Partnership for 21st Century Skills
I have had an idea rolling around in my head for a few years
now that the education system in the United States needed a huge overhaul. After reading about the Partnership of 21st
Century Skills maybe this is just what the doctor ordered. I think it is going to be a long process,
seeing as only 16 of the 50 states are onboard so far. I do like the fact that state leaders in
those states are involved.
Educators have talked about moving beyond the basic
competency in core subjects for quite awhile now and it looks like this is a
plan to finally do it. The
interdisciplinary themes are necessary of the future of the human race
especially the global awareness, health literacy and environmental literacy
themes. The only thing I am wondering is
who all is going to go along with this.
Maryland was not on the list of states that are onboard with this
yet. I would love to start working with
other teachers on the interdisciplinary themes but I have a feeling other
teachers in my school would see it as more work and would not want to work with
me. Especially since our state is not
involved yet. I liked reading the blog
on the website. The last post was just
about this issue; “How can we expand the dialogue about 21st Century
Skills among those not yet engaged?”
The life and career skills that are mentioned like; adapt to
varied roles, be flexible, manage goals and time, interact effectively with
others, and guide and lead others seem like they are something the students I
teach won’t be able to master for a very long time. Maybe because I teach middle school aged
students and they seem very immature to me.
Would we the teachers need to go to professional development or other
classes to learn to teach these skills to the students or would they hire
teachers already trained to teach these skills?
With the current state of the economy and with all of the budget cuts
going on in the education system I’m not sure if they will be able to afford
teachers to teach these skills.
Another question I have about these 21st century
skills is are they going to test students on them in order to graduate? Would they do away with standardized testing
and replace it with some sort of assessment on the Core Subjects and 21st
Century Themes, Learning & Innovation Skills, Information, Media &
Technology Skills and Life & Career Skills?
How will we know when a student masters these skills?
I think this framework is necessary in order for the United
States to keep up in this global economy.
I just think that it is going to take awhile for it to be implemented
throughout the entire United States.
