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Do we have to call them 21st Century Skills?

I'm glad a few years ago I introduced the book 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times to our administration. It was exciting to have an assistant superintendent interested in changing the conversation for learning in our school district. While I still certainly appreciate the content of this book, I am soooooooo sick of hearing about 21st Century Learning, 21st Century Skills, 21st Century ad nauseam. Isn't there a better way to phrase this for everyday conversation? Perhaps we need to stick with this so everyone hears consistent jargon, but I don't think people overall have the right idea of what it means. I would imagine if we polled our staff or parents they would say its technology or computer skills. That couldn't be further from the truth. If I say higher order thinking skills I think that's pretty clear (at least to me) of what that means. I worry 21st Century means the Jetsons or Star Trek to all too many people.

I appreciate Tony Wagner's "Survival Skills" because that's what they are for the modern economy - how to compete with your peers around the world. When the founders of High Tech High started planning in 1998, did they say "we're going to focus on 21st Century Skills?" I wasn't there, but I doubt it. If you go to the page on their history, the only time 21 comes up is at the bottom of the screen for the last time the page was updated.

Is there a better way to frame the conversation? Or should we just stick with what we have?
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  1. NancyWApril 26, 2012 at 1:26 PM

    I agree that "21st century skills" is no longer the best descriptor. Our school board actually refers to these generally as "learning skills" and C21L (Council on 21st Century Learning)has the tagline "Envision next generation learning" - which is still pretty vague. I think higher order thinking skills only addresses some of the skills - I am not sure about collaboration and communication being covered by that phrase. Survival skills seems like it could be about something else entirely - though I know what he means.

    Just brainstorming now:
    -Skills for success
    -Solution-making skills
    -Active learning skills
    -habits of mind
    -life skills

    Can't wait to see what others come up with!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownApril 26, 2012 at 8:28 PM

    Hi Nancy - Thanks for the post! I agree higher order thinking skills doesn't cover all the bases - but it is a good start. I'm looking at HOTS as simply terminology that makes sense to the average person - again, at least it makes sense to me. That's a good tagline that frames the conversation well. Allows the person to wonder...

    I really like the way "habits of mind" sounds, but it would still confuse.

    Others...
    Modern competition skills?
    Modern life skills?
    Contemporary competition/life skills?
    Problems solving skills? That could cover many fields - farmers, auto mechanics, bankers, teachers all solve problems everyday.

    ReplyDelete

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