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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Leadership and The Key Competencies

The NZ Curriculum Key Competencies are:-

thinking
using language, symbols and text
managing self
relating to others
participating and contributing

What are my strengths and weaknesses in relation to my teaching and leadership practice?

Our learning through play environment encourages the use of all 5 key competencies. Our ākonga are active learners who have tons of opportunities to practice these competencies every day. 

My big challenge as a leader this year has been to encourage our kaiako to stand back so that ākonga have more agency and self-direction. In the past, kaiako did most of the thinking and organising in the learning space. They made the decisions about how the day would run, how the resources would be organised, what might be learnt, where it might be learnt and with whom. 

It is a struggle for us to give up this level of control in favour of allowing ākonga to make choices, think problems through, fail frequently and try again. We find it difficult to resist the urge to help too much and talk too much. Allowing ākonga to lead the learning is a new skill that we need to add to our 21st Century learning kete. It's one that some kaiako find difficult to understand and even more difficult to implement.