Review and Reaction of the website "The Partnership for 21st Century Skills"
My reaction
My thoughts were confirmed when I clicked on the "Member Organization" link. What I found was a list of what appears to be large financial contributors to the "Partnership for 21st Century Skills". My first impression of the sight being "slick" and commercial was confirmed. The graphic design and layout of this sight is very professional. My thought was "wow! who paid for this web design." Not even considering the content, I knew there had to be major financial backing behind this web page. The fact that Apple Inc. is listed first did not surprise me.
Information on the site that surprised me and helped me develop a new understanding of the issues surrounding 21st-century skills
The partnership seems to focus on what they call the 4Cs: Communication, Creativity, Collaboration, and Critical Thinking. I whole heartedly agree with these ideals. However, I could not shake the feeling of commercialism throughout the site. The blog posts specifically related to special education caught my eye. I was distracted by the fact that there seem to be a bias toward the apple platform. For example in the blog post "What's so Special about 21st Century Learning" The article refers to the teachers macbook being loaded with learning tools. I found this to be too platform specific.This site was not as helpful as the "report" by the same group. The overall understanding from this site and from reading the "report" is not that we need to teach a specific application such as Word or Excel but, that technology as a whole needs to be introduced as a tool. The task is for educator to expose students to technology and build their technological schema.
Information or opinions on the site that I disagree with along with an explanation of why I disagree
I disagree with the philosophy of "focusing on the Core subjects". One of the four main concepts is creativity. I find it ironic that Art is not a valued class. Today when I revisited this site I clicked on the article "5 things you need to know about 21st Century Learning". This article summarizes my point. "There is no end of the unit test on creativity". The article goes on to say :
"98% of children test as creative geniuses at age 5, but that number decreases to only 2% of adults by age 25. Yet, creativity is the engine that drives our world and economy today, not end of course test-taking ability. In fact, these type of multiple-choice, one-right-answer tests undermine the most important reality: There are multiple right answers to most problems. We need to make sure our learners don’t lose that creative spark as they go through school. Otherwise, we risk losing our creative geniuses as well as their innovative ideas and solutions to the biggest problems our world faces."
What class has ALWAYS valued multiple right answers? ART! What class has always valued creativity? ART! What class has always valued innovative ideas and varied solutions? ART! What class does the Partnership for 21st Century Skills want schools to cut? ART! Ironic, right?!
The implications for my students and for me as a contemporary educator
I guess the implication is that I will not have a job. The idea that we need to focus on the "Core" subjects is asinine. What we really have to do is look at classes that have always valued creativity and multiple right answers. We need to introduce our students to different tools that involve technology. We need to build their schema in the area of technology as it relates to all subject areas. We need to teach them that obstacles are not the end of the road but ,simply a problem to be solved. So often if student my students encounter something that they do not expect they shut down and blame the teacher. We need to move our students past the idea that the teacher is responsible for everything. We need to give the the idea that they can solve problems and that they may even have a better idea than the teacher! As Turnipseed states "The answers are not always found in the back of the book".
Note: Stephen Turnipseed wrote the article that I agree with most. I found it very interesting that he was once President of LEGO Education.
Refrences
Bates, R., & Phelan,
K. (2002). Characteristics of a globally competitive workforce. Advances
in Developing Human Resources, 4(2), 121.
Partnership for 21st
Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st century skills.
Washington DC: Author. Retrieved fromhttp://www.p21.org/storage/documents/P21_Report.pdf
Partnership for 21st Century Learning. (2015). Our Vision and Mission. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/about-us/our-mission
I did not get the same impression from the site in regards to the Arts. The following is copied from their Framework page:
ReplyDelete21st Century Student Outcomes
The elements described in this section as “21st century student outcomes” (represented by the rainbow) are the skills, knowledge and expertise students should master to succeed in work and life in the 21st century.
1. Content Knowledge and 21st Century Themes
Mastery of fundamental subjects and 21st century themes is essential for students in the 21st century. Disciplines include:
English, reading or language arts
World languages
Arts
Mathematics
Economics
Science
Geography
History
Government and Civics
In reading this list, which I viewed as an order of importance type of list, I saw that the Arts ranked ahead of my subject, Math. I fully support all creative arts and share your belief that they should be included among the core subjects. Was there a specific article or portion of the website that referenced Art being treated as a non-valued class? That would certainly change my impression of the site if that were the case.
That is certainly not a list for order of importance. Civic literacy is one of the main things they promote. Why would civics and government be last then?
DeleteI appreciate your interpretation. In focusing on the main site and not the blogs, I just am not seeing one subject area promoted over another. We can certainly formulate different opinions based on the information, which is leading me to believe the site is not clear cut in their framework mission. That must be why we were asked to share our reaction to the website!
DeleteTricia,
ReplyDeleteI certainly agree with what you have to say from a commercialism standpoint. Through research, I came to the conclusion that the "Exemplar Schools" are that which are academies, charter schools, or schools in a rich suburb of a metropolitan area. Some of the schools even feature on the "U.S. Best Schools" list. There was not one school that was an urban, public school with a diverse student body. So, I completely agree with you there; however, what they talk about on the site is certainly a push that needs to be had in education today. I see where you are coming from with art and the creativity aspect. I do believe there is a time and place for tests. Tests are stressful. Life is stressful. Need to prepare. But most of the assessments I give are formative or they are performance tasks that require creativity. I have much better results with the performance tasks. The only trouble I run into is the rubric sometimes and having it be specific and measurable. It's hard, in my opinion, to create a rubric for creativity.
I agree that tests are stressful. I would also say that they are mainly a derived false sense of stress that rarely measure what we want to assess.
DeleteI believe performance tasks are a better gage of what students know rather than a "fill in the bubble" test.
It is difficult to create a rubric for creativity. Knowing what you big idea is helps to create a rubric that is quantitative and accounts for creativity.
True, I usually test (well, they are more so quizzes) to assess content knowledge and if they can use it by assessing quotes, charts, graphs - Quad A and B of Danielson's Framework. I use performance tasks for Quad C and D skills.
DeleteTricia,
ReplyDeleteI love seeing a response from another non core subject teacher. I teach physical education, and value how much my content area adds to student learning. I did not feel this site was negative towards are areas of expertise, though. I thought the site actually empowered all teachers to implement technology into their setting. The way that the framework speaks of integrating technology into our content was particularly interesting to me. I felt challenged to continue to add technology into my lessons wherever possible. I actually had an in service today that actually aimed at this very idea. An art teacher spoke of using the internet resources to teach one of her more advanced groups specific painting schools. I think our jobs are safe as long as we keep up with the times as that teacher did in the in service. I appreciate your passion for your subject matter.
Timm
Hi Timm
DeleteI agree, our jobs are safe. However, I do like to get a reaction out of people ;-)
Of course there are just as many, if not more ways to use technology in art as in other subjects. I have been doing it for 21 years!!! I was one of the first 10 teachers in my high school to win a grant for a smart board (now we all have them). I tell my students all the time "you are only limited by your own imagination".
Wow! It is so cool to see so many diffrent reactions to my blog.
ReplyDeleteI based my opinion on two things. On page 8 of the report
http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/P21_Report.pdf
It says that an emphasis should be put on "Core Subjects". Also the green arch in the diagram indicates that the 3R subjects are the support for the entire framework.
I agree with most everyone that the overall ideas of this framework support and even emphasis creativity, problem solving, and innovation.
Some great dialogue going about P21.org. I found it helpful to read some of the research on 4Cs: Collaboration, Communication, Creativity and Innovation, and Creative Thinking. I also read several posts on the site about inclusive education practices and Project Based Learning. I think all content areas can benefit from looking at curriculum design, development, implementation, and assessment through the 4Cs, PBL, and concepts of inclusive education for all students. I also like the concept on collaboration across educators, classrooms and states. I get Tricia's viewpoint in terms of commercialism. I view this on the site as a mechanism for collaboration. Perhaps to the point of Chris the framework of this site may benefit other public schools. Perhaps there are other multi-state represented weblogs or websites that discuss technology integration, core content curriculum, etc. from the perspective of educators across different states?
ReplyDeleteTricia,
ReplyDeleteIt was so eye opening to read your response. I agree with you on the fact that we need our learners to look beyond the teacher, and I loved your final quote. I'm not actually surprised about the author being a past Lego president. I did not however, get the impression that you did about the art aspect. I do agree that core subjects should be a focus. Yet I read it as if it implied we should integrate more creativity (along with the other 3 C's) into what is required learning. I wonder if I would interpret it differently as an art teacher. It must give you such a different lens than my own.
Marci
Tricia,
ReplyDeleteIt was so eye opening to read your response. I agree with you on the fact that we need our learners to look beyond the teacher, and I loved your final quote. I'm not actually surprised about the author being a past Lego president. I did not however, get the impression that you did about the art aspect. I do agree that core subjects should be a focus. Yet I read it as if it implied we should integrate more creativity (along with the other 3 C's) into what is required learning. I wonder if I would interpret it differently as an art teacher. It must give you such a different lens than my own.
Marci
Tricia,
ReplyDeleteOur school is currently promoting the 4 C's. We even have a rubric that administrators use when they walk through classrooms to determine what level the students are reaching in each category. I also like the 4 C's and the direction it takes us, but am unsure how our Common Core standards connect with the 4 C's, especially in third grade. In the lower grades, we are still teaching basic skills. Students need to know these basic skills in order to be able to communicate and collaborate effectively. I hope the culture of education continues to evolve , and include more creativity through art and music. I do not agree with emphasizing Core subjects, and believe that every subject is equally important . I did get the same vibe from the website that you mentioned. It seems heavily commercialized and promotes focus on the core subjects.
Jennifer Mestas