21st Century Learning Skills

How do 20 and 21st Century learning skills differ? Do we need both?

Reference:- What 60 schools can tell us about teaching 21st century skills 

Ted X 

Grant Lichtman

I think that 20th Century learning skills were more defined and finite than 21st Century learning skills. 

Our pre-2000 curriculum documents described the content and skills required at each age and stage, for every curriculum subject. Whilst the 2007 Curriculum did this too, it also introduced introduced the 'key competencies' which to me, were the most important part of the document. The key competencies are:-

thinking

understanding language symbols and text'

managing self

relating to others

participating and contributing 

Students who develop these skills can become self-determined learners who continue to adapt and change after they have left school and moved on to other endeavours - be that further education or work place learning. Their learning is not finite, limited to what happens at school, during school hours and with a teacher. These are the skills required by a 21st Century learner.

I've thought this over for a couple of days now, and I think that the students who develop the key competencies will be well placed to learn anything at all; and that therefore, the rest of the curriculum is possibly no longer relevant. 

Teaching

Teach in ways that enable learners to learn from one another, to collaborate, to self-regulate and to develop agency over their learning.

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