Think Quest Project And 21st Century Learning

ThinkQuest Projects
and 21st Century Learning

ThinkQuest Projects and 21st Century Learning

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
• List the seven core 21st century skills
• Provide examples of using learning projects to develop
students’ 21st century skills
• Describe how ThinkQuest Projects supports learning
projects
• Provide examples of using the project tools in ThinkQuest
Projects to develop students’ 21st century skills

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©2008, Oracle Education Foundation • All Rights Reserved.


Why Is This Important?
Our global society has become much more reliant on creative
thinking, innovation, and new technology. Employers in the
21st century need employees armed with the knowledge and
skills that will enable them to be successful in this society.

The Oracle Education Foundation (OEF) has defined seven
core skills that students need to be successful in an
increasingly connected, technology-driven world. By
participating in learning projects within ThinkQuest Projects,
students develop and hone each of these core 21st century
skills.

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21st Century Skills
The following table lists the seven core 21st century skills as
defined by OEF:

Use multiple perspectives to analyze an issue or problem, create an
Critical Thinking
intervention plan, and evaluate the results of the intervention.

Creativity Demonstrate the process of generating new ideas or concepts.

Teamwork Work cooperatively with others to achieve a shared goal.

Cross-Cultural Recognize and correctly react to people or situations that are open to
Understanding misunderstanding due to cultural differences.

Communication Demonstrate the process of exchanging information and ideas.

Use a range of technologies to create, store, analyze, and transmit
Technology
information.

Demonstrate work behavior characterized as self-starting and
Self-Direction
proactive.

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Developing 21st Century Skills Through
Project Learning
What is project learning?

Project learning is a systematic teaching and learning model that
engages students in learning knowledge and skills from a series of
complex tasks including: design and planning, problem solving,
decision making, product creation, and communication of results.

The student-centered, collaborative nature of learning
projects engages students and motivates them to develop
21st century skills, guided by their teacher.

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Developing 21st Century Skills Through
Project Learning (cont.)
The following table provides examples of how learning
projects can be used to develop students’ 21st century skills.

A learning project poses a real-world question, challenge, or problem
Critical Thinking
for students to analyze and propose solutions and outcomes.
A learning project requires students to build new products that solve or
Creativity
help to explain a problem.
A learning project requires students to work cooperatively in teams to
Teamwork
achieve a shared project goal.
Cross-Cultural Students work on a learning project that explores other cultures’
Understanding approaches to familiar circumstances such as nutrition or government.
A learning project requires students to exchange information and ideas
Communication
within their project teams.
Students work collaboratively on a learning project using the
Technology communication, content creation, and project tools in ThinkQuest
Projects.
A learning project requires students to perform individual roles that
Self-Direction
contribute to their team’s fulfillment of a shared project goal.

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Using ThinkQuest Projects to Support
Learning Projects
ThinkQuest Projects offers flexible features and tools that
make it an ideal online environment to support learning
projects. Projects can:
• Involve collaboration within a single school or
collaboration across multiple schools
• Be focused on a single curriculum topic or explore cross-
curricular topics
• Have a small scope and short duration or a large scope
and long duration
• Have fixed or open timelines
• Be led by schools or by educational organizations that
have partnered with OEF

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Using ThinkQuest Projects
to Develop 21st Century Skills
The following are examples of how specific features and
tools in ThinkQuest Projects can be used to develop
students’ 21st century skills:
• Project membership
Create projects with students assigned in groups to
develop teamwork and communication skills
Conduct multi-school, international projects to
develop students’ cross-cultural understanding
• Project calendar
Set a fixed timeline and use the project calendar to
develop students’ teamwork and self-direction skills

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Using ThinkQuest Projects
to Develop 21st Century Skills (cont.)
• Project pages and content tools
Require students to post project work using the
content tools in ThinkQuest Projects to develop
their technology skills
Encourage students to use the collaboration tools in
ThinkQuest Projects to develop teamwork and
communication skills
Encourage students to find new ways to present
project work and results to develop their critical
thinking and creativity skills

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Summary
In this lesson, you learned to:
• List the seven core 21st century skills
• Provide examples of using learning projects to develop
students’ 21st century skills
• Describe how ThinkQuest Projects supports learning
projects
• Provide examples of using the project tools in ThinkQuest
Projects to develop students’ 21st century skills

10


Practice
The practice activities for this lesson can be found in the
course outline.

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Think Quest Project And 21st Century Learning

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