Thursday, April 22, 2010

21st Century Skills and Themes

The Partnership for the 21st Century Skills, a leading advocacy organization focused on infusing 21st century skills into education, believes that “Every aspect of our education system -- preK-12, postsecondary and adult education, after-school and youth development and training, and teacher preparation programs -- must be aligned to prepare citizens with the 21st century skills they need to compete.” The Partnership reasons that the United States’ once bustling industrial economy based on manufacturing, (54% of GDP in 1967) has shifted to a service economy (63% of GDP in 1997) driven by information, knowledge and innovation. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 1995 and 2005 the United States lost 3 million manufacturing jobs, while at the same time creating 17 million service-sector jobs. The demand for a new, diverse and multi-faceted skill set is increasing. A 2003 study by Autor, Levy, and Murnane from MIT found that “as firms take up technology, computers substitute for workers who perform routine tasks – but they complement workers who perform non-routine problem solving. Repetitive, predictable tasks are automated. Hence, computerization of the workplace has raised demand for problem solving and communications tasks, such as responding to discrepancies, improving production processes, and coordinating and managing the activities of others.” Taking all of these known facts into account, President Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan want to transform schools into places that will “provide rich material for the 21st century curriculum and instruction that is real-world, relevant and rigorous.” They have affirmed this statement by doubling the federal education budget for the 2009-2010 school year.
While a number of organizations have developed 21st century skills frameworks, The Partnership for 21st Century Skills framework for 21st Century Learning emphasizes many of the skills and themes expected to be valuable in preparing our students for the future. The framework includes: Core Subjects, 21st Century Themes, Learning and Innovation Skills, Information, Media and Technology Skills, and Life and Career Skills. The Partnership believes that in addition to schools focusing on core subjects, they must promote the understanding of academic content at a higher level by incorporating 21st century interdisciplinary themes such as global awareness, and financial, civic, health, and environmental literacy. With the U.S Department of Labor estimating that today’s learner will have 10-14 jobs by the age of 38, the days of limiting students to a core set of knowledge has clearly come to an end. According to former United States Secretary of Education Richard Riley, the top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004. Karl Fisch noted that “we are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” An increased emphasis in the classroom on critical and creative thinking, problem-solving skills, communication and collaboration will help to prepare students for the rapidly changing future. Advocates, including myself, believe that education should focus on creating, evaluating and analyzing, since these will be the skills most in demand in the future. Our students must have the ability to respond to complex problems upon graduation or else they will be left behind by students from other nations that can respond to the needs of society.
As with any call for change, many people are resisting the research and push to incorporate 21st century skills into the current educational curriculum. Some dissenters are calling it a fad, wondering how millions of students already struggling to acquire 19th century skills in reading, writing and math are going to be able to synthesize information in our ever evolving technological society. Some opponents, including E.D. Hirsch Jr. - founder of the Core Knowledge Foundation, feel that a push for 21st century skills is an ineffectual use of limited classroom time and occupies time that could be better spent learning deep, specific and essential content. The Boston Globe editorialized that it is “not clear that the approach can be implemented without deemphasizing academic content.” The conflict, as it has been for years, is about what should happen in a school day? As discussed by Greg Toppo of the USA Today, can students learn the core subjects on their own if schools teach them how to think critically, problem solve and use technology? Or do they learn these valuable skills by studying world history, famous literature, and higher mathematics? There is fear that learning will be shallow without the background knowledge to provide the needed depth to anchor it. Research has also shown that many teachers find it difficult to teach children to think creatively or collaborate.
Regardless of your feelings towards 21st century education, everyone agrees that society is rapidly changing. As Margaret Mead once said, “We are now at a point where we must educate our children in what no one knew yesterday, and prepare our schools for what no one knows yet.” It has become evident that the current planning and education of our future society will determine the future success of our country as a whole.

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