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"To understand the extent to which the skills taught in education systems around the world are changing, and whether they meet the needs of employers and society more widely, Google commissioned research from The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The EIU surveyed senior business executives, teachers and students."
Beth Dichter's insight:
What skills do learners need today to be prepared to be a leader as they move through school and into careers? Google commissioned a study and this post provides a short video that discusses key findings as well as a link to the final report, Driving the Skills Agenda: Preparing Students for the Future. The Executive Summary provides a number of key findings, including the ones listed below. (The text below is quoted from the report.) * Problem solving, team working and communication are the skills that are currently most in demand in the workplace. * Education systems are not providing enough of the skills that students and the workplace need. * Some students are taking it into their own hands to make up for deficiencies within the education system. * Technology is changing teaching, but education systems are keeping up with the transformation rather than leading it. The full report provides additional information, including a number of visuals as well as case studies. As educators it is important that we consider the skills our learners will need in the future, and this report provides insight into some of what will be needed. 
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I absolutely love planning lessons from scratch. I just got a job teaching technology units for a summer camp for elementary age students. I can design and teach whatever I want - planning for a d...
Beth Dichter's insight:
Jackie Gerstein shares nine questions that you might consider asking yourself as you design new units. Two are listed below. The infographic she designed, with nine questions is in the image above, and you can access a list of the nine questions as well as the infographic in her post. * Will the learners get the chance to share their work with other learners with a more global audience? * Will the learners find the learning activities engaging? interesting? relevant? useful? Gerstein's questions help you focus on the learner.They may help you transform lessons in ways you had not envisioned.
Janet McQueen's curator insight,
February 1, 2015 5:37 PM
Interesting questions to ask when planning lessons which help to create exciting lesson plans that focus on the needs of the students and to find ways to engage them all. 
Marisol Araya Fonseca's curator insight,
February 8, 2015 12:19 PM
Excellent guide to follow when planning our classes. 
Dalia Rodriguez's curator insight,
February 17, 2016 10:12 PM
This image provides questions to to ask yourself when you want to plan learning activities,. You want to ensure that the activities are age appropriate.
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I've posted about The Other 21st Skills and Attributes. This post provides links and resources about these skills as well as an educator self-assessment. This assessment contains questions to ass...
Beth Dichter's insight:
Jackie Gerstein has written quite a number of posts that look at The Other 21st Century Skills and Attributes. This post provides an infographic that includes two or three questions that you should ask yourself to see if you are 'facilitating these skills and attributes in the learning environment. Gerstein also includes links to previous posts where she discusses the specific skills and attributes in more detail.
David Baker's curator insight,
February 17, 2015 10:54 AM
The power of the Infographic is that it references both teacher and student actions and habits. I have shared it with my teachers. This might become a solid self-assessment tool for coaching conversations with teachers. 
Kristen McDaniel's curator insight,
April 3, 2015 12:05 PM
Interesting graphic with some great ideas on interpreting 21st century skills as they pertain to teaching
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I am facilitating an in-service on Growth Mindsets for Educators. I created an infographic, Thinglink, and Slide Presentation of resources that I am sharing below: Thinglink that contains links to...
Beth Dichter's insight:
Do you teach your students about growth mindset? Is this a topic of discussion with other staff in your school? Jackie Gerstein has shared three excellent resources in this post that focuses on growth mindset. She has created an infographic (image above) that looks at fixed mindset and growth mindset, showing how a student may identify based on their mindset. The next step was putting the infographic into ThingLink and creating links to over 15 resources. Here is the link: ThingLink version of the infographic. There is also a slideshow that provides additional resources (although some may be repeated in the ThingLink). The slideshow is split into four sections: * Mindsets * Historical Background * The Educator with a Growth Mindset * Teaching the Growth Mindset to your Learners Since this post is based on a workshop she provided it is a great resource to share with teachers at your school (or other teachers whom you know). Make sure to check out the resources for students. You may find yourself creating a poster to help your students learn more about growth mindset.
David Baker's curator insight,
July 29, 2014 5:32 PM
This will be a valuable tool to share in seminar with my new teachers as we look at their students and how the teacher views their classroom.
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Resources for Educator as a Design Thinker Ideo. (n.d.). Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit - Pfau, P. (2014). Rethinking Education with Design Thinking - Speicher, S. (2013). Design Thinkin...
Beth Dichter's insight:
As an educator do you think of yourself as a design thinker? This visual by Jackie Gerstein shows how you impact your class and focuses on some of the areas we should consider as we design curriculum and work with students in our classrooms. You will also find links to a number of additional resources, including a great toolkit put out by IDEO that is geared to teachers in K-12.
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"Recently I participated in a discussion on 21st century skills where one educator posed the question 'can you teach 21st century skills without technology?'"
Beth Dichter's insight:
Think about the skills that are defined as 21st century skills: * collaboration * communication * critical thinking and problem solving * creativity and innovation Are these skills that can be taught without technology? If we look to the past, we would answer yes, they are skills that can be taught without technology. We are often asked to teach these skills today with technology. What if we introduce these skills with technology, providing students the opportunity to collaborate and learn how to effectively communicate face-to-face, learn about visual cues and more. This post explores how each of these skills may be taught without technology. You can take the information and consider how to them augment the skills with technology to help your students deepen their understanding.
Siphiwe Kubeka's curator insight,
May 22, 2014 8:06 AM
Technology has made education to be much easier and more interesting in information literacy
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What is grit? Learn more about grit and how important it is help you thrive in the 21st century in this infographic.
Beth Dichter's insight:
Check out this infographic that explores just what grit is and why it helps students in school (and all of us inthe 21st century). Sections include: * What Is Grit * Why Do We Need It * Grit Can Make A Difference * How Can You Get Grit You will also find a list of references at the end of the infographic.
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Many have attempted to identify the skills important for a learner today in this era of the 21st century (I know it is an overused phrase). I have an affinity towards the skills identified by Tony...
Beth Dichter's insight:
Jackie Gerstein reviews the skills identified by Tony Wagner as well as six additional skills and attributes she believes learners need today. She then looks at a recent Gallup Poll that looks at Americans expectations of schools today. Quoting from the post: "While student success may depend on mastery of content in core subject areas such as math and reading, it also depends on more than knowledge of core content. Critical thinking, creativity, communication, and other soft skills, as well as student physical and social wellbeing, are also necessary for future success in higher education and in the workplace. Americans Say U.S. Schools Should Teach “Soft” Skills" The post continues and explores how the other 21st century skills may be classified as social-emotional skills and how the growth of these skills may positively impact students in other areas. As always Gerstein has provided a post that pushes boundaries and provides a variety of resources.
Gary Harwell's curator insight,
February 10, 2014 11:35 PM
It seems like a normal thing to do. These are needed SKILLs our students need to have.
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Beth Dichter's insight:
If your goal is to teach 21st century skills you need to define the skills and the decide how to teach them. And if your goal is to use multimedia you have already set some parameters. This post explores one way to organize the skills with the ability to create multimedia. The specific skills are: * creativity and innovation * critical thinking * information fluency * collaboration * communication * managing complexity * mulitcultural literacy For more information click through to the post.
James Rush's curator insight,
July 22, 2015 4:42 PM
Going further requires a plan and process; gaining wisdom requires it begins with a healthy respect of the Lord Jesus.
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"I’ve been doing some thinking about how to best define innovation in education. I’ve been reading a lot of mission statements lately for schools and districts and keep finding the word “innovative” used, yet little sign of practices in the objectives, tactics and goals to back this up. The tactics and action plan seem to be oriented towards producing test scores and the practices seem 20th century at best."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Nancy White looks at definitions that businesses use to define innovative and then looks at how education defines innovation. Here is one of her statements: "In education, innovation often results when ideas are applied to satisfy the needs and expectations of the students." Take the time to click through to the post and read her other statements and then ask yourself 'Am I innovative? Is my classroom innovative? My school?" or "What changes need to be made to make my teaching, my classroom or my school innovative?"
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Quoted from post: Empathy has always been valued as an important skill to possess as a human being, so what makes it a 21st century skill? I was recently asked by Steve Hargadon during a short video interview, “Is global education important? If so, why?” My response was, “Given that we are now living in a hyper-connected world, we can no longer plead that we don’t what is going on in other parts of the world..."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Jackie Gerstein continues to share her thoughts on the other 21st century skills students need discussing empathy and global stewardship. After sharing her reason for combining empathy and global stewardship Gerstein somes of the characteristics or dispositions related to empathy (see image above). You will also find a video from National Geographic, Perspectives = Empathy; a video from RSA, The Six Habits of Highly Empathic People; a list developed by the state of Washington ( specifically "a think tank for education for sustainable communities") that provides " characteristics that define folks who are equipped for sustainable futures"; a look at a connection beweeen empathy and design thinking, a look at a connection between empathy and grit as 21st century skills, and many resources for educators. Gerstein has provided a post that will make you think about empathy and global stewardship as well as resources that may help you work with these concepts in your classroom this year.
Kimberly House's curator insight,
July 30, 2013 10:39 AM
I'm so glad to see these 'other' 21st Century Skills coming out in focus.
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"As we venture into the 21st century, we as a society, are faced with more innovation and challenge than ever before. We now live in an interconnected world, where the Internet and global communications are simultaneously uniting and isolating us as a society. How do we raise critical thinkers to best face the challenges that face our modern society?"
Beth Dichter's insight:
This infographic provides a look at how we may develop 21st century critical thinkers. Using an image of a brain with eight areas that look at skills we need to know how to use,and that correspond with 21st century skills found in the Common Core and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. In addition there are six that we as teachers should be doing within our classrooms including: * Integrate critical thinking skills within and across all content areas * Establish safe, intellectually risk-free learning environments * Allow time to develop critical thinking skills. There is also a section called "Your Students' Path to Critical Thinking" that includes 25 recommendations. The infographic is also available as a pdf file that you may download in an 11" x 17" version at the website.
Undwear Entrepreneur's curator insight,
November 12, 2013 5:06 PM
Adapt, improve your knowledge & skill sets, or become obsolete!
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"So I'm trying to better understand how people learn--not now they're taught in terms of teaching strategies, but more so learning strategies--only not really strategies...Learning actions, or cognitive actions."
Beth Dichter's insight:
How can we help out students become more self-directed in their learning? What tools can we provide them with to help them become self-directed learners (using 21st century tools and skills)? This post provides a list of 27 actions. The post states: "The big idea is that these kinds of “brain actions” are not only the kinds of tasks you can use to create assignments, but more importantly are the kinds of acts that promote inquiry-based understanding. So rather than start with a topic–fractions, metaphors, or racism–you can simply insist on the cognitive action itself. Learners can choose topics of their own, or you can offer a range of topics." With that as a background five of the actions are listed below. There is additional material in the post as well as another 22 actions. * Challenge something * Test the validity of a model * Study the relationship between text and subtext * Critique something * Transfer a lesson or philosophical stance from one situation to another
Don Berg's curator insight,
July 10, 2014 3:53 PM
Interesting how much of challenge it is to distinguish between teaching and learning. That is one of the obstacles to getting self-directed learning to become a mainstream feature in schools. |
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From
twitter
"21st Century Learning has now created new essential skills and made others obsolete."
Beth Dichter's insight:
This image looks at 20 skills essential today, and 20 skills that are no longer essential to know. What are your thoughts? Do you agree with the two lists? What would your students think?
Julie Bourguignon's curator insight,
March 2, 2015 4:58 AM
Do skills get obsolete? This is a list of important skills based on frequency of use, rather than actual purpose. This is a comprehensive list, but remembering to carry your phone/tablet charger should be part of it! 
SMARTERTEACHER's curator insight,
March 2, 2015 11:10 AM
There have been more changes in the last 10 years than in the first 40 I spent on the planet. These exponential changes are only scratched in this list.
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"Driving Question: How early does equal access to 21st century learning start? Prior to this project, we thought of academics and 21st century skills as separate things. Following a linear approach, first students needed to master important literacy skills, and then we could enhance the learning with integrated projects like "Stray, Stray, Go Away." We even worried that maybe 21st century skills would distract from the foundational skill like learning to read. It was thought that one was more important that the other, and guess what? We were wrong."
Beth Dichter's insight:
What happens when you take a kindergarten class and create a project-based learning opportunity on a local issue? In this case amazing success. What is critical is to provide appropriate scaffolding so that all students (included English Language Learners) are comfortable and able to help with the presentation. If you have concerns about implementing PBL in your classroom this article may help you realize that it can be done, even in kindergarten. Click through to the post to read this uplifting article.
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Due to the interest of my post The Other 21st Skills, I decided to individually discuss each of the skills or dispositions I proposed that are in addition to the seven survival skills as identified...
Beth Dichter's insight:
After a break Jackie Gerstein has returned with a new post that looks at self-regulation. What does Gersteing mean when she talks about self-regulation. She lists eight characteristics. Three are below. * Uses metacognitive processes * Regulates and controls emotional and cognitive processes * Manages time for one’s own benefit After providing the list of 8 characteristic she shares strategies to help students "build and expand their self-regulation skills. Providing students with "metacognitive reflective questions both pre and post activity to help students learn about self-regulation. Self-regulation has three phases, and she shares a visual about the three phases as well as clear descriptions. The post goes on to cover additional strategies and also has an excellent SlideShare on Teaching Children Self-Reguation. At the end of the post she discusses self-regulation as a 21st century skill and learning activities for young people. As always Gerstein's post are chock full of additional links. Educate yourself and teachers in your building by sharing this informative post.
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As an experiential educator who has fully embraced technology as a means for allowing and facilitating learner voice, creativity, innovation, inventiveness, the Maker Education movement fits into m...
Beth Dichter's insight:
It is rare that I curate two articles from the same author over two days. This post by Jackie Gerstein is an exception. Gerstein has been discussing Maker Education for quite some time and in this post she states: "...recent discussions with other educators and administrators made me realize that the idea of maker education is often vague and seems unrealistic in terms of regular classroom instruction. As such, in the future, I am going to associate and discuss Maker Education in the context S.T.E.A.M. – science, technology, engineering, arts (including language arts), math, hopefully, encouraging regular classroom teachers to integrate maker education projects into their classrooms." What follows is a lengthy list of articles and other resources that may assist you in learning about Maker Education and moving you towards implementing it in your classroom. The image above is also a ThingLink image, and will provide you with links to the same articles.
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Games give players agency and teach the core 21st century skills of critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity better than any tradition...
Beth Dichter's insight:
Students love to play games, and games have the potential of teaching 21st century skills. This video discusses why games work and provides a look at a number of games and skills that they teach students. Key to this is the need for the teacher to help the students transfer the knowledge they are learning in the games to other areas. The video is short (under 5 minutes) and may provide you with some new information.
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""Students need a voice. By voice, I mean the ability to recognize their own beliefs, practice articulating them in a variety of forms, and then find the confidence — and the platform — to express them."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Technology comes into play in that it provides students with a wide range of options to find and show their voice. This post looks at five areas: * Writing * Multimedia * Speaking * Performing and/or Direction * Artistic Expression Within each area there is a strategy listed, a number of tools suggested in four areas a short look at "terms of success." Helping students find their voice through technology also provides opportunities for students to be creative and to connect with an authentic audience, helping to build 21st century skills as defined through the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and Common Core.
Chris Carter's comment,
May 3, 2014 7:55 PM
I appreciate the breadth of options suggested here. This is not, "just use tech!"
Monica S Mcfeeters's curator insight,
May 4, 2014 10:06 PM
A very important reason to use media tools is to give a voice to everyone, even little ones!
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"Having a vision for the future is an natural extension of Hope and Optimism, another 21st century skill I proposed. A vision for the future enhances hope and optimism. To clarify, having a vision for the future is identifying and taking steps toward fulfilling one’s dream. It goes beyond and is qualitatively different than identifying what one wants to be when one grows up or thinking about college. It is about dreams."
Beth Dichter's insight:
As we look at education today ask yourself does the process support students ability to dream their vision? Do we promote a vision of the future as they move through the school system (and think K - 16)? This post explores these issues and provides resources to help you explore them. Find a link to Seth Godin's book Stop Stealing Dreams (What is School For?). Check out a video where students share their dream of the future. Consider the guiding questions provided to help your students think about the future (and see two answers from students in Grades 5-6). There are many resources to help you and your class think about this issue and how it relates to the 21st century.
Ruby Day's curator insight,
February 14, 2014 3:51 PM
From my experience foundation level (bridging to degree and below) students who have a clear sense of direction (vocational) are generally more motivated and engaged than those who don't know who they are, what types of vocations they are suited to and how to get there.
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Many have attempted to identify the skills important for a learner today in this era of the 21st century (I know it is an overused phrase). I have an affinity towards the skills identified by Tony...
Beth Dichter's insight:
This great visual shares Jackie Gerstein's look at the 21st century skills suggested by Tony Wagner. Along with the four listed above, effective communication, critical thinking and problem solving, curiosity and imagination, and agility and adaptability learn a bit more about: * Collaboration across Networks * Initiative and Entrepreneurship * Grit and Perseverance * Resilience * Hope and Optimism * Vision for the Future * Empathy and Global Stewardship * Self Regulation Gerstein has written more on each of these areas and links to her work are also available on this post.
Saberes Sin Fronteras OVS's curator insight,
February 3, 2014 12:00 PM
Y si los profesionales de la política lo pensaran mejor, también empezarían según aquel viejo dicho sapiencial: "sólo sé que no sé nada" -- y por tanto .... A APRENDER Estos consejos para los que aprenden, lo necesitan para sobrevivir, en el ámbito de lo económco, valen tambien para los profesionales (?) de la política
Gary Harwell's curator insight,
February 3, 2014 11:14 PM
Makes good Sense with the overall picture of where we are and where we are going.
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Due to the interest of my post The Other 21st Skills, I decided to individually discuss each of the skills or dispositions I proposed that are in addition to the seven survival skills as identified...
Beth Dichter's insight:
Jackie Gerstein returns with a post on Hope and Optimism, another 21st century skill. Why hope and optimism? There are important skills/characteristics in this area: * Positive View About the Future * Can Do Attitude * Personal Agency * Engage in Positive Self Talk * Belief in Ability to Solve Problems * Belief in One’s Ability to Impact Positively on One’s Situation. * Maintaining Perspective * Sense of Efficacy She then provides information and links to articles that have researched how hope and optimism impact students' lives in many areas, research based guidelines on how to build skills of hope in students, and more. This post provides much food for thought.
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"One of the components of Close Reading is annotation, in which the students read short, complex text adding annotations as they read. Students might circle words or phrases that are powerful, underline those that are confusing, indicate big events or when a character shows strong emotion, and write questions or thoughts. They use metacognitive markers or “Thinking Notes” as a means to move beyond just highlighting..."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Close Reading covers a wide range of materials: poems, news articles, short stories, plays, photos, paintings, videos and more. This post provides five tools to help students annotate a wide variety of media. They are listed below, More detailed explanations are found in the post. * Doctopus - this program is great if you use Google Apps (and therefore Google Drive). * Diigo is a great tool for annoting text and images found online. Drawing tools are also available. * Markup does not require an account. "It provides tools for drawing, highlighting, adding text, and sharing via a link. It does require the installation of a bookmarklet or the Chrome extension." * PDFzen is a free tool that works with Google Drive. It will open the following types of files: pdf, doc, docx, xls, xlx, odt and rtf. * VideoAnt allows you to annotate videos hosted on YouTube as well as HTML5 and flash videos and works in a number of browsers. As we begin to prepare our students for new testing the ability to annotate is critical. These tools provide a variety of options that you may want to explore and use in your classroom.
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"Due to the interest of my post The Other 21st Skills, I decided to individually discuss each of the skills or dispositions I proposed that are in addition to the seven survival skills as identified by Tony Wagner. This post focuses on resiliency. The first post focused on Grit: The Other 21st Century Skills. Some would categorize Grit and Resiliency as the same skill, but it is my belief they are involve two different, but interconnected, skill sets. While grit focuses on persistence, resilience is about bouncing back in the face of challenges and/or failure."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Jackie Gerstein continues to discuss "the other 21st skills" addressing resilience in this post. As you read this post think about your students. Do you provide them with opportunities to grow these skills/dispositions? Research in this field shows that teachers make a difference. Below are a few of the points from the post. * All individuals have the power to transform and change * Teachers and schools have the power to transform lives * It’s how teachers do what they do that counts * Teachers’ beliefs in innate capacity start the change process As you read through this post think about your classroom, your students, and ask yourself if there are new ways you might help your students build their resiliency. As always additional information as well as links to resources are available by clicking through.
Kaylin Burleson's curator insight,
June 30, 2013 2:43 PM
We must not forget that in order to accomplish the four Cs it takes timer and effort. One must not be afraid to try and try again if needed to succeed.
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"The best type of curriculum for preparing students for the workforce is one that focuses on real-world problem-solving. It sounds simple, but for the first time, we have clearly established a link between students learning 21st century skills and future work success."
Beth Dichter's insight:
This report is based on a survey done by Gallup for Microsoft Learning and the Pearson Foundation. There are many findings of interest in this report. Three are below (quoted from the report). * The majority of respondents (59%) reported that they agree or strongly agree that they developed most of the skills they use in their current job outside of school. Only 15% disagree or strongly disagree, indicating they felt that they developed these skills in school. * Developing 21st century skills in the last year of school is positively correlated with higher perceived work quality later in life. In fact, those who have high 21st century skill development are twice as likely to have higher work quality compared to those who had low 21st century skill development. * Across the 21st century skills included in this study, real world problem-solving is the significant driver of higher work quality; however, less than two-thirds (63%) of respondents reported developing this skill often in the last year of school and that number drops to less than half (39%) for high school graduates Is your school providing students with these skills? The survey also noted that 59% of participants reported learning these skills outside the classroom. To go directly to the report: http://www.gallup.com/strategicconsulting/162821/21st-century-skills-workplace.aspx.
Carolyn Williams's curator insight,
June 2, 2013 5:58 AM
Working in a corporate industry for twenty three years and seeing the rise of operators, school leavers would benefit from 21st technological studies and how that applies to the workplace. |
Muy bueno!!!!
Preparing our students with the necessary skills for post-secondary career and college is critical, but especially for our poverty students. Too often, school is the only venue to provide these thinking, collaboration, and problem solving skills. However, many poverty schools under the pressure of standardized testing are stuck in a remediation routine of filling gaps in content, reading, and math. We must provide time for teachers to collaborate and plan integrated lessons that integrate these higher level thinking skills into their content areas.
What skills do learners need today to be prepared to be a leader as they move through school and into careers? Google commissioned a study and this post provides a short video that discusses key findings as well as a link to the final report, Driving the Skills Agenda: Preparing Students for the Future.
The Executive Summary provides a number of key findings, including the ones listed below. (The text below is quoted from the report.)
* Problem solving, team working and communication are the skills that are currently most in demand in the workplace.
* Education systems are not providing enough of the skills that students and the workplace need.
* Some students are taking it into their own hands to make up for deficiencies within the education system.
* Technology is changing teaching, but education systems are keeping up with the transformation rather than leading it.
The full report provides additional information, including a number of visuals as well as case studies. As educators it is important that we consider the skills our learners will need in the future, and this report provides insight into some of what will be needed.