General Education and the 21st Century

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General Education and the 21st Century

• Creating Coherent Paths for the Development of
  Essential Skills

GE Forum March 13, 2008
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Welcome and overview of the GE planning process
and todays activities

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Presentations
Essentials Skills for the College Graduate in the
21st Century

• Salika Lawrence, Secondary Middle School
  Education
• Balmurli Natrajan, Anthropology
• Trisha Snyder, Economics
• Glen Sherman, Assoc. Vice-President Dean of
  Student Development

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What skills will students need for the next
decade? Focus on literacy, learning, and
postsecondary education -------------------------
---------------------------Presenter Salika A.
LawrenceDepartment of Secondary and Middle
School Education

• March 13, 2008, GE Forum, William Paterson
  University

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What We Know About Literacy

• Literacy needs of each new generation changes
  (Brandt, 1998)
• Todays you have multiple literacies and hybrid
  identities (Alvermann, 2002 Moore, Bean,
  Birdyshaw, Rycik, 1999)
• Current need to redefine literacy
• Technology
• Information
• Critical
• Visual
• Media

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Our Current Context

• Rapid macro level changes
• New wave of globalization being driven by
  technology (Friedman, 2004)
• Rapidly changing, technology driven society
  (Jones Moreland, 2004 Kay, 2006 Mims, Polly,
  Sheperd, Inan, 2006)
• Workforce needs to know how to work
  collaboratively, online without any face-to-face
  contact (Leu Kinzer, 2000)

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Literacy Practices we Use Daily

• Navigate the burgeoning variety of text forms
  associated with information and multimedia
  technologies (New London Group, 1996, p.60).
• Engage in critical conversation about text
  (Bruce, 2002 King OBrien, 2002 Hinchman,
  Alvermann, Boyd, Brozo, Vacca, 2003/2004
  Lankshear Knobel, 2002 Moje, 2000, 2003)
• Print and non-print
• Engage in critical reading and critical thinking
• Critical reading - skill individuals need to
  become civic minded and active participants
• Ask questions about social issues
• Problem solving
• Examine multiple points of view on various issues

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What we Know About 21st Century Learners

• Teaching and learning in the 21st century
  requires
• students and teachers have subject specific
  knowledge,
• learn skills,
• use 21st century tools to foster learning, teach
  and learn in the 21st century context,
• connect learning to the real world, and
• use assessments that measure 21st century
  learning (Partnership for 21st Century Skills,
  2004)
• Learning encapsulates vehicles for knowledge
  acquisition that include
• learning through communication and technologies
  (Bruce, 2002), and
• learning through literacy practices that connect
  out-of-school experiences within the larger
  community (Bruce, 2002 Moje, 2000)
• Learn how to learn (Bruce, 2002)

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Issues and Considerations for Post Secondary
Education

• Disconnection between in and out of school
  literacy practices of todays youth
• Schools not keeping pace with the needs of global
  citizens
• Teacher knowledge of technology (Jones
  Moreland, 2004 Kay, 2006 Mims, Polly, Sheperd,
  Inan, 2006)
• Todays digital natives being taught by digital
  immigrants (Prensky, 2001)
• Students think they know how to use technology
  (Leu Kinzer, 2000)
• Literacy demands today - more critical,
  metacognitive, and self-regulated

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(No Transcript)
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GE Great Enigma?Growing Encumbrance? Glaring
Error?Got Education?

• Rescuing GE from a Point of View

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Globalization is not Globaloney
Culture A Shifting Landscape Shrinking
Distance Assertive Identities Interconnectedness R
ights Discourse Social Movements
Power Shifts (Un)Stable (trans)State? Security
Capital Frenzy Flight(y) Fecund Fury Foreign
Environment Consumption Conflict Control Clean
Technology
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Student Realities
Got Skills?
Who represents us? Whos drivin my
bus?
Power Analytic Skills
Political representation awareness
Global decisions affect the Local Learn that
IMF/WB/WTO are not UFOs
Aint no more your job to take, Tis
only your job to make
Where did my culture go? Have I one
anymore?
Critical Thinking Learning Skills Economies are
Flexible Jobs
and Labor Cross Borders Unevenly Work in
multidisciplinary teams
Learn Multi-skilling with Specialization
Complex Community Skills Cultures are
Fluid/Hybrid Learning to
live with Difference Appreciate Connectedness
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Operationalizing GE
Public Health?
Corporate Social Responsibility?
Student Skills Complex Community Critical
Thinking Learning Power Analytics Thematizing
GE Global citizenship?
Media and Democracy?
Public Education?
Identities and Inequalities?
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Globalization and Innovations
Presenter Trisha Snyder Department of Economics
and Finance
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Globalization and Innovations

• Greater Competition, Need skills that cant be
  outsourced
• Better understanding of cultural diversity
• Foreign lang. skills, understanding of different
  cultures (history, politics, religions,
  economics, etc.)
• Aging and shrinking population in the Western
  World, with a younger growing population in the
  Middle East
• Greater need for intergenerational knowledge

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• Better Communication in person and via the
  internet
• Better Written and Oral Presentation Skills
• Knowing and adapting to your audience
• Ability to Summarize, Persuade and be
  Professional
• Ability to see the big picture and build
  long-term relationships
• Better Listening skills
• Leadership and Team Building skills

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• Better understanding of the applied sciences and
  how to apply that knowledge to real world issues
• Understanding of the Scientific Method Thesis
  statement with supporting evidence
• Prove/Disprove
• Ability to find, sort, and summarize information
• Organizational and typing skills
• Critical thinking skills and logic, Cause and
  Effect
• Better Quantitative Reasoning
• More interdependence, creativity and adaptability

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• Main Points for Student Development for March 13
  GE Forum
• Presentation by Glen Sherman

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Life-long Learning

•   Given the realities of the current marketplace,
  and what we know from the Career Development
  literature, graduates can anticipate changing
  jobs 5-7 times over the course of their
  lifetime.  They should also be prepared to change
  career paths 3 times.  As such, it is important
  for our graduates to develop the skills requisite
  for being independent adult learners, or lifelong
  learners.  That is to say, they need to know how
  to take responsibility for and pursue appropriate
  training and education to successfully navigate
  these anticipated changes and engage in
  appropriate risk-taking when it comes to career
  issues.

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Self-Regulation
Our lives will continue to get more
complicated, offering an overload of choices and
the means to fulfill them. Given what we know
about the effects of the current predominant
style of helicopter parenting in relation to
our students, where parents are so highly
involved in their students lives and
decision-making, and as a result, students
increased and prolonged dependence upon their
parents for everyday and larger decision-making,
students will need to develop a variety of
self-regulation skills.  Examples are how to
engage in the decision-making process, how to
take responsibility for their health-care, how to
manage their personal finances, etc.  One
possibility here would be for us to better
integrate residential and academic experiences to
afford more significant practice in
decision-making processes.
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Interpersonal Communication
The power and pervasiveness of personal
electronic communications (e.g., Face book,
Instant Messaging, cell phones), have already
created problems with students effective
interpersonal communication skills, e.g., 
one-to-one communication, small and large group
communication skills, good listening, effective
verbal communication, etc. Electronic forms of
communication will continue to rapidly evolve,
requiring new standards for their appropriate use
and enhanced means of teaching effective
interpersonal communication skills without the
gadgets or protective screen of electronic
mediation.
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Leadership
In order for graduates to enter into positions of
leadership within our society, we will need to
focus on this concept throughout a students
education and student life experience. 
Leadership is not about ones position or title
within an organization.  It is, rather about the
qualities and skills a person brings with them
that contribute to the group as a whole,
requiring the ability to actively listen,
critically evaluate arguments, support, praise or
even go against the norm because leadership is
reflected in a persons actions and intentions.
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Civic Engagement
The world will require even more values-based
decisions of us on a daily basis, for which good
citizens will need to be educated and effective.
Students will need to understand citizenship as
being about more than oneself and ones
immediate family (which are, of course,
important) but also being about ones community
and contributing in a meaningful way to the
health and maintenance of that community or
communities.  Students will benefit from
experiences both in and out of the classroom that
develop their abilities and intentions to work to
serve the good of the whole and contribute to the
development of positive community, both in campus
life and  in their work and communities beyond
graduation.
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Civility
As impersonal forms of communication (TV, iPods,
internet, movies) continue to pervasively
influence our language and behavior, we will
continue to see and experience a general
deterioration of civility in our society and
among our students.  We have seen this in the
aggressive and foul language used freely and
frequently in Residence Halls, classrooms, campus
business offices and walking along the campus
paths. Students will need to be able to
communicate effectively in a pluralistic society
across cultures and generations, and in a way
that is more socially acceptable outside of their
immediate peer group.