Integrating 21st-century skills into the Teacher Education Program

Vision

1. Education will prepare all students with 21st-century knowledge and skills.
2.  Teachers and administrators will possess, teach and assess 21st-century knowledge and skills.
3. Educator preparation programs will prepare their graduates to possess, teach and assess 21st-century knowledge and skills.
4. New teachers will be prepared to become change agents for embedding 21st-century knowledge and skills in all subjects in curricula in accordance with national and state standards.
5. Higher education leaders will work with leaders in P-12 and local communities to inform the redesign of educator preparation programs to more effectively meet the needs of 21st-century learners.
6. Each educator preparation program will develop a 21st-century blueprint for transforming itself into a 21st-century program.
7. Educator preparation programs will be recognized as sources of leadership in developing 21st-century education and learning strategies.
8. Educator preparation programs will be at the forefront of research and evaluation of 21st-century education.

Objectives:

•    Providing high-quality alternative routes to teaching,
•   Building on private and public partnerships that share common sets of ideas in advancing education reforms,
• Effectively partnering with urban schools to prepare teacher candidates to teach in urban environments with large numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse learners,
•  Playing a greater role with charter and other experimental/alternative schools,
•  Effectively recruiting career changers to build the teacher workforce,
• Creating a robust clinical experience for teacher candidates, including year-long teaching residency programs, and
• Growing a network of professional development schools designed after the medical model of clinical training.

In order to meet the challenges and demands of the profession,

 • Provide evidence that the teachers prepared at member institutions will have a positive effect on their students’ learning,

• Go beyond providing content knowledge and prepare teachers to differentiate their instruction to reach all children, especially those most at risk for school failure: children with disabilities, English language learners, and children from low-income homes,

• Ensure that teacher candidates receive extensive, in-depth clinical experiences with mentoring support that requires performance evaluation tied to the teacher licensure process and high standards for beginning practice,

• Create fast-track, yet high-quality, teacher preparation programs in close partnership with school districts to meet specific teacher shortages, “

dream of equal educational opportunity a reality, we need to recruit, reward, train, learn from, and honour a new generation of talented teachers. But the bar must be raised for successful teacher preparation programs because we ask much more of teachers today than even a decade ago. Today teachers are asked to achieve significant academic growth for all students at the same time that they instruct students with ever-more diverse needs.

 INTRODUCTION

Dream of equal educational opportunity a reality, we need to recruit, reward, train, learn from, and honour a new generation of talented teachers. But the bar must be raised for successful teacher preparation programs because we ask much more of teachers today than even a decade ago. Today teachers are asked to achieve significant academic growth for all students at the same time that they instruct students with ever-more diverse needs.

• Engage prospective teachers in creating instruction aligned with their state’s curriculum standards, effectively interpreting assessment results, responding to students’ learning needs, and cultivating a passion for learning that will support students for a lifetime, and
• Meet the demands of the global economy by exemplifying, and embedding in instruction, the mastery of 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, collaboration and creativity and innovation. This includes the application of technology to support more robust instructional methods and understanding the relationship between content, pedagogy and technology through the dissemination of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) theory and research (American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education 2008, US Department of Education 2010).

While all of these efforts are interconnected and critical to the transformation of educator preparation, the purpose of this paper is to create the foundation for ongoing dialogue around how 21st-century knowledge and skills can be appropriately embedded in educator preparation, and to guide the development of resources and services to support educator programs.

 We intend to:

• Develop a blueprint for building the models, tools, resource base, and capacity needed to support this work,
• Create an infrastructure of leadership and communications that will support the contributions of educator preparation programs and other key stakeholders to this initiative, and
• Provide faculty training and resource pilot initiatives and partnerships to develop and test 21st century instructional models among higher education institutions nationwide.

Core subjects as defined by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) include English, reading or language arts, world languages, arts, mathematics, economics, science, geography, history, government and civics. The recently released National Educational Technology Plan reiterates, “Whether the domain is English language arts, mathematics, sciences, social studies, history, art, or music, 21st century competencies and expertise such as critical thinking, complex problem solving, collaboration, and multimedia communication should be woven into all content areas” (US Department of Education 2010,

Equally important is gaining a knowledge and understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of learning which includes the intersections between core subjects. In addition to academic subject areas, 21st-century interdisciplinary themes are equally important in promoting understanding of academic content at much higher levels.

21st-century interdisciplinary themes

These themes include:

 Global Awareness:

• Using 21st-century skills to understand and address global issues
• Learning from and working collaboratively with individuals representing diverse cultures, religions and lifestyles in a spirit of mutual respect and open dialogue in personal, work and community contexts
• Understanding other nations and cultures, including the use of non-English languages

 Financial, Economic, Business and Entrepreneurial Literacy

•         Knowing how to make appropriate personal economic choices
•         Understanding the role of the economy in society
•         Using entrepreneurial skills to enhance workplace productivity and career options

Civic Literacy

Participating effectively in civic life through knowing how to stay informed and understanding governmental processes

• Exercising the rights and obligations of citizenship at local, state, national and global levels
• Understanding the local and global implications of civic decisions

Health Literacy

• Obtaining, interpreting and understanding basic health information and services and using such information and services in ways that enhance health
• Understanding preventive physical and mental health measures, including proper diet, nutrition, exercise, risk avoidance and stress reduction
• Using available information to make appropriate health-related decisions
• Establishing and monitoring personal and family health goals
• Understanding national and international public health and safety issues

Environmental Literacy,

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the environment and the circumstances and conditions affecting it, particularly as relates to air, climate, land, food, energy, water and ecosystems
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of society’s impact on the natural world (e.g., population growth, population development, resource consumption rate, etc.)
• Investigate and analyze environmental issues, and make accurate conclusions about effective solutions
• Take individual and collective action towards addressing environmental challenges (e.g., participating in global actions, designing solutions that inspire action on environmental issues)

Learning and Innovation Skills

Learning and innovation skills increasingly are being recognized as those that separate students who are prepared for a more and more complex life and work environments in the 21st century, and those who are not. A focus on creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration is essential to prepare students for the future.

 CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

 Think Creatively

• Use a wide range of idea creation techniques (such as brainstorming)
• Create new and worthwhile ideas (both incremental and radical concepts)
• Elaborate, refine, analyze and evaluate their own ideas in order to improve and maximize creative efforts Work Creatively with Others
• Develop, implement and communicate new ideas to others effectively
• Be open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives; incorporate group input and feedback into the work
• Demonstrate originality and inventiveness in work and understand the real world limits to adopting new ideas
• View failure as an opportunity to learn; understand that creativity and innovation is a long-term, cyclical process of small successes and frequent mistakes Implement Innovations
• Act on creative ideas to make a tangible and useful contribution to the field in which the innovation will occur

CRITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING

 Reason Effectively

• Use various types of reasoning (inductive, deductive, etc.) as appropriate to the situation Use Systems Thinking
• Analyze how parts of a whole interact with each other to produce overall outcomes in complex systems Make Judgments and Decisions
• Effectively analyze and evaluate evidence, arguments, claims and beliefs
• Analyze and evaluate major alternative points of view
• Synthesize and make connections between information and arguments
• Interpret information and draw conclusions based on the best analysis
• Reflect critically on learning experiences and processes Solve Problems
• Solve different kinds of non-familiar problems in both conventional and innovative ways
• Identify and ask significant questions that clarify various points of view and lead to better solutions

COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION

Communicate Clearly

• Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written and nonverbal communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts
• Listen effectively to decipher meaning, including knowledge, values, attitudes and intentions
• Use communication for a range of purposes (e.g. to inform, instruct, motivate and persuade)
• Utilize multiple media and technologies, and know how to judge their effectiveness a priori as well as assess their impact
• Communicate effectively in diverse environments (including multi-lingual) Collaborate with Others
• Demonstrate ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams
• Exercise flexibility and willingness to be helpful in making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal
• Assume shared responsibility for collaborative work, and value the individual contributions made by each team member

INFORMATION, MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY SKILLS

People in the 21st century live in a technology and media-suffused environment, marked by various characteristics, including:

• Access to an abundance of information,
• Rapid changes in technology tools, and
• The ability to collaborate and make individual contributions on an unprecedented scale. To be effective in the 21st century, citizens and workers must be able to exhibit a range of functional and critical thinking skills related to information, media and technology.

 INFORMATION LITERACY

• Access and Evaluate Information
• Access information efficiently (time) and effectively (sources)
• Evaluate information critically and competently Use and Manage Information
• Use information accurately and creatively for the issue or problem at hand
• Manage the flow of information from a wide variety of sources
• Apply a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information

MEDIA LITERACY

Analyze Media

• Understand both how and why media messages are constructed, and for what purposes
• Examine how individuals interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded, and how media can influence beliefs and behaviours
• Apply a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of media Create Media Products
• Understand and utilize the most appropriate media creation tools, characteristics and conventions
• Understand and effectively utilize the most appropriate expressions and interpretations in diverse, multi-cultural environments

 ICT (Information, Communications and Technology) LITERACY

 Apply Technology Effectively

• Use technology as a tool to research, organize, evaluate and communicate information
• Use digital technologies (computers, PDAs, media players, GPS, etc.), communication/networking tools and social networks appropriately to access, manage, integrate, evaluate and create information to successfully function in a knowledge economy
• Apply a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information technologies

 LIFE AND CAREER SKILLS

• Today’s life and work environments require far more than thinking skills and content knowledge.
• The ability to navigate the complex life and work environments in the globally competitive information age requires students to pay rigorous attention to developing adequate life and career skills.

FLEXIBILITY AND ADAPTABILITY

• Adapt to Change
• Adapt to varied roles, jobs responsibilities, schedules and contexts
• Work effectively in a climate of ambiguity and changing priorities Be Flexible
• Incorporate feedback effectively
• Deal positively with praise, setbacks and criticism
• Understand, negotiate and balance diverse views and beliefs to reach workable solutions, particularly in multi-cultural environments

INITIATIVE AND SELF-DIRECTION

Manage Goals and Time

• Set goals with tangible and intangible success criteria
• Balance tactical (short-term) and strategic (long-term) goals
• Utilize time and manage workload efficiently Work Independently
• Monitor, define, prioritize and complete tasks without direct oversight Be Self-directed Learners
• Go beyond basic mastery of skills and/or curriculum to explore and expand one’s own learning and opportunities to gain expertise
• Demonstrate initiative to advance skill levels towards a professional leve
• Demonstrate commitment to learning as a lifelong process
• Reflect critically on past experiences in order to inform future progress

SOCIAL AND CROSS-CULTURAL SKILLS

• Interact Effectively with Others
• Know when it is appropriate to listen and when to speak
• Conduct themselves in a respectable, professional manner Work Effectively in Diverse Teams
• Respect cultural differences and work effectively with people from a range of social and cultural backgrounds
• Respond open-mindedly to different ideas and values
• Leverage social and cultural differences to create new ideas and increase both innovation and quality of work

 PRODUCTIVITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

 Manage Projects

• Set and meet goals, even in the face of obstacles and competing pressures
• Prioritize, plan and manage work to achieve the intended result Produce Results
• Demonstrate additional attributes associated with producing high quality products including the abilities to: - Work positively and ethically - Manage time and projects effectively - Multi-task - Participate actively, as well as be reliable and punctual - Present oneself professionally and with proper etiquette - Collaborate and cooperate effectively with teams - Respect and appreciate team diversity - Be accountable for results

LEADERSHIP AND RESPONSIBILITY

• Guide and Lead Others
• Use interpersonal and problem-solving skills to influence and guide others toward a goal
• Leverage strengths of others to accomplish a common goal
• Inspire others to reach their very best via example and selflessness
• Demonstrate integrity and ethical behaviour in using influence and power Be Responsible to Others
• Act responsibly with the interests of the larger community in mind

Final Thoughts

These are the skills most often cited when referring to 21st-century skills. They are increasingly being recognized as attributes that separate students who are prepared for a more and more complex life and work environment in the 21st century, from those who are not.

References:

21ST CENTURY KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS IN EDUCATOR PREPARATION  available at http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/aacte_p21_whitepaper2010.pdf accessed on July 2017.