Skills necessary for students to survive and thrive in the 21st Century

1. 21st Century Classrooms
What Skills are Necessary to Ensure Future
Success?

2. Changes in Today’s Education
• The incredible
technological
advances of the 21st
century have
demanded a change
in our educational
system in order to
best position our
students for future
success
“We should seriously
consider the claim that
we are now undergoing
one of the most
significant
technological
revolutions for
education since the
progression from oral
to print and book based
teaching.”
Dr. Douglas Kellner, UCLA, New
Media and New Literacies:
Reconstructing Education for the
New Millennium

3. Survival Skills of the 21st Century
• Research by Tony Wagner, Harvard
University
– Conducted hundreds of interviews with CEOs
from business, non-profit, and educational
sectors
– Identified seven skills necessary for students to
succeed in the 21st century
Source

4. Survival Skills of the 21st Century
• Group work is critical for students to
understand the different roles within a
group, and how to both lead and listen
Collaboration
Across Networks
and Leading by
Influence
• Cultivating dynamic classroom
environments prepares students to quickly
and comfortably adapt to changing
situations
Agility and
Adaptability
• Students should be active participants and
meaningful contributors to their world
Initiative and
Entrepreneurship

5. • Lessons should build student’s confidence in
identifying problems and thinking critically to
solve them
Critical Thinking
and Problem Solving
• Despite ever-changing technology,
communication skills will always be a
necessary element in success
Effective Oral and
Written
Communication
• Students should be able to effectively locate
and make sense of the vast resource of online
information made available to them
Accessing and
Analyzing
Information
• Teachers should encourage students to
exercise creativity and foster their imagination
Curiosity and
Imagination
Survival Skills of the 21st Century

6. Partnership for 21st Century Skills
• Organization committed to overhauling our
school systems by incorporating 21st
century skills into classroom instruction
• Seek to mix traditional school subjects with
4 “C” skills they believe are necessary to
compete in today’s global economy
Source

7. Partnership for 21st Century Skills
• Believe schools should be “laced with a
project-based curriculum for life aimed at
engaging students in addressing real-world
problems, issues important to
humanity, and questions that matter.”
– Incorporating these lessons prepare students
not only for higher education, but for successful
careers/lives
Source

8. Partnership for 21st Century Skills
Critical Thinking
and Problem
Solving
Communication
Collaboration
Creativity and
Innovation

10. Supporting Research
• Critical thinking skills are positively correlated to a
student’s future educational and employment
success (Miller, Sadler, & Mohl, 1993)
• Strong interpersonal skills, including
communication, is a significant college and career
readiness indicator (Committee on the Assessment of 21st Century
Skills, 2011)
• Creative thinking is a better predictor for a
student’s college GPA than their high school GPA or
SAT scores (Sternberg, 2006)
• Learning that occurs in collaborative group
environments is more long-lasting than learning
individually (Saner et al., 1994; Webb, 1993)
Source

11. “The highest ranked skills for students entering
the workforce were not facts and basic skills; they
were applied skills that enable workers to use the
knowledge and basic skills they have acquired.”
(Key Findings: Are They Really Ready for Work?
Conference Board 2006)

12. How Schools Can Cultivate These Skills
• These four skills all relate to the thought
processes and behaviors of students
• Most important aspect of today’s education is
teaching students key concepts/content that
can then be utilized in an interdisciplinary way
so they can store
– Permits students to learn and apply knowledge in
different settings
• Schoolwork should reflect real life situations
that are relevant to students
– Relevant information is more easily remembered

13. How Schools Can Cultivate These Skills
• Technology is also an important piece
– Very important for students to identify what
technological tools will best complete tasks + then
use these tools to create and distribute information
• Students should be “creators as well as
consumers of published information” (Apple, 2008)
– Scratch is one such program that enables students
to create their own content and examine the work
of others

14. Scratch
• Program that allows students to create
interactive art, stories, games, and
simulations + share them online
– Integrates 21st century learning skills
– Promotes:
• Technological understanding/skills
• Communication skills
• Collaboration
• Critical thinking
• Creative thinking

15. Scratch

16. Further Reading
• Partnership for 21st Century Skills
• Tony Wagner’s Official Site
• National Education Association: 21st Century Skills
• Assessing 21st Century Skills: Integrating Research
Findings
• 21st Century Skills: Preparing Students for THEIR
Future
• Twenty-first-Century Skills and Implications for
Education
• Scratch: About