Partnership for 21st Century Skills

Partnership for 21^st Century Skills is a national organization set up to provide resources, tools, and online support for educators.  I have used information from this website when planning lessons and activities in my classroom and have found many of their resources extremely helpful.  In order to prepare our students for the 21^st century this organization has identified various knowledge and skills necessary for students and teachers to attain to in order for our education system to close the gap between knowledge and skills currently learned in the classroom and those that are required to be successful in today’s society.  In order for students to be ready to enter the workforce in the 21^st century, this organization states that students need to utilize the 4 C’s:  critical thinking and problem solving; communication, collaboration; and creativity and innovation while participating in English (reading and language arts); mathematics; science; foreign languages; civics; government; economics; arts; history; and geography.  

To master 21^st century standards, the Partnership for 21^st Century Learning states that schools need to have “assessments, curriculum, instruction, professional development and learning environments aligned to produce a support system that produces 21st century outcomes for today’s students.”  I agree with the authors of this website that there needs to be an extensive support system in place in order for all students to master these standards.  I like how this organization provides tools and resources for creating support systems for students as well as teachers.

While I agree that various components need to be in place to promote 21^st century skills, my district has yet to place these skills and technology integration as a priority.  Without our leaders recongnizing the need for the shift in educational philosophy, our support system will continue to be limited. Our state assessments do not account for creativity, collaboration and technology skills. Since these skills are not included within state/national mandated testing schedules, many schools do not include explicit instruction and professional development for teachers on how to incorporate 21^st century skills.  Without time and resources devoted to creating 21^st century schools teachers are left to explore these resources on their own and are often limited by time, money, and district support.

While large scale change may not occur in all states/districts in the next few years there are changes that can be embraced within individual classrooms and buildings.  The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills provides tools, resources and learning opportunities for educators ready to move in this direction.  Within this site there is a section called Route 21 that provides a variety of tools and information on how teachers can integrate 21^st century skills with state standards to better prepare our students for the real world.  When you enter Route 21 you can search for lessons/activities based on the 3R’s and/or the 4C’s.   When you search for specific resources you will find information posted from teachers, links to blogs and wikis, as well as books that can be purchased to aid in the integration of technology within the classroom.  During my exploration of these resources,  I found a book called Teaching the iGeneration which I ordered to help me plan my new digital technology class I will be teaching this fall.  While I found many of these resources useful and full of great ideas, I was also frustrated with how many of these links are sponsored by publishing companies and require you to purchase their materials in order to preview specific lessons/activities.  I also found that a few of the links that I was looking forward to exploring did not work. 

Within Route 21, as well as Video 21, you can also view videos posted from professional conferences and individual classroom teachers.  The videos help clarify what implication these standards have for education and help to generate questions for further discussion.  I see how these videos could be used to initiate conversations at building and district levels.   Beginning dialogue around important educational issues brings pedagogy to the forefront and can create a framework for relevant professional development.

It is interesting to note that the creators of the Common Core Standards are challenging the premises upon which the Partnership for 21^st Century Learning are based:

“Skills are important and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) has identified skills that all children need such as critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving. But P21’s approach to teaching those skills marginalizes knowledge and therefore will deny students the liberal education they need.

http://www.commoncore.org/p21-challenge.php

As education continues to debate what our children should learn and how they should learn it, our students will continue to be caught in the middle.  As each new “educational group” focuses on a particular issue or political “power” point, our students are left without clear direction.   I believe that the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills tells us what is needed for success in this century, but these skills are not operating in isolation.  Without knowledge and skills, students are not able to reach a sophisticated level of understanding.  What is needed is a balanced approach to learning – learning which teaches knowledge and skills in order to understand – an understanding that will enhance critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and technology integration.