Source: ConvergeMag.com
Teaching for the 21st Century
by Tanya Roscorla
June 10, 2009
In this global marketplace, kids need to learn the proper skills and gain hands-on, real-world experience if they hope to survive the workforce.
If teachers mix career-oriented projects into their classrooms, they will help students master core subjects and learn skills including communication, problem solving, critical thinking, global awareness, financial literacy and technology.
"The world is constantly changing," said Lisa Dworkin, the president of the personal finance nonprofit group Money Masters, "but essential skills such as reading, writing and financial literacy prepare our children for anything."
Students apply knowledge
Essential skills combined with real-world application make a dynamite duo at Sunrise Mountain High School in Peoria, Ariz. With the help of DECA marketing teacher Deb Moore, the marketing students run a campus store and a fashion show every year.
At the store, the students manage the inventory, deal with security cameras and balance books by using accounting software. They're learning, Moore said, but they don't realize it because they're doing something they enjoy.
These projects teach them how to communicate, deal with conflict and solve problems.
"Knowledge only takes you so far," Moore said. "Imagination and applying that knowledge will take them into the future."
Making school matter
Educators need to give students real-world projects that will help them understand why they need to learn concepts in science or other subjects, said Ken Kay, the president of Partnership for 21st Century Skills, in a webinar on Monday.
"The mixture of skills and content together is actually leading us in a direction where students and teachers both are getting excited about what they're doing," Kay said. "We're going to have more and more kids understand why content is important because we're teaching it to them in a context that makes sense to them."
In North Carolina, the Department of Public Instruction mixed skills and content together in its annual assessment of fourth- and seventh-graders. The pilot program for 20 educational agencies allowed students to create a writing prompt with their teacher on a topic in another subject matter, such as science, said Angela Quick, the deputy chief academic officer for the department. While the fourth-graders turned in hand-written answers to the prompt, the seventh-graders typed their responses, edited them and posted them on Moodle.
A lot of teachers are teaching 21st-century skills; they just don't know it, said Kathy Schroeder, the director of marketing for Atomic Learning.
"It's not something that's separate, it's not a whole new path that teachers need to figure out how to teach," Schroeder said. "It really is something that you bring into what you're already doing in the classroom."
Gaining a global perspective
For teachers and students, cultural skills are crucial, said Cate Brubaker, an intercultural consultant with the Visiting International Faculty Program. Once they enter the workforce, students and teachers could work with people in other parts of the world, which means they need to know how culture influences behavior, perceptions and expectations.
"We can't learn about every culture in the world," Brubaker said, "but what we can do is we can be really aware of our own cultural and personal influences, and that helps us understand how we interpret other people's behavior or communication styles."
Global awareness and other skills are necessary for life, which is why Deerfield Public Schools District 109 in Illinois created a director of 21st-century skills position this year, said Jill Maraldo, who holds the position.
"These are really the skills," she said, "that, according to the research, the high school level, the college level and future employers are looking for in order for our community, our students to be competitive in a global society."