Twenty years ago, we shifted into the 21st century. This shift brought along a change in the educational system. Schools realized that they needed to shift from a teacher-centered, rote method of learning to a student-centered, exploration method. To help aid in this shift and student learning and understanding, schools began emphasizing a focus on 21st-century skills that were necessary to student success in the future.
I recently read Rich’s (2010) How Do You Define 21-st Century Learning? Rich (2010) points out, "the term ’21-st century skills’ is generally used to refer to certain core competencies such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving that advocates believe schools need to teach to help students thrive in today’s world. In a broader sense, however, the idea of what is learning the 21st century should look like is open to interpretation-and controversy." This idea really spoke to me.
I sit on a committee within my district, which examines the four core competencies of 21st-century learning. We want our students to be successful with, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity both in and out of school. Currently, we are developing rubrics for use by our teachers to evaluate students and their success with these competencies. In this small group alone, there have been many differing viewpoints on how students could show they have mastered these competencies. If each district across the globe is determining these criteria, on their own, how can we be certain that we are giving all students the same opportunities at gaining mastery of these skills? I was surprised that there was not a universal set of criteria to look at to see if students truly had gained the necessary skills to be strong communicators, collaborators, critical and creative thinkers. Check out my findings on 21st-century learning:
References:
Cleaves, P. (2012). I love 21st century skills. [Image]. Flickr. https://flic.kr/p/bQfig6
Kaewurai, R. (2016). 4Cs 21st century skills. [Image]. Flickr. https://flic.kr/p/E797Tj
Rich, E. (2020, April 2). How do you define 21st-Century learning? https://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2010/10/12/01panel.h04.html