21st Century Skills

21st Century Curriculum

  • Interdisciplinary, project-based, and research-driven.
  • Incorporates higher-order thinking, multiple intelligences, technology, and multimedia.
  • Emphasizes multiple literacies and authentic assessments.
  • Service learning is a key component.
  • Shifts from textbook-driven, teacher-centered learning.
  • Connects to the community (local, state, national, and global).

Key Features

  • Skills learned through research and application in projects.
  • Textbooks are just one of many resources.
  • Knowledge is constructed through research, application, and connection to personal experiences.
  • Assessment involves demonstrating understanding through application in various contexts.
  • Real-world audiences and self-assessment are important parts of the assessment process.

Redefining Education for the 21st Century

  • School: Evolves from buildings to nerve centers connecting teachers, students, and the community.
  • Teacher: Transitions from information dispenser to orchestrator of learning, helping students transform information into knowledge and wisdom.
  • Learner: Focus on maintaining student interest by connecting learning to real-world applications, instilling curiosity, and promoting lifelong learning.

21st Century Skills

  • Learning Skills: Critical thinking, creative thinking, collaborating, communicating.
  • Life Skills: Flexibility, initiative, social skills, productivity, leadership.
  • Literacy Skills: Information literacy, media literacy, technology literacy.

Four C's

  • Communication: Sharing thoughts, questions, ideas, and solutions.
  • Collaboration: Working together to reach a goal, utilizing diverse talents and expertise.
  • Critical Thinking: Analyzing problems in new ways and linking learning across subjects.
  • Creativity: Applying new approaches to achieve innovation and invention.

Digital Literacy Skills

  • Information literacy.
  • Media literacy.
  • ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) literacy.

Career and Life Skills

  • Flexibility and adaptability.
  • Initiative and self-direction.
  • Social and cross-cultural interaction.
  • Productivity and accountability.
  • Leadership and responsibility.

Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

  • Essential Elements: In-depth inquiry, student voice and choice, driving question, need to know, audience presented product, curriculum content, 21st-century skills, reflection & revision.
  • Learning and applying knowledge to solve problems.