Exploring Iowa's 21st Century Skills for the Future Workforce

2. Objectives • Discuss rationale for teaching and learning 21st Century Skills • Provide process for looking more closely at Iowa’s 21st Century Skills • Examine 21st Century instruction

3. 21st Century Learner . . . . . . will use technologies that haven’t been invented to do jobs that don’t exist. . . . networked . . . multi-tasker . . . digitally literate . . . craves interactivity . . . strong visual-spatial skills . . . tethered to the internet . . . wants to learn things that matter . . . wants to be challenged to reach own conclusions

4. Looking deeper at . . . . . . digital literacy . . . • information creation • innovation • activism • global citizenship • responsibility “Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives” Palfrey and Gasser, 2008

5. Why 21st Century Skills? Growing consensus that schools need to be accountable for more than “basic” academics. “Creativity is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.” -Sir Ken Robinson, 2006 “The top 10 jobs for 2010 weren’t even created in 2004” - Diana G. Oblinger, President EDUCAUSE

6. “The Global Achievement Gap” Our teens leave school equipped to work only in the kinds of jobs that are fast disappearing from the American economy. Why even our best schools don’t teach the new survival skills our children need – and what we can do about it. -Tony Wagner, 2008 Harvard Graduate School of Education

7. Seven Survival Skills for Teens Today(Global Achievement Gap, 2008 by Tony Wagner) • Critical thinking and problem-solving • Collaboration • Agility and adaptability • Initiative and entrepreneurialism • Effective oral and written communication • Accessing and analyzing information • Curiosity and imagination

8. Connections in Iowa “Integrating 21st century skills into teaching and assessment, then, is not only an economic imperative, driven by changes in the workforce, but a vital aspect of improving student learning.” “Measuring Skills for the 21st Century, 2008” - Silva

9. 21st Century Skills • Iowa legislature defined 21st Century Skills as: • Financial literacy • Health literacy • Technology literacy • Civic literacy • Employability skills • Essential concepts and skills are complex • Will require a deep understanding by educators • Structure of schooling will need to be re-examined by all stakeholders

10. Cross Walk Process: 21st Century Skills Work Teams Developed after thorough investigation: • Partnership for 21st Century Skills • enGauge • SCANS • Contextually related national standards

11. 21st Century Skills and Instruction Video clip: The Blood Project 1. What 21st century skills are evident in this example? 2. What are students/teachers doing that supports 21st century learning? 3. What characteristics of effective instruction are illustrated?

12. Instruction for 21st Century Skills • Relevant to student outside the classroom • Student is highly engaged • Student has a choice and voice in his/her learning • Student takes ownership for own learning • Includes higher order thinking - creativity and innovation • Learning tasks elicit evidence of learning

13. 21st Century Learners Video clip: Dollars and Sense 1. What 21st Century Skills essential concepts and skill sets do you see? • What contributes to the level of student engagement? • Which characteristics of effective instruction are illustrated? • Think about possible connections to outcomes of the implementation plan.

14. Supporting Instruction of 21st Century Skills • Educator professional development • 21st century instruction • Authentic assessments • Collaboration • Among teachers and students • Community • High expectations • Each and every student • Educators • Community

15. Supporting Instruction of 21st Century Skills (continued) • Expect a changing school environment • Project-based learning • Time allocation • Student ownership of learning • Technology • Tool for learning • Breadth of options • Community connections

16. School wide & classroom focus District Focus Classroom Focus • Where are 21st Century Skills being addressing? • At what depth are they being addressed? • Which 21st Century Skills are not being adequately addressed? • How might we restructure programs to ensure 21st Century Skills are adequately addressed? • What 21st Century Skills am I addressing in my class? • At what depth are they being addressed? • How do I know students are “getting it”? • How do I restructure my class and instructional activities to increase learning of the 21st Century Skills?

17. Some possibilities….. Lens of 21st Century Skills Inventory • Focus on Employability essential concepts • Select a unit of study that is currently taught • Explicit instruction/assumed understanding • How is this assessed? Share findings from inventory

18. Some creative possibilities… Identify creative approaches to ensure each and every student in your school is learning the 21st century skills. Share out . . .

19. Possibilities for incorporating 21st Century Skills . . . • Project based learning • School-wide projects where students explore passions • Internships • Student driven action research projects • Authentic service learning • Creative alignment of educators • Other . . . .

20. A Final Thought . . . “It is a world in which comfort with ideas and abstractions is the passport to a good job, in which creativity and innovation are the key to the good life, in which high levels of education - a very different kind of education than most of us have had- are going to be the only security there is.” -New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, 2006

21. “Truly successful schools seem to possess a restlessness and on-going passion for continuous improvement. They shun any sense of ‘having arrived’ at success and continually strive to improve & reinvent themselves.”