I ended my previous post by discussing how the big four skills of 21st-century learning often intermingle to create brand new skillsets, and I do believe that this is a useful direction to explore more practical ways that these skills can be broken down and taught in a school-context. I proposed a model which functionally worked fine – it successfully showed every possible combination of these skills simultaneously, even when three of the four skills are combined at once.
That said, upon further reflection, I wondered if there was a simpler graphical representation that would leave plenty of room for me to expand upon my thoughts and ideas regarding each combination. I will explore this and provide an update on it if and when a solution is found. For now, I have defined a series of roles that might be developed by looking at all possible combinations of these four skills. I am hoping that these roles can help in the creation of practical ways in which 21st century learning skills can be implemented and measured. CREATIVITY + COMMUNICATION = The Artist CREATIVITY + CRITICAL THINKING = The Reviewer CREATIVITY + COLLABORATION = The Performer COMMUNICATION + CRITICAL THINKING = The Debater COMMUNICATION + COLLABORATION = The Coordinator CRITICAL THINKING + COLLABORATION = The Brainstormer From putting all of these combinations, a couple of things seemed to stand out for me. The first one is that there is clearly a large difference between these different skills that was perhaps not as clear in my mind before. What I mean by this is that there is a big difference between, say, communication and collaboration, even though those two skills are both about giving and receiving messages. However, there is a big difference between a Performer and an Artist, or a Brainstormer versus a Debater, and for me, it shows how many professions tend to focus on two of the four big 21st century learning skills. Certainly adding those two other lagging skills could be an asset to those occupations, but they may not be wholly necessary. The second is that there is immediately an important skill missing from these four that jumps out for me, and interestingly it is not one that was included in the list that Stauffer (2020) provided. That skill is leadership, which is undoubtedly as important a skill as any of the ones previously mentioned in my mind. Without an intentional focus on what effective leadership looks like, there would be no one to direct any of the aforementioned roles that I mentioned, which is important if an organization of people are to have a focus. I would also state that leadership has the same level of flexibility that these other skills have, which fits in with the philosophy that "Students should be educated for jobs that have not yet been created, for new products that have not yet been invented..." (Lavonen & Korhonen, 2017 p. 13). I don't know that leadership would necessarily change the roles that I mentioned above, other than making the individual who possesses it a "Director of _____," but developing that skill in our students means that they will be more likely to take charge and take focus of a group of people when it is necessary. WORKS CITED Lavonen, J. & Korhonen, T. (2017). Towards Twenty-First Century Education: Success Factors, Challenges, and the Renewal of Finnish Education. In Choo, S., Sawch, D., Willanueva, A., Vinz, R. (Eds.), Educating for the 21st Century: Perspectives, Policies and Practicies from Around the World. (pp. 243-264). Singapore: Springer. Stauffer, B. (2020, March 19). What Are 21St Century Skills?. Applied Education Systems. https://www.aeseducation.com/blog/what-are-21st-century-skills
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorTim Raposo is a teacher of grades 3 & 4 at Cawston Primary School in BC. With a firm grasp of burgeoning technologies. he seeks to introduce students to new ideas and skills to produce a passion for 21st century learning as early as possible in their educational careers. ArchivesCategories |