What are 21st century skills? The 21st century skills are a set of abilities that students need to develop in order to succeed in the information age. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills lists three types: Learning Skills Critical Thinking Creative Thinking Collaborating Communicating Life Skills Flexibility Initiative Social Skills Productivity Leadership New Skills for New Jobs These skills have always been important for students, though they are particularly important in our information-based economy. To hold information-age jobs, though, students also need to think deeply about issues, solve problems creatively, work in teams, communicate clearly in many media, learn ever-changing technologies, and deal with a flood of information. Demand in the Workplace These are not just anecdotal observations.
The Center for 21st Century Skills 13 Essential 21st Century Skills for Todays Students Educators and workforce experts alike often warn that our children need improved 21st century skills. Without these skills, they will not be able to successfully participate in the global economy. They won’t be adequately prepared for college and work. But what, exactly, are 21st century skills? Are we just talking about computer and technology skills? And who decides which skills make the list? It depends on who you ask. More than Computers & Technology Hanover Research recently analyzed six major educational frameworks designed to improve the development of 21st century skills. While each framework has slightly different list of critical 21st century skills, all agree on four critical areas for development: Collaboration and teamwork Creativity and imagination Critical thinking Problem solving Other Critical Skills for Success The Hanover Research analysis also identifies a second tier of important 21st century skills, present in five of the six major frameworks: Deeper Dives
Jean Lave, Etienne Wenger and communities of practice contents: introduction · communities of practice · legitimate peripheral participation and situated learning · learning organizations and learning communities · conclusion · references · links · how to cite this article Many of the ways we have of talking about learning and education are based on the assumption that learning is something that individuals do. Furthermore, we often assume that learning ‘has a beginning and an end; that it is best separated from the rest of our activities; and that it is the result of teaching’ (Wenger 1998: 3). But how would things look if we took a different track? Supposing learning is social and comes largely from of our experience of participating in daily life? Jean Lave was (and is) a social anthropologist with a strong interest in social theory, based at the University of California, Berkeley. Communities of practice In some groups we are core members, in others we are more at the margins. The characteristics of communities of practice References
The Question Game: A Playful Way To Teach Critical Thinking The Question Game by Sophie Wrobel, geist.avesophos.de The Question Game: A Playful Way To Teach Critical Thinking Big idea: Teaching kids to ask smart questions on their own A four-year-old asks on average about 400 questions per day, and an adult hardly asks any. In A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas, Warren Berger suggests that there are three main questions which help in problem solving: Why questions, What If questions, and How questions. Regardless of the question, the question needs to be phrased openly and positively in order to achieve positive results – a closed or negative question only raises bad feelings against each other. Why questions help to find the root of a problemWhat If questions open up the floor for creative solutionsHow questions focus on developing practical solutions Learning Goal: A Pattern Of Critical Thinking Introducing The Question Game Evaluating Learning Progress
Universities must prepare students for new labour market: McGill president Universities will have to prepare students for multiple career changes and a longer working life if they are to contribute to reducing the global inequality that is a major focus of this week’s discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, says the principal of McGill University. Suzanne Fortier is the only Canadian university president who is attending the international forum of the world’s financial and government elites, this year tackling challenges from security to the impact of technology on jobs. On Monday, the annual gathering published its prediction that the world will lose 5.1 million jobs within the next five years as a result of automation and smarter technology, with health care, energy and finance likely to suffer the steepest losses. “It brings us back to the central mission of the university, how to think, how to make leaps in knowledge, how to have imagination and rigour at the same. “The world is in a fragile state right now.
What Teachers Need to Know about Critical Thinking Vs Creative Thinking December 7, 2014 When it comes to differentiating critical thinking from creative thinking, things get a little bit blurry as there is no consensus as to what really defines these processes. This lack of consensus is particularly reflected in the various meanings creative thinking takes in different disciplines.For instance, in business and corporate world, creative thinking is synonymous with entrepreneurship, in mathematics it stands for problem solving, and in education it carries connotations of innovation. While there is no agreed upon definition for these two types of thinking, a comprehensive body of literature confirms the fact that creative and critical thinking are not identical. Also, check out this table to learn about some of the differences between creative and critical thinking. As for Umich.edu, both creative and critical thinkers use different thinking strategies: Creative Thinkers Here is a good illustrative visual on creative and critical thinking from Brain tree.
Mindfulness: the craze sweeping through schools is now at a university near you Slowly take a raisin and examine every wrinkle and fold of its surface. Feel its texture with your fingers. Inhale its scent. This is a common introductory exercise in mindfulness – a practice derived from Buddhist meditation that involves paying attention to the present moment, free of distracting thoughts about the past or future – and this term about 200 students from the University of Cambridge will be slowly eating raisins as part of a course laid on by researchers at the university to measure how far mindfulness can help combat stress. The university’s counselling service is offering the eight-week courses, which involve meditation, group exercises and discussion, theory and homework (including mindful toothbrushing) to healthy students as part of the Mindful Student Study, a three-year pilot sparked by concern at the increasing numbers of students across the country accessing mental health services. Cambridge is not the only university to think mindfulness could help.
Critical Thinking Pathways Critical thinking is trendy these days. With 6.3 million hits resulting from a Google search -- six times "Bloom's Taxonomy" -- its importance is undeniable. Worldwide, critical thinking (CT) is integrated into finger-painting lessons, units on Swiss immigrants, discussions of Cinderella, and the Common Core State Standards. In short, critical thinking is more beloved than Egyptian cotton. Definitions abound. Critical thinking is: "Seeing both sides of an issue." -- Daniel Willingham "An ability to use reason to move beyond the acquisition of facts to uncover deep meaning." -- Robert Weissberg "A reflective and reasonable thought process embodying depth, accuracy, and astute judgment to determine the merit of a decision, an object, or a theory." -- Huda Umar Alwehaibi "Self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way." -- Linda Elder Jarno M. Meanwhile, watch out for CT posers. "How is that critical thinking?" Inquiry
Understanding How the Brain Thinks Understanding How the Brain Works For 21st century success, now more than ever, students will need a skill set far beyond the current mandated standards that are evaluated on standardized tests. The qualifications for success in today's ever-changing world will demand the ability to think critically, communicate clearly, use continually changing technology, be culturally aware and adaptive, and possess the judgment and open-mindedness to make complex decisions based on accurate analysis of information. The most rewarding jobs of this century will be those that cannot be done by computers. For students to be best prepared for the opportunities and challenges awaiting them, they need to develop their highest thinking skills -- the brain's executive functions. These higher-order neural networks are undergoing their most rapid development during the school years, and teachers are in the best position to promote the activation of these circuits. The High Costs of Maintaining the Factory Model
What Is Design Thinking? How might we engage students more deeply in reading? -- Karen, learning specialist How might we create a classroom space that is more centered around the needs and interests of the students? -- Michael, second-grade teacher How might we create a more collaborative culture for teachers at our school? How might we connect more with our neighborhood community? How might we create a district-wide approach to curriculum that engages the 21st century learner? As educators, we are designing every single day -- whether it's finding new ways to teach content more effectively, using our classroom space differently, developing new approaches to connecting with parents, or creating new solutions for our schools. Wherever they fall on the spectrum of scale -- the challenges facing educators today are real, complex, and varied. Design Thinking is one of them. Design Thinking is a process and a mindset It's human-centered It's collaborative Designing requires conversation, critique and all-out teamwork.
College Readiness: Reading Critically We have a generation of students that are trained to automatically trust the textbook, or for that matter, trust anything that is written. Today, many students don't know how to read things with a grain of salt. So how do we go about fixing this? Well, first we have to get them to read, then get them to read critically. Mem Fox's book, Reading Magic, states that the love of reading has to start young. Dr. Today, Mike Rose is a professor at UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Between the Lines Reading has to be synonymous to thinking. With all of that creative learning juice flowing in student's brains while they read, it would be a shame not to take advantage of it. We should teach students to identify concepts while they read and then judge which of them is a key concept. Have you heard of the residue of thinking? As you can see, using Cornell Notes the right way can help students read critically, which by the way helps them remember what they read. Going Digital