The topic of 21st century learning is not new for me. However, I had never really quite understood what it was. In today's society, our children are expected to know so much more than ever, in order to fully function in the working world. In looking at the The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website, I am realizing how much I did not know and how I have not fully been preparing my students for their future.
The mission of the partnership states that all students in the United States need these skills in order to be successful in the business world. For those of you who are unfamiliar with these skills, they include knowing the general curriculum, (English, reading or language arts; mathematics; science; foreign languages; civics; government; economics; arts; history; and geography.) as well as something called the "four c's" (critical thinking and problem solving; communication, collaboration; and creativity and innovation.)
What I found surprising on the site is that there were many states working on this initiative and Connecticut was not one of them. Being a teacher in Connecticut, I am wondering why we have not jumped on board. Is it because our schools are behind in state testing? After reading an article about "The New Literacies," stating that many districts are behind in online reading skills because of state testing pressures, (Miners & Pascopella, 2007) I am beginning to think this may be true. At least coming from my own experience, I am under pressure to bring up those scores and I am not really thinking about teaching my students online skills that they should know, especially since they are not tested. However, what happens in the future when the state test is online? How can I support my students when this happens? These are the types of questions we should be asking ourselves. It would be nice to see Connecticut join the partnership eventually, for now, I may just start looking at the Massachusetts standards and resources.
Resources:
Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. District Administration,43(10), 26–34
Stacy,
ReplyDeleteI too was surprised to find that my state was not listed as one of the states working with PL21. As I researched their philosophy I found I agreed with the foundations in which the author’s have created their mission. The more I learn about the skills employers are looking for in future employees, the more I realize that our current education system is not meeting these expectations. The traditional classroom does not always encourage communication, collaboration, creativity, and innovation; skills that are highly emphasized in today’s society.
While I try to incorporate these skills and dispositions into my classroom through problem and challenge based learning experiences, I often find that I get anxious around our state’s testing window. What if I didn’t do enough paper/pencil selected response tests? Are my students going to be successful in analyzing fiction as well as non fiction and fill in the correct bubble? While I feel that many of the lessons my students engage in encourage more higher level thinking and problem solving than traditional forms of instruction, I worry that I have not specifically taught them how to take the test.
I also am concerned about the move to online testing. This year our middle school students piloted the online math test. Since technology within our building is limited, our students have limited online math experience. I am curious to see if the scores reflect students math skills or if their scores will be negatively impacted due to the unfamiliar testing environment. While I am not a math teacher I did proctor my class in the computer lab and found that many of them struggled the utilizing the tools to come up with a definitive answer.
Next year the state will require the reading section of this test to be taken online as well. While students have had more experience with reading assessments taken online, I find that students don’t always read as critically on the computer as they do with a hardcopy. Many of my students find it helpful to highlight and underline specific words or phrases as they read. There is something about the actual motion of moving their pencil under selected passages that help them attend to the task.
While I believe that having experience with a variety of technology will increase student’s success in the real world, I have an issue with requiring students to test in an unfamiliar environment. If all classrooms had access to computers and students were engaging in reading a math activities on a daily/weekly basis then online testing would make sense, but without a supporting our students with appropriate technology it seems unfair to expect them to perform at their best.
You mentioned that your state does not currently require online testing, so you know if they are moving in that direction or estimated timeline for the implementation of this type of assessment?
I teach in Indiana. I would like to say that I was surprised that we weren’t on this site, I really am not. Our state education department is a little backwards. I really feel that if we as a state could get on board with 21st Century Skills, we would be moving in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteThere is a local school that received an Apple Grant. K-12 classes have a classroom set of iPods, MacBooks, and each room is equipped with a Bose sound system. They were just on the news because their tests scores are significantly higher than most schools in the area and even in the state. The superintendent said he accredits that to their technology. He said he knows that without the technology they have, they would not be succeeded as well as they are. That is the perfect example of what teachers can do when they have the resources they need. 21st Century Skills are exactly what is needed to get us where we need to be.
P21 has been around since 2002...that's almost a decade and only 16 out of 50 States are on the initiatives list. California is not on the list and we have the ninth largest economy in the world. This is just my observation, but how is P21 really helping? Why are some States involved, while others are not? If this site is important enough to be assigned by our professor, than somewhere there must be a disconnect between States, schools, and big business.
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting thing to me is that our former governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, set aside 52 million dollars to expand Career Technical Education (CTE) back in 2007. Here is a quote from http://www.labor.ca.gov: “California is a global center of innovation and a nation-state in terms of economic power. But, we must make investments in career tech education if we are going to keep our competitive edge.” –
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger - March 13, 2007
With this type of support at the State level for business education in California schools, how could California not be on the initiative list with P21?