3/25 - Week 9 - What knowledge, skills, and attitudes do you think your students will need to be successful?

What knowledge, skills, and attitudes do you think your students will need to be successful? Are you teaching to their needs? If not, what do you need to change?

Over the course of the last few weeks we have been exposed to a skill set called "21st century skills". This set of skills defines the student to come and the needs we must fulfill as 21st century educators. Educators such as Sir Ken Robinson, have been making efforts to communicate the need for revamping of our education initiatives to address these skills. In addition to content knowledge, we need to foster creativity. I agree in that creativity is key and with this focus in our instructional efforts, students will be engaged. My primary concern in my years of teaching is that my students walk away from my classes with the skill to "critically think". Although root memorization has its place, being able to evaluate a situation based on content knowledge, that is new and different, is not only a 21st century skill, but essential to future success. Application of knowledge is as important as obtaining knowledge. Over the years I have tried adapting various curricular models to be able to give my students this fundamental skill. Four years ago I adopted the UbD model because of its focus on "enduring understandings". What is it I would like my students to remember about topics we discussed in physics five years from now, is key for me.
In order to decide the best instructional approach through a preexisting curriculum model for our students ,we need to first answer the following three questions (taken from our essential questions from week 9) -

1. Who are the children we teach?
These students are known as "21st century learners". They are social net workers that are technology savvy to some degree, but not necessarily critical thinkers as yet. Their global exposure is limited and needs to be expanded.

2. What will they need to know and be able to do in 2020? To become an integral asset to the world of 2020 they need to think and interact globally. They will need to be able to express themselves in written and oral work. They will need to be able to work on teams collaboratively. They will need to use technology in their work environment and be easily adaptable to new situations and technology. They must be able to understand and interpret the tremendous information flow that they will be encountering. They will be voting for leadership, making decisions on policy, such as scientific and educational policy and make valid business decisions. To do the latter successively they will need an interplay of both content knowledge and critical thinking skills .


3. What are the 21st century assessment skills that will address those needs? The skill set that these learners will need have been identified by many educators to include using creativity, making global extensions, becoming technology savvy, extending their content knowledge through critical thinking, and resolve issues through systematic and analytical problem-solving and learn to work collaboratively.

In an effort to provide these skills to my students I am consistently looking for new curriculum models that effectively incorporate these skills. At the moment, I am piloting project based learning (PBL) in a physics classroom that is already inquiry based. The collaborative aspect that incorporates, by its very nature, critical thinking is that major component of PBL - which is why I choose this approach. I still have a long way to go and I am not sure as yet as to its outcome. The point is that as educators we need to be continuously looking for new solutions to the age old problem of how do we "facilitate our students' efforts to become successful learners".