21st Century Skills: Positive Direction for Students

MCS teachers are on year 3 with student 1:1 iPads and are becoming strong experts in teaching and developing the 21st Century skills. Traditional teaching is not preparing our students for their best options in this journey of life. With students walking around with computers in their hands, having access to just about any and all information, memorization of facts is an-outdated, unneeded practice. Knowing what to do with information, how to communicate it, how to work with others and problem-solve, and doing it all with creativity is what students need the most.

Road blocks, however, exist. People become confused or worried when change occurs especially when it is not the way it has always been done or is not an experience that matches their own. Teachers are trying to make shifts in practice that is based on better practice, but it someones is not always greeted with acceptance. I have witnessed this with both CCSS and standards-based grading.

The CCSS is about a shift in practice; it is about a common set of standards for students. I am not so sure why so much political controversy should exist over having set knowledge expectations for our students to learn. That could be an entirely different blog post. However, the notion behind the instructional practice of the standards is to encourage students to think for themselves and dig to a deeper understanding of information and analysis.

Standards-based grading is measuring student proficiency on a set of objectives. This method is extremely informative, individualized, and fits the shifts needed to teach 21st Century skills, but it too is not widely accepted because parents pressure educators to give letter grades--they way our learning was measured and the way we were compared.

Traditional practices are no longer preparing our children. What was good enough for us, is no longer good enough for our children. We need to evolve.

My favorite understanding of the student-centered verses teacher-centered approach stems from the paradigm descriptors by Huba and Freed (2000). While their research was based at the post-secondary level, these descriptors and student-centered practice is becoming widely used in both elementary and secondary classrooms. These practices fit the instructional shifts of the CCSS and the individualized and personalized instruction that more teachers are delivering to their students. In my dissertation, student-centered instructional practice (SCIP) is defined using Huba and Freed (2000) descriptors which were factored together in a quantitative study. SCIP involves 1)  giving students continuous feedback; 2) training and treating students as sophisticated learners; 3) making learning interpersonal; 4) using teacher-to-student and student-to-student coaching; 5) having students understand, produce, and identify quality work; 6) having students being able to apply what they have learned; 7) continuously include teaching and assessing; and 8) applying both general and subject skills. SCIP differs greater from the traditional approach of where the teacher is the giver of the information and the students passively obtain it.

Stakeholders, however, sometimes see SCIP, where the teacher is the facilitator of information, as the teacher being "lazy" or not doing his or her job. As one can see from the descriptors, this instructional practice is quite intensive to plan, implement, and assess. It is this method which fosters the 4Cs.

Here you can find the National Education Association's (NEA) Guide to the 4Cs which highlights the importance of teaching them, resources, and definitions.

Our educators are working harder than they have ever done before. They are preparing our children for jobs that we have no idea of their existence yet. Our educators are making learning more engaging, interactive, personalized, self-driven WHILE being evaluated, judged, dragged through social media for taking risks to prepare our children for the new world ahead of them, ahead of all of us.

21st Century skills are the new foundation--the new 3Rs--to make our students successful. Teaching, fostering, and facilitating communication skills, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking are all a solid foundation for this journey, and MCS educators and students are paving the way. This is a positive direction for our students. Be a part of the journey.