Education for the 21st Century

I discovered that I was “late to the party” and that many organizations, businesses and educators were working on understanding the needs of employers for the 21st Century. However, I also discovered that many school districts have not yet adopted these programs and others think that 15 years into the new century, this is “old news”.

I first found the Partnership for 21st Century Learning where I read about the 4Cs: Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creativity.

Then I discovered Bernie Trilling’s work and thrilled to his starkly simple equation 3Rs x 7Cs = 21st Century Learning! The seven Cs are Critical thinking and problem solving, Creativity and innovation, Communication and media literacy, Collaboration and leadership, Computing and digital proficiency, Cross-cultural and social fluency, Career, civic and learning self-direction. If you are too young to remember, the three Rs are Reading, writing and arithmetic.

Even though I am not a pioneer,  I know that I have experience and expertise to bring to this discussion. Let’s talk…

 

 

12 Career Ready Practices

Regardless of the subject or grade that I teach, these 12 career readiness practices play large part in what I expect from my students and reflect my classroom expectations.

I’ve pasted below the 12 Career Ready Practices as defined by the 2014 Common Core Curriculum:

“Career Ready Practices describe the career-ready skills that all educators in all content areas should seek to develop in their students. They are practices that have been linked to increase college, career, and life success. Career Ready Practices should be taught and reinforced in all career exploration and preparation programs with increasingly higher levels of complexity and expectation as a student advances through a program of study.”

  1. CRP1.  Act as a responsible and contributing citizen and employee.
  2. CRP2.  Apply appropriate academic and technical skills.
  3. CRP3.  Attend to personal health and financial well-being.
  4. CRP4.  Communicate clearly and effectively and with reason.
  5. CRP5.  Consider the environmental, social and economic impacts of decisions.
  6. CRP6.  Demonstrate creativity and innovation.
  7. CRP7.  Employ valid and reliable research strategies.
  8. CRP8.  Utilize critical thinking to make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
  9. CRP9.  Model integrity, ethical leadership and effective management.
  10. CRP10. Plan education and career paths aligned to personal goals.
  11. CRP11. Use technology to enhance productivity.
  12. CRP12. Work productively in teams while using cultural global competence.12 Career