Skills for the 21st Century
Schools should be changing but are they? Check out this article http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1568480,00.html.
posted by pclark448 @ 3:04 PM
11 Comments
Schools should be changing but are they? Check out this article http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1568480,00.html.
posted by pclark448 @ 3:04 PM
11 Comments
11 Comments:
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Wow! It would seem that the US is really lagging behind the rest of the world in how we teach and what we teach. The article talks about how the No Child Left Behind Act is a major reason for teachers focusing much of their time on testing rather than teaching 21st Century Skills. I wonder how the education world will change after the November election? If at all?
I agree with Sarah and the article. America is behind in what and how it teaches. We do tend to focus within our borders. Look at the "cannon" that is taught as literature. Mostly white male writers who have been dead for a while.
However, we are ahead on one front. America has free, appropriate public education for all. Regardless of learning disabilities or ability level. Not every country offers that. Japan doesn't ant they have long been compared to us as being ahead of the gap. But they only promote children who do well on a high school entrance exam.
There is always going to be advancement in all aspects of our lives. Pretty soon, before you know it, we will make changes to our educational system, and that will be outdated.
I do agree we need to refocus on what and how we are teaching students. I don't currently have a classroom, but through student teaching and substitute teaching, I am astonished how challenging it is for students to take facts/information they learn and apply it to real world situations.
As for other countries and their achievements, we need to not only look at how they are achieving high scores, but also how their system is set up. I visited Germany for 10 days in my undergraduate program and looked at and visited many schools. They are set up in a system where they are "labeled" if you will, at an early age (elementary school age) as to what they will "be when they grow up" and hence put into different "tracks" within their educational system.
I also agree that it is important for US citizens to expand beyond our borders. We should still be proud of our country and what it has to offer, but we should have awareness as to what other countries are doing and be able to communicate with them.
I think there should be more creativity and experimentation in the classroom. However, it can be difficult for teachers to come up with the time and energy to create and implement exciting new lessons/units.
I like the idea of companies like Ford spending time and money on schools to help them produce more creative and productive students.
I am intrigued by the idea of teaching students facts to memorize and critical thinking skills. How much basic information do students need to memorize when it is available with a quick internet search? The challenge will be to teach students how to analyze information on the internet and to decipher what is reliable and accurate.
Technology and information advances so quickly it will be difficult for schools to keep up.
Interesting article about technology in education.
In theory, NCLB is a good idea. Practicality NCLB focuses on old school measurements in an ever changing global village.
Currently the U.S. unfortunately focuses on test scores, it would appear that we are handcuffing ourselves. Fortunately, we are aware enough to sit back and analyze that we need to make improvements in education in order to remain competitive in the global markets.
Being a Spanish teacher, I have enjoyed the benefits of being able to communicate in a foreign language. Current illegal immigration issues are also pushing us to be proud in being a monolingual country and shunning any language other than English. This can further isolate our country. The ability to speak more than one foreign language should be our norm rather than the exception.
The article challenges me as a teacher to make sure that I am aware of what I teach. I need to present a curriculum that gives students material that helps them to be successful in the 21st century.
Comments from Sarah Davis
What I really thought was interesting was the analogy of Rip Van Winkle. I used to teach in Grand Island, NE, at the fourth grade level. We used to go to the Stuhr Musuem Pioneer Days, where students could actually live the life of a pioneer student. This included bringing their own wood for the fire, using an outhouse, and following the structure of an original one room school house in the early 1900s. I always found it rather amusing that the professor, usually an avid historian, would have the students read out of a basal for reading time, aloud to the rest of the class, no matter the level. I thought it was interesting how the students would pop answers to math questions on mini chalkboards and show it to the teacher. About the second year I watched this going on, I realized, huh, we really do still do some of this 20th century method today. With all the resources at our fingertips, we stick to our classrooms and the basals and tools within, rather then stick our necks out the window to look outside.
I agree with Erin, it is astonishing how hard students find it to take information and apply it to the "real" world. But hey, they appear to be taking the example from us. :) Generalizing, of course.
As a media specialist, teaching students to use the technology (internet) is really one of my major areas of instruction. If we were to teach students facts and statistics, we would be behind the minute we completed one unit! Therefore, our major emphasis, like these articles addressed, is teaching students to discern good websites, gather important and relevant material and how to use that information to answer their questions. So why are we not doing a good job in this area? First, we have many other areas to cover, such as, how to use the library, how to use software on the computers, familiarity with authors and illustrators, support classroom curricular needs, etc. Next, I see each class once a week for a 30-40 minute lesson. Special projects can be scheduled but time is at a premium. Finally, we have a computer lab of 24 computers, sometimes they are working, sometimes not. Sometimes testing is being held in the library which makes our computer lab unavailable.
This may sound like a lot of excuses, but what it boils down to is if this is the goal of education in the 21st century, then the entire school, district, state, need to get on board and work to make it happen for our students.
I have heard and have seen where the media position is eliminated. What we really need, is not only the media position, but also a dedicated computer instructor. We should be giving our students more time on the computers rather than dumping all of it on the teachers (who are already overwhelmed) and expecting them to lead students in 21st century skills.
I agree with schwaben - teaching in the 21st century should be more creative, teachers need to use experimentation and discovery in their lessons. (as this is how children learn - by doing) We need to teach students the key concepts and then TEACH them how to apply their newly learned info to real world situations. The day of memorization and regurgitating facts and figures is "old schewl." (20th century)
Our entire way of teaching in the 21st century needs to be re-thought. In the technologically driven world today, it seems to me that kids need entirely different skills than they did 100, 25 or even 5 years ago. That goes for teachers as well!! The problem is that NCLB has hand-cuffed our teachers into thinking in 20th century terms, focusing on criteria testing, minimum levels of achievement and thus lowering the bar. Our students deserve better than that!!
like Sarah - I to wonder what changes in education are ahead following the November election. Change - Change and more change. Both McCain and Obama say they are agents of change, but will the new president have the courage to make deep and meaningful changes so our students will be equipped with "skills for the 21st century."
As I was reading I was thinking about
the social emotional needs of the kids..and then it talked about the EQ and developing people skills! I value the opinions presented and think that we can try help our children fit into the global society using technology....we have many obstacles ahead of us however.
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