21st Century Skills

[Demetri Orlando]

The commonly accepted descriptions of 21st Century Skills provide support for a rationale for PBL because these skills are exactly what is needed for successful PBL. The following excerpt from Ted McCain's "leadership" handout is from 2002 which presages some of the more recent publications and websites on this:

• Information technology skills- it is important that all students have the skills required to use the technology that is driving the economy
- but the technology skills cannot be the focus because what you do with it is far more important than just being able to use it
• Information processing skills- These are the higher level thinking skills required to process, sort, rank, compare, contrast, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the information retrieved with information technology skills
• Information presentation skills- We must convince teachers that it’s already a graphical world - photos, web, videos, games
- In this multimedia world it's not enough to be able to get and process information
- you also have to be able to communicate your ideas effectively in the graphical
environment of 21st century life
• Independent problem solving skills- those skills that empower students to operate independently in the real world
- we must teach our students the structured process to follow to solve problems on their own
• Interdependent team-working skills- many still view this as cheating in school
- But co-operative group skills are already a must in a networked world
• Initiative skills- skills that enable students to take control of their lives and their careers
- The reality is that many of our students will become entrepreneurs in the age of downsizing
and contracting out in modern business
- time management
- stress management
- goal setting
- self assessment
• Idea creation skills- those skills that empower people to be creative
- teaching students the value of productive failure
- that virtually all advances in human history have come from trial and error learning – learning that came from mistakes
• Integrated content skills- teaching the content from traditional subjects in an integrated, holistic approach that reflects the reality of the world outside school
http://www.tcpd.org/mccain/handouts/Leading2.pdf © Ted McCain 2002.

I am struck at how McCain's work from 2002 has been more recently echoed in the work of the partnership for 21st century skills which uses this graphic to show an overview of skills:


Source:http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php?option=com_content&t... This is their list of skills:
1. Core Subjects and 21st Century Themes
2. Learning and Innovation Skills
*Creativity and Innovation Skills
*Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills
*Communication and Collaboration Skills
3. Information, Media and Technology Skills
*Information Literacy
*Media Literacy
*Information-Communications-Technology Literacy
4. Life and Career Skills
*Flexibility & Adaptability
*Initiative & Self-Direction
*Social & Cross-Cultural Skills
*Productivity & Accountability
*Leadership & Responsibility



I based my own diagram of 21st century skills on this work and included it in a conceptual framework:

Source: http://www.4dmo.com/portfolio/conceptualframework/21.htm

In another iteration of this theme, Dan Pink, in his book A Whole New Mind, desribes the importance of the following right-brain skills in the new economy:
* Design - Moving beyond function to engage the sense.
* Story - Narrative added to products and services - not just argument. Best of the six senses.
* Symphony - Adding invention and big picture thinking (not just detail focus).
* Empathy - Going beyond logic and engaging emotion and intuition.
* Play - Bringing humor and light-heartedness to business and products.
* Meaning - Immaterial feelings and values of products.
Source: Wikipedia

Another well-known speaker on the topic of educational reform is Alan November. In this short clip he mentions three key skills he thinks students need: info-processing, global collaboration, and self-directed thinking. These seem to fit quite well into a pedagogy based on PBL!


I see a wonderful convergence between all these thinkers, and good support for the PBL approach. It seems to me that PBL has always been "good teaching" and is not a new idea, but the shifts of the 21st century brought about by technology and the flattening of the global economy lend new urgency to this effort.

Thoughts, comments, reactions?