Skills for the 21st Century

Buena V. Paulo

Why should Educators care about 21st Century Learning? Schools have a responsibility to nurture their young students into functioning 21st-century citizens. 21st-century skills are essential for everyday living. These skills are necessary for life work and citizenship. Understand that life outside of school is nothing like the classroom environment and requires different ways to succeed in teaching. These skills to students will help them become successful later in their lives. Ownership for 21st Century Learning offers a framework that focuses on student outcomes which are your goals and learning objectives.

The first component is the content knowledge and 21st-century theme. School curriculum will have students learning subjects such as Mathematics, Science, World Geography, Civics, Reading, and Writing. Students must master these core disciplines just to graduate high school. Students must learn at a high level by recognizing and understanding. Handing the 21st-century themes within these key subjects: environmental literacy and all the factors that affected economic business, entrepreneurial and civic global awareness, communicating around the world, health literacy, and taking responsibilities.

For one's health now on to the second student outcome, which is learning and Innovation skills. These skills are broken down into the four C's. The first C is creativity. Students must come up with innovative ideas, and then put those ideas into action. Next is communication. Teach students to articulate their thoughts effectively using oral and written communication strategies. The third C is for collaboration. Have your students practice soft skills and working efficiently with diverse teams. And the last C is for critical thinking that is being able to analyze and evaluate evidence as well as use deductive reasoning for any of life's situations.

For student outcomes, there is also information media and technology skills. Students need to be able to access all of the information available to them and there's a lot of information out there. All those students may be adept at social media. Our children should have an understanding of media messaging and how to create media products. Teachers still need to keep students up to date with the rapid changes in technology. They should be able to use digital technologies as communication and networking tools as well as having an understanding of the dangers of technology. Students can use the technology that they have to manage information beneficially.

The last student outcome is life and career skills. There are many careers out there. When a student enters the workforce they must be flexible and able to adapt to changes. As adults, we know how important it is to adapt to new and challenging situations. Some more life and career skills besides being flexible include having initiative and self-direction, social and cross-cultural skills, having productivity and accountability, and lastly leadership and responsibility.

21st Century Learning is broken down into support systems for schools. First off, the school should have 21st century standards. These standards should emphasize understanding and depth of knowledge while building relationships and understanding across various academic subjects and themes. Second, assessments of 21st-century skills. This includes the big three summative formative and diagnostic assessments also included should be standardized test evaluations. Third, on the list is 21st-century curriculum and instruction that means teaching century skills in the context of the key subjects in core disciplines. For the 21st Century Learning environments, teachers should create a real-world type learning environment for the students and they can do this to Project-based learning and Cooperative learning experiences. And lastly, we have professional development for 21st Century Learning. These types of professional development for teachers should be directed on various ways teachers can integrate these 21st-century skills into their classrooms.

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The author is Teacher III at San Francisco Elementary School