This week we were to review the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website. After reviewing the site, I learned that it is a national organization whose mission is to advocate for 21st century skills for all students. The website provided tools and resources, state initiatives, as well as events and news for visitors to view. Sadly, this was the first time that I had heard of this website. It seems like it is a site that more people should know about though given the push for incorporating 21st century skills into our schools.
In the mission section of the website, it discusses the profound gap between knowledge and skills children learn in school and the knowledge and skills they need in a 21st century community. It continued to explain how classroom environments must align with real world environments by fusing together the 3R’s and the 4C’s. The four C’s being critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation. The 4C’s mentioned were very similar to Dr. Thornbug’s 21 century skills and disposition that were mentions in his Skills for the 21st century video segment. The 4C’s mentioned on the website will serve as a guide to help me to develop 21st century within my own classroom. It made reference to aligning classroom experiences with real world experiences. As a classroom teacher, it is my job to be sure I am giving these opportunities to my children while learning. The tools and resource section of the website will serve as a reference for future planning to implement these skills in the classroom.
The one thing that surprised me about the website like I mentioned before was the fact that I had not heard of it before. I was especially surprised when I looked at the history section of the website and saw all of the major names that even made the Partnership for 21 century skills possible. Of the founding organizations were AOL, Apple Inc., Dell, Microsoft, and NEA to name a few. With such sponsors, I thought maybe I would have been a little more familiar with the site. I was also surprised to see that Ohio had a state initiative page because I have not heard of this either. The readiness initiatives were in place since 2009 and I am just learning about it. I must be really out of the loop these days!
Overall, I thought the website was a good resource to have as an educator. It had some helpful information and tools to use. I did not care for the organization of the site though. I thought that it was very wordy and information was jumbled here and there. If I did not have to look at it for class, I don’t know that I would spend much time on it for the mere fact it was too wordy. I like pictures, videos, lesson ideas, or other ideas on how I can implement this framework into my own classroom. Besides my personal aesthetic wants for the website, I thought it provided some meaningful information on how to incorporate 21st century learning skills into learning.
3 comments:
I had never heard of the 4-Cs (critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation) before viewing the P21 website. I also agree that there was a strong connection between the views of the P21 and Dr. Thornburg’s from this week’s resources.
Do you feel the students at your school come to you well-prepared in the 4-Cs? I am curious how other schools are going about strengthening these areas in their curriculum.
I have found a lack in all of these areas in my class this year in my class of fifth graders. I wonder if there is a correlation between the emphasis on state testing and the lack of critical thinking and creativity I see at my school. I look forward to finding out the responses of others in this area.
Melissa,
I had also not heard of this site until this year. It is surprising how little word has been spread about the information found on the P21.org website. There has been clear organization of thought on that site. Twenty first century skills are something that everyone talks about but rarely actually know about. As 21st century teachers it is becoming part of what we have to do to inform ourselves and others about these skills and resources so I am glad we are now both in the loop! I hope our students can be better prepared for the future as I learn about these skills. I like how you mentioned using real world tasks in your class as a solution. I have done a lot of thinking this year about the kinds of assignments and performance assessments I give because of this reason. I am trying to move away from closed ended tasks and open up the door for extended, creative thinking.
Jodi,
I do not think that our children come to school well prepared for the 4C's. With so much emphasis on testing and being ready for that, I feel like there is not enough time to put emphasis on the other skills such as the 4C's. I do think that the children miss out on important life skills as well when the 4C's are lacking. I would be curious to see how others across the states are incorporating the 4C's as well.
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