Partnership for 21st Century Skills is an in depth site that provides a lot of insight into the skills students need in order to succeed in their world. The site, which seeks to build partnerships between education, business and government, provides a detailed list of the skills students need in order to survive as citizens.
Most of the skills listed come as little surprise. According to the site students must have a mastery of core subjects like Math and Science. The site also states that schools must move to a focus in many other 21st Century themed areas such as Economics and Health Literacy. Nearly all of the skills listed are skills that I currently use to survive in today's workplace and in today's society. It came as little surprise that today's students would need these skills also. I did find it a little surprising that P21's site would also expect mastery in areas like foreign language and or ideas for challenging environmental issues. While such skills are great to have, I don't suspect every student will take a great interest in them.
Overall I like the site. I especially enjoyed Video 21, which allows viewers to see videos conveying the sites mission. This site provides educators with a framework to focus on when trying to access student skills and their progress toward mastering necessary skills. I think this site is a huge step in the direction that leads to preparing our students for the world ahead of them.
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Although I agree that not every student will be interested in environmental issues, P21 is spot on that students should master the skills of coming up with ideas for challenging environmental issues. We are running out of resources and the earth is getting polluted every second. Movies about earth no longer being habitable may come true in the near future. I lived in Korea for about 10 years. There, I was given recycle notebooks every year and was taught how to recycle (it is a pain; not all papers, metals, and glass are recyclable). I was also taught many other ways to preserve the environment, such as putting a brick in the toilet water container, wedging a short pencil into a pen tube, making natural soap, using only decomposable plastic bags and etc. Now the problem became more devastating. The students have to work on not only preserving the environment but also reversing the damage.
ReplyDeleteJennifer you make a good point about challenging environmental issues. We are running out of resources and I think students do need to be aware of the environmental issues that affect their world.
ReplyDeleteI too was surprised that the site would mention the mastery of foreign languages as a requisite skill for the 21st Centruy, but for different reasons. Maybe it's because I'm around so many students who already speak at least two languages, English usually being the second one, or maybe it's because I'm from a part of the country where speaking another language is an important job asset, but I agree that Americans (of the United States variety, the word "American" in reality including two continents)should end their linguistic isolation.
ReplyDeleteIn virtually every other place in the world it is common for students to learn at least one other language, and it is only here that foreign language is not just another subject, like for example, math or science. At my school for example, in our International Business magnet program, Chinese is offered as a language elective, chosen for its viability in a modern business world. Far from being uninterested, many students really want to learn it, and some had to be turned away because there is only one teacher of Chinese.
The other language alternatives, French and Spanish, are packed. Florida mandates a language requirement at the high school level, so our students are actually ahead of the game, but ideally languages should be taught from a much earlier age.
Our other magnet program is Science, and environmental issues are at the top of the list
of topics about which students are concerned.