21st Century Learning Skills
21st Century Learning Skills or 21st Century Skills is now a recognized movement to address the deficiencies in present world-wide education systems. The world is moving out of an industrialized age and moving into the information age, and yet many models for education and learning are still based on 19th Century models. This is clearly absurd. Young people today in 2012 require a completely different set of skills to get ahead in life than young people did in 1912. Technology, society and life expectations have moved on dramatically. The last hundred years has seen many paradigm shifts and education models must change to reflect those paradigm shifts.
The text ‘Learning for Life in Our Times’ (Trilling, B and Fadel C, 2009) was a ground breaking publication in this field. The book proposes a multi-dimensional approach to education that takes into account the new skills that are required for success in the 21st Century. It also discusses a variety of ways of teaching, testing and learning. It makes a persuasive case for change and provides a basic model that educators around the world can adapt to their cultural and social milieus.
The basis of the 21st Century Skills model as shown in the picture above is composed of a rainbow comprising subjects and skills that are learned. At the bottom of the rainbow are various sources for learning. It is a sophisticated model that allows for regional variations and is designed to be inclusive rather than exclusive.
At the heart of the rainbow are core subjects. These are the traditional subjects of English, Reading, World Languages, Math, Art, Economics, Science, Geography, History, Government and Civics. Around these subjects are interdisciplinary subjects. These are Life and Career Skills, Learning and Innovation and Digital Literacy.
Learning and Innovation is composed of critical thinking and problem solving; creativity and innovation; communication; and collaboration. Digital Literacy is about information literacy; media literacy; and ICT literacy (information and communication technologies). Life and Career Skills is comprised of flexibility and adaptability, initiative and self-direction; social and cross-cultural interaction; productivity and accountability; and leadership and responsibility.
The pools below the rainbow of topics refer to methods for teaching. These are analyzing ways of setting standards and ways of assessing. The traditional method of pen and paper tests should be supplemented with a variety of other ways of testing such as using video, websites, oral presentations, power point etc. Curriculum must be altered to fit local situations and reflect social and business needs. In conjunction with this, methods of instruction must reflect the many ways, both digital and non-digital, of presenting information. The Professional Development pool is about using the standards set in the ‘real world’ as opposed to those used in the pedagogic world to foster professional skills. And finally, learning environments recognizes the need to get the students out of a classroom setting. Not all skills and subjects are taught successfully in the classroom. The need to enter different environments both ‘digital’ and ‘non-digital’ to teach different subjects is paramount.
From just this brief overview it is clear that the goal of 21st Century Learning Skills is to not simply impart information about facts, equations, theories etc. but to equip the student for life after institutional education. The goal is to impart and foster developed social and mental skills that can adapt to an ever changing environment. It is about joining the information revolution. What the model is certainly not about is producing unthinking citizens who are drilled about the importance of following orders, of doing dehumanizing repetitive labor. It is no accident that Asian countries that have traditionally used education as the main tool for nation building are now feeling the fear of being left behind.
Much of today’s economics is about innovation. For manufacturing it is fine to produce human automatons that do what they are told and shun unions. For high tech services such people are useless. Japan and China are finding it hard to make this shift in their educational systems because those who hold power are afraid of the results of producing a generation with critical thinking abilities.
This is the great advantage that European economies have. The greatest threats to 21st Century Learning Skills are religious dogma, rigid institutionalism, lack of resources and authoritarianism. Europe ever since the Renaissance has been repulsed by such social movements and conditions. If China wants to consolidate its economic gains it is going to have to replace propaganda with social awareness.
The articles in www.booroobin.com cover a wide range of topics. They are all intended to present topics in different lights. They are intended to suggest alternative perspectives so as to encourage critical thinking, self assessment and other vital skills. These are the skills of the 21st Century that will promote monetary, social, spiritual and academic success.
