Partnership for 21st Century Skills

      My reaction to The Partnership for 21st Century Skills organization is that it encourages one to evaluate the skills taught in his or her own classroom and helps determine necessary skills that need to be implemented. With district mandated objectives, it is easy to pass over necessary skills because of lack of time. This organization's website explains the critical skills that need to be integrated in the core curriculum to promote higher level thinking. This organization understands the value of the core curriculum, however feels as though it needs to be altered to integrate additional skills necessary to prepare students for their roles in society. These skills include:

• life and career skills
• learning and innovation skills
• information, media, and technology skills

The organization's website provides snapshots of classrooms that are effectively applying specific 21^st century skills to their objectives. This site provides publications, webinars, and books that can be used as a reference to gain ideas and to understand the importance of 21^st century skills. Levy and Murnane (2006) said “complex communication and expert thinking are important for contributing to life in a pluralistic democracy.” This site helps you prepare your students by developing communication and critical thinking skills they will need for their future lives and professions.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills organization provides an integrative framework of the 21^st century tools. This diagram helped me understand the categories in which each of the skills fit. It also showed the steps one must take in incorporating these skills in the classroom: learning environments, professional development, curriculum and instruction, and standards and assessments. I was surprised that professional development was a step above learning environments. In order for a teacher to understand what necessary elements are needed in a 21^st century classroom, the teachers need to participate in professional development. They need to be introduced to the skills, tools, and schedules that are most effective in a 21^st century classroom to integrate these skills into core subjects.

When looking at the snapshots of each of the 21^st century skills, several of the skills were specific to different grade levels. An example being communication/global awareness was represented for grade levels 9-12. Since these skills promote higher level thinking, it is necessary to encourage teachers of all grade levels to implement these skills whenever possible. I would suggest providing lessons for each grade level that incorporate these skills. There are sample lessons available, but they are not organized by grade level and they are a little difficult to sort through. 

     The implication for my students as I integrate these skills is closing the “gap between the knowledge and skills most students learn in school and the knowledge they need in a typical 21^st century communities and workplace” (Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, 2010). Students should be exposed to learning each of the 21^st century skills to establish themselves in the workplace and in their lives. This site does not expect teachers to take additional time out of their day, but to incorporate 21^st century methods and tools into their current curriculum to benefit the students for the future.

References

Levy, F., & Murnane, R. (2006). Why the changing American economy calls for twenty-first century learning: Answers to educators' questions. New Directions for Youth Development, 2006(110), 53–62. 

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/downloads/P21_Report.pdf