educator who is fond of free resources, I naturally gravitated to the “Resources for Educators” links. I was happy to find more detailed definitions of some of the rather ambiguous 21st century skills descriptors I read about this week in my technology course at Walden. The documents I found most helpful were the literacy and 21st century skills maps for my content area (math). Within these documents, the literacy/21st century outcomes (or standards) are stated along with a grade level appropriate example of how the outcomes could be reached via a project or activity. Overall, these resources are solid and clear up some of the gray area surrounding 21st century skills.
I would not say that there is too much I disagree with on the site and I have no argument that students need these skills in order to be competitive. However, there is a statement or two that irk me. The first statement, taken from the P21 mission page is the following, “There is a profound gap between the knowledge and skills most students learn in school and the knowledge and skills they need in typical 21st century communities and workplaces” (“Our Mission”, n.d., para 3). While I agree that the said gap exists, I am not convinced of its profundity. Many of us teachers have built curriculum around these skills and have been for years. The gap will closing naturally, without a massive curricular overhaul. Furthermore, new teachers, many of whom already possess many of these skills, are entering the educational field with a strong handle on various technologies and are using them with their students regularly.
The second statement that troubles me the suggestion that in order “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” (“Our Mission”, n.d., para 4). This sounds very much like a sales pitch and I am certainly not convinced that this is the solution to the intellectual stagnation that is the legitimate cause of all academic “skills gaps” in our country. What about motivation, determination, ambition, and the desire to learn for the sake of learning? I’m fairly certain these are the skills that have made myself and many others successful in life and any other necessary skills were acquired using the aforementioned traits. It takes more than educators on board to address these cultural problems and I hoping there is a time in the near future when the importance of education and learning is addressed by more than those in the educational field.
Again, I do not want to give the reader the impression that I do not value these skills or think it is important that our students learn them; indeed I do. For my own part, I plan to continue to address these skills within my classroom as well as share and utilize the astounding new technologies with my students. However, I plan to continue to gradually add more activities, projects, and technologies that foster 21st century skills to my curriculum.
Reference
Our Mission. (n. d.) Retrived from: http://www.p21.org/about-us/our-mission
Hello Tom, the concerns you raise in regards to skills gap is a good one! I agree with your point of view. Much effort and progress has been done to bridge those gaps, and the root causes of those problems are many. They do not only stem from the lack of technology applications in our classes. Many socioeconomic and cultural issues must also be examined.
At a certain point, the need and the desire to succeed and problem solve does/should come from within.
I also had the feeling of a sales pitched being served up.
I believe building our activities gradually is the best way to proceed. We can closely consider which technology applications we will chose to apply in order to best exploit and strengthen our students abilities.
I am glad someone is on board with how I feel. I was hoping I didn’t sound too cynical. Indeed, these tools are necessary for students, but I feel we must incorporate in such a way that we get comfortable adding them to our lesson plans without too much overload. It would also be easier to get the 21st century skill bus rolling if the entire district buys in and comes up with a sound plan for implementation.
Tom
Do you find that a lot of students want to learn for the sake of learning? I have only been teaching for two years, but it seems that most of my students are there to get through the day, get a decent grade, and be done with it. How do we motivate the unmotivated? Maybe the answer is 21st century skills. After all, they are using technology outside of school to learn things or do things. If we bring that into the classroom, perhaps students will want to learn for the sake of learning. Or at least use technology in a way where they are learning while having a good time. Whenever I used some sort of technology in the lessons, students were definitely more engaged.