21st Century Skills

1
21st Century Skills

• Tim Baneck Dale Hanson
• October 10, 2008

2
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be
those who cannot read or write, but those who
cannot learn, unlearn and relearn. --Alvin
Toffler, American writer and futurist (1928- )
3

• 21st Century Skills
• What are they?
• Why do we need them?
• Who decides what comprises 21st Century Skills?
• Are 21st Century Skills an updated version of
  Employability Skills?
• Who is responsible for teaching/learning these
  skills?

4
21st Century Skills for a global economy

• Flattening of the world
• Globalization
• Competition
• Shift in work patterns and careers

5
21st Century Skills for a creative economy

• Moving from information to conceptual age
• Right brain rising
• Abundance, Asia and automation
• The six senses
• Design
• Story
• Symphony
• Empathy
• Play
• Meaning

6
21st Century Skills for a collaborative economy

• Firms can harness collective capability and
  genius to spur innovation, growth, and success.
• Masses of people will participate in the economy
  like never before.
• Thriving online communities will transcend social
  networking to pioneer a new form of collaborative
  production
• Forecasts new world of enterprise, collaboration,
  innovation, and value creation

7
21st Century Skills for a digitized economy

• Small patterns of behavior in our
  culture--microtrends are wielding great influence
  on business, politics, and our personal lives
• The internet will change lifestyles and other
  factors will sliver the world into hundreds, if
  not thousands, of groups (or economies)
• Those who recognize these emerging groups will
  prosper
• In today's world, small groups can have the
  biggest impact

8
Due to rapidly changing dynamics facing the 21st
Century, new skills, regardless of what they are
called, will be needed for every man, woman and
child to address the economic, social, political
and citizenship challenges that await
them. Business success will demand a workforce
whose skills adapt to the needs of the future.
9
Employability Skills

• Skills that are essential and transferable to a
  variety of situations and are necessary for an
  individual to function in the 21st century
  workplace.
• Retrieved on June 18, 2008 from
• http//www.teach-nology.com/glossary/terms/e/

10
Historical References

• SCANS (Secretarys Commission on Achieving
  Necessary Skills)
• States Career Clusters Skills Knowledge
• Partnership for 21st Century Skills

11
SCANS Secretarys Commission on Achieving
Necessary Skills

• In 1990, the Secretary of Labor appointed a
  commission to determine the skills our young
  people need to succeed in the world of work. The
  commission's fundamental purpose was to encourage
  a high-performance economy characterized by
  high-skill, high-wage employment. Although the
  commission completed its work in 1992, its
  findings and recommendations continue to be a
  valuable source of information for individuals
  and organizations involved in education and
  workforce development.

Retrieved on August 8, 2008 from
http//wdr.doleta.gov/SCANS/
12
SCANS Skills (1992)

• Thinking Skills
• Creative thinking
• Decision making
• Problem solving
• Seeing things in the minds eye
• Knowing how to learn
• Reasoning

• Basic Skills
• Reading
• Writing
• Arithmetic/Mathematics
• Listening
• Speaking
• Personal Qualities
• Responsibility
• Self-esteem
• Sociability
• Self-management
• Integrity/honesty

13
States Career Clusters (2000)

• Cluster Knowledge Skills
• Academic Foundations
• Communications
• Problem Solving Critical Thinking
• Information Technology
• Systems
• Safety, Health Environment
• Leadership Teamwork
• Ethics Legal Responsibilities
• Employability Career Development
• Technical Skills

14
Partnership for 21st Century Skills -
Framework (www.21stcenturyskills.org)
15
Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2002)

• Core subjects
• Global awareness
• Financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial
  literacy
• Civic literacy
• Health literacy
• Creativity and innovation
• Critical thinking and problem solving
• Communication and collaboration
• Information literacy
• Media literacy
• Information, communications and technology
  literacy
• Flexibility and adaptability
• Initiative and self-direction
• Social and cross-cultural skills
• Productivity and accountability
• Leadership and responsibility

16
New Context
Skills Required
17
Why are 21st century skills so important?

• What skills are most important for job success
  when hiring a high school graduate?

18
Why are 21st century skills so important?

• Of the high school students that you recently
  hired, what were their deficiencies?

19
More Questions

• How can 21st Century skills be assessed?
• Who is responsible for assessment?
• To whom will the assessment results be
  meaningful?
• How will assessment results be communicated?

20
DPIs Wisconsin Employability Skills Certificate
(WESC)
This state skill certificate contains 22 skills
that are classified within four major sections
Basic SCANS Skills (6) Personal/Interpersonal
Skills (5) Thinking/Information Processing Skills
(5) Systems Technology (6)
21
Students take ownership of learning these skills,
asking their employer, teachers, or other
significant adults to provide opportunities to
practice/apply these skills.
22
Proficiency criteria was developed by teachers
and validated by area business reps. This is a
start to developing a common language that
describes how good is good enough?
23
Feedback from teachers, business mentors,
coaches, parents is important for students to
understand the status of their skill attainment
and helpful in guiding them to reach the next
level.
24
This section allows the students, teacher and
business mentor to customize additional skills
that relate to students career goals as well as
meeting the needs of the employer.
Students who score a 2 or better on each of the
skills receive a state skill standard certificate
from Wisconsins DPI within 2 weeks after the
teacher submits the information via the DPI web
site.
25
When will DPI upgrade the WESC to include the
Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) that
were endorsed by Superintendent Burmaster earlier
this year? How will the state standards
revisions in math and language arts impact the
integrate of P21 skills? Are your schools
implementing the Social Studies Map for
integrating P21 skills?
26
(No Transcript)
27

• What is the NEW North doing with
• P21 Skills?
• Developing a learning continuum to align with
  Partnership for 21st Century Skills
• Providing proficiency criteria for grades 8, 12
  and 13-16
• DRAFT 3 was developed on September 18, 2008

28
(No Transcript)
29
What do you think about 21st Century Skills?

• What are they?
• Are they important skills to develop?
• If they are needed, who is advocating for them?
• Who decides what comprises 21st Century Skills?
• Who is responsible for teaching/learning these
  skills?
• How do we determine how good is good enough?
• How can 21st Century skills be assessed?
• How will assessment results be communicated?

30
Conclusion 21st Century Skills

• are necessary to meet the projected demands of
  the global economy and U.S. citizenship.
• are essentially updated employability skills.
• are difficult to assess with standardized tests.
• can be taught and assessed by parents, teachers,
  clergy, coaches, relatives, neighbors and
  business training programs.
• must be an integral part of your Programs of
  Study and Education for Employment Plan.

31
Thank you for your attention Questions?