21 st Century Career and Technical Education

1. 21st Century Career and Technical Education What Does It Look Like?

2. What does it mean? A system of career and technical education that will prepare all students for productive careers in the 21st century. Best practices of 21st century teaching and learning in a career and technical setting.

3. Fulfill CTE’s dual mission The preparation of students for work and continued learning

4. What’s wrong with this picture? “..I certainly know the advantages of using higher order thinking skills but have we lost the focus of CTE to excite students with the opportunity to work with their hands and ‘practice, practice, practice.’” A WV CTE Practitioner

6. 21stCentury Career/Technical Centers Work Plan • Academic skills are integrated into all programs and courses and are visible to students. • 21st Century Skills are integrated into all CTE programs and courses • A balanced and purposeful student assessment system is in place throughout the career/technical center • Facilities, curriculum and instructional practices meet appropriate industry standards and students are achieving appropriate industry credentials. • All students in the school system(s) have knowledge about and access to career and technical studies. • The career/technical center has shared goals for learning that are clear and well-understood by all building personnel. • Shared leadership and a culture of continuous improvement is evident in the career/technical center. • The career/technical center exhibits a highly developed learning culture. • Effective teaching is evident in every classroom and lab in the career/technical center. • The career/technical center is well connected to the business community, to families, and to the community–at-large. • Instructional and administrative technology is evident and in use throughout the career/technical center.

7. Percentages of Workers Reporting Reading of Materials at Work Weekly (Mikulecky 2001)

8. In 1965, a car mechanic needed to understand 5,000 pages of service manuals to fix any automobile on the road; today he must be able to decipher 465,000 pages of technical text, the equivalent of 250 big-city phone books. (Whitman, Shapior, Taylor, Saltzman and Ausrer 1989, p. 460)

9. Percentage of Workers Reporting Writing of Materials at Work Weekly(Mikulecky 2001)

10. Student-owned Learning Behaviors • Questioning and brainstorming • Researching/investigating • Collecting/analyzing data • Synthesizing information • Making decisions for best resolution • Writing a formal proposal • Presenting findings and possible resolutions • Reflecting on the learning process Necessary CTE Knowledge and Skills

11. How much instructional time is devoted to having students: • Master specific academic and technical information? • Make interpretation, estimates or predictions when confronted with a scenario regarding the career field? • Complete challenging projects that require application of appropriate academic and technical knowledge and skills? • Make an analysis of a work-related problem and formulate a solution? • Synthesize what they have learned into a new plan, procedure or product? • Make judgments about the value of a given technology, product, material, procedure, idea, etc. for completing a school or work-site assignment?

12. Which best describes CT instruction at your school? • Program purpose is to prepare students for entry-level jobs or to prepare students for further learning and a career pathway. • Emphasis is on learning procedural skills and following directions or on helping students become independent learners who can think through problems and find solutions. • Instruction focuses on procedural skills or on open-ended problems requiring the use of technical, academic, cognitive and personal skills. • Students follow a set of steps to complete assignments or are given open-ended assignments that require them to do research and to prepare their own steps for completing them.

13. Power Point and handouts can be found at http://wvde.state.wv.us/hstw/