Week 4’s Discussion Post - Teaching 21st Century Skills

Week 4’s Discussion Post by Scott W Tinney

Teaching 21^st Century Skills

                  In New York State, the current education system is not preparing our students for the challenges they will face in college and the workplace.   There are many reasons that today’s students’ lack these 21^st century skills, and many of these factors that are already present in our schools aren’t going to change for some time.  My close friend, who is the President of the top IT recruiting firm in the Northeast, says that he has hundreds of open positions that can’t be filled because the potential workers lack these essential skills that are defined within the 21^st century framework.  He goes on to say that most employers would be happy to train, educate, and compensate potential employees, but the fact is that many high school graduates don’t have the core skills, much less the application and problem solving skills.  The 21^st century skills

framework encompasses teaching students not only the three R’s, but also the four C’s - critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation (ThinkInfinity, 2011).  In the Skills for the 21st Century video, Dr. Thornburg states that today’s employers are seeking employees with the following skillsets including the ability to think critically, problem solve, work in a team, communicate, use information technology, be a leader,  possess strong ethics, be creative and innovative, and act professionally.

        I believe that our educational system will have a hard time acclimating and changing the system, in order to now foster graduates with these 21^st century skills.  As teachers, we have to adhere to ambitious curriculums and schedules, that don’t allow any time to go back and revisit a concept, much less to add additional time spent on teaching these 21^st century skills.  In my district, I consistently see high school students and graduates that read and write at only a 7^th grade level.  It is hard to imagine a teacher requiring students to apply what they know, when their core subject skills are so intermediate. 

At my previous teaching assignment I taught 2 intensive years of Computer Technology studies to both Juniors and Seniors.  I agree with the 21^st century pretense that there are many essential skills that are needed and valued for high school graduates that are going forward to college and/or the profession world.  It is interesting to me that an employer will hire someone with even a little problem solving ability.  I worked professionally as an Engineer and IT Professional for 10+ years, and I have seen first-hand the need for an employee to be able to effectively communicate, conduct themselves as a professional, think beyond conventional thinking, learn, and problem solve  In my classroom, I taught many of, but I had the freedom and leeway to do it.  One way I teach these skills is to first I teach my students how to approach learning, and also let each student discover their best individual learning style.  Specifically, I have a Unit where I teaching them a repeatable problem solving strategy that works on any problem, and then push them to take this concept further by students expanding their problem solving skills along with their prior knowledge to start applying and creating.  It was very fulfilling to see my graduates excel both in college and at work.  The reality is that by mastering some of these the 21^st century type skills, these students have differentiated themselves from their peers and found success.  By learning how to problem solve, my students completed projects that far exceeded my already high expectations and their grades in other classes improved.  The other side of my success is that very few teachers have the time to address or teach these essential skills, and that instead many of us are trying to help our students raise their abilities in English or Math from a level years below their actual grade level. 

RESOURCES
THINK INFINITY VERIZON

http://www.thinkfinity.org/21st-century-skills

PARTNERSHIP FOR 21^ST CENTURY SKILLS

http://www.p21.org/overview

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). Skills for the 21st Century. Baltimore: Author.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/images/stories/otherdocs/p21up_Report.pdf

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved fromhttp://www.p21.org/images/stories/otherdocs/p21up_Report.pdf