Eric
Sheninger in his book Digital Leadership
identifies seven essential skill sets that 21st century schools must
provide students: creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking,
problem solving, technology proficiency, and global awareness.
Creativity is using a wide range of idea
creation techniques to create new and worthwhile ideas and demonstration of
originality and inventiveness (National Education Association). Students need to be able to think and work
creatively to be able to develop unique and useful solutions. Creativity is necessary in our economy and
when students learn to be creative they become adaptable which prepares them for
life after the classroom.
Communication
is the ability to articulate thoughts and ideas orally, written, and
nonverbally. It is also the ability to
effectively convey meaning through various media on both personal and
professional levels (National Education Association). Students will communicate all of their
lives. For today’s workplace, students
must learn complex communication that can involve explanation, negotiation, and
intense interactions. In addition,
communication is vital for relationships with customers, fellow employees, and
supervisors.
Collaboration
is the ability to work efficiently and respectfully with diverse teams
(National Education Association).
Students must learn to be flexible, make compromises, and to be helpful
to accomplish a commons goal. Collaborative efforts are necessary for people
working together to produce valuable resources.
Collaborative efforts create more holistic results than individual
efforts and are necessary in today’s world due to globalization and
technology. Students must also be able
to collaborate in both the physical and virtual world for the modern workplace.
Critical thinking
is the ability to use various types of reasoning and analyzing parts of a whole
(National Education Association.
Critical thinking is important because it leads to development of higher
level concentration, deeper analytical abilities, and improved thought
processing. Students need to develop
critical thinking skills to be a citizen, family member, and employee that can
make sensible decisions.
Problem
solving is the ability to analyze data and arrive at a logical and defensible
conclusion (Crockett, 2016). Students
need to develop this skill set to solve problems, resolve conflicts, and
discover alternatives. Problem solving
skills are vital to preparing students for challenges after graduation. Employers look for people with strong problem
solving skills.
Technological
proficiency is the ability to apply technical knowledge and skills. Students must be exposed to and be familiar
with current technology in order to compete in the world market place
(Crockett, 2016). Also, it is important
for students to be proficient in evolving technology to compete and flourish in
society and the workplace.
Global
awareness is the appreciation of relationships and differences in values,
customs, and norms of diverse global communities (Crockett,2016). Students need to understand and address
global issues to be a productive member of today’s society. It is advantageous for a person to be able to
learn from and work with individuals of diverse cultures, religions, and life
styles with mutual respect and open dialog.
In
the school setting, students at any age can begin learning these valuable
skills. Adding these skills in the
classroom as early as pre-K and Kindergarten allows students to build on these
skills as they mature. Adding more complexity
of the skills at each grade level will allow the student to be proficient in these
vital skills upon graduation.
References
Crockett, L.W. (2016 August 02). The critical 21st
century skills every student needs and why. Global
Digital Citizen. Retrieved from https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/21st-century-skills-every-student-needs
National Education Association (n.d.). Preparing 21st
century students for a global society: An educator’s guide to the four Cs. Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/A-Guide-to-Four-Cs.pdf
Sheninger, E. (2014). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Corwin
Hi Ruth, Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I agree with your interpretations for each of these skills. Creativity is such a diverse skill and I think we need to encourage students to be creative in their own ways. No matter how it manifests itself though, the idea that an alternative solution is even possible is something that not all students are aware of and they might not even realize that they could creatively come up with a new idea or solution. Communication is so complicated when you combine it with the global awareness that appears at the end of the list. Sometimes we forget that people around the world communicate so differently. It’s easy to assume that the communication errors that happen cross-culturally, occur because of language barriers. But as a person who has lived overseas for the last 14 years, miscommunications rarely occur only because of a language barrier, they occur because underneath the communication are cultural assumptions that are not being clearly communicated or are not understood.
ReplyDeleteCritical thinking skills are something that we as Americans pride ourselves on. We like to consider ourselves innovators and to do that we must think critically and then also problem solve to create new and exciting ideas to solve many of the perceived problems we face each day. My experience in critical thinking skills in both Panama and in the Philippines is actually quite hilarious. In both countries, employees and people in general are taught to do their job and are not encouraged to think critically. They must only do what they have been tasked with doing and they must do it in exactly the same way each time. This has led to a host of hilariously frustrating experiences like being unable to purchase items for sale in the grocery store because the bar codes did not ring up and there is no alternate solution and no boss to call to fix the problem. It has led to not being able to purchase a cheese pizza since it wasn’t on the menu. The way to get around this unique problem is to order a pizza that is for sale, such as a Hawaiian pizza, and then ask for the ham and pineapple to be removed, thus resulting in a plain cheese pizza. Yes, these are funny, but they are the extreme results of cultures that find no value in critical thinking and problem solving skills.
Thanks again for sharing!
Angel Miller
Ruth,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your video blog explaining the seven essential skill sets 21st century school need to provide to their students. Your breakdown of these seven sets is well described and articulated. In describing each skill set, your descriptions left me analyzing my current position within the school system I work.
The team I currently work with is labeled as iSTEM teachers. This is a new program our school district started this year. In previous years each school had a set of ITRT (Information Technology Resource Teacher). The responsibility of the ITRT was to help teachers and school personnel integrate technology into their lessons. At the time when ITRT was first introduced approximately five of so years ago, it was an extremely important part of the technology boom in schools. The problem is, the helpfulness of technology integration is plateauing. Some school systems who still have ITRT or other equivalent positions are starting to see there is a greater need than just technology. This is where the iSTEM teachers come in. We are responsible for the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math into all content areas. The skill sets in which Sheninger identifies are core components of our process as iSTEM teachers.
Many of the lesson ideas we pitch to our teachers follow an engineering design challenge (EDC) model. Within this EDC students would cover at least six of the seven skill sets described by Sheninger. In an EDC, students are given a problem (Problem Solving), with a few constraints to work within. The students are responsible for being creative(Creativity) in working with classmates (Collaboration) and communicating (Communication) their ideas (Critical Thinking) using technology (Technological Proficiency) to possibly solve the problem. If the EDC was to focus on a global problem (Global Awareness), you would then have all seven skills covered in one lesson.
As stated earlier, the iSTEM program is new this year and still in full development. Some of the earlier lesson ideas may not have incorporated all of Sheninger’s skill sets, but some of the latest have covered at least six. The goal of the iSTEM team is to take these lessons into content area classrooms and have it serve as a model for the teacher to follow on any lessons taught. The data is still being collected on the effectiveness of the program and student learning, but my personal belief is this process will have a huge positive impact on teachers and students.
Jason Lauer
Ruth,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, that 21st Century learning prepares children for life after the classroom. I was sharing with Shelley from our class, that I have many veteran teachers who have taught for thirty years, and they have a difficulty accepting new technology in the classroom. They look at technology as “unnecessary fluff”. The way technology has advanced, even in the last fifteen years, is not something that can be ignored. The way we teach has to change in order to prepare children. I feel like my reluctant faculty are probably scared of change, and want to do what they have found works in the past. I can certainly understand the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it mentality”; however I have only been in education for ten years, and I can see how what I used to do, doesn’t always work with the kids already—imagine thirty years!
I keep thinking back to the concept that we hear in education all the time now: “We are training students for jobs that have yet to be created”. That requires teaching collaboration. CEO’s don’t necessarily want to highest GPA, they want innovative individuals who know how to work together. My perspective of older teaching philosophy is that it’s everyone for themselves. Star students shine, and group projects were considered a waste of time, and “fluff” work. Now, it’s an imperative skill, and from my understanding, that is also indicative of Generation Z—they care about community. They want to work together, and they can sympathize with the group, and they care about belonging to a community. I find it to be a refreshing change, and I want to help equip Generation Z with the skills they need to trail blaze before me. That requires flexibility on our behalves as educators; which happened to be a characteristic that is most important to me in a teacher.
Ruth,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed watching your video, because your brought a fresh outlook on the seven essential skill sets from our text. Creativity is definitely necessary when it comes to preparing our students for the real world. I like that you mentioned the definition of it by the National Education Association. Your interpretation of communication was very well thought out, I agree that students need to understand not just simple communication but complex levels as well. Working with teenagers on a daily basis has allowed me to see just how much they lack in communicating. Whether it is verbally or through email, they need to strengthen their skills in order to be able to communicate properly in college. I push my students on this front as much as I can, in hopes that they will not lose their professional communication skills from being too comfortable using social media. Collaboration, as you mentioned in your video, is essential for students to excel in their future work places. Critical thinking and problem solving go hand in hand, and I like that you mentioned how employers look for those skills. All too often, I have seen young people start jobs after doing exceptionally well in an interview, yet once they actually get into the position they are quickly overwhelmed because they lack critical thinking and problem solving skills. There are many ways we can help our students to prepare for this, and it should be a continuous effort at all times. I liked your breakdown of technological efficiency and global awareness as well. In my blog, I also spoke about how all seven of these skills can be introduced to students as early as kindergarten. This is obvious because of how each skill can be broken down to a simple, elementary level. With time these skills can grow and be strengthened as a student matriculates through grade school.