21st Century Readiness Workshop

Annabelle Vultee - 2010

EF Education First

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About EF

• Four decades of experience

• Two million people choose EF every year

• Hundreds of offices and schools in more than 50 countries

• 5,000 staff and 23,000 teachers and volunteers

21st Century Readiness –

Workshop Objectives

1. Understand the skill gap between what we currently

teach and what employers need.

2. Understand how children (and adults) learn best.

3. Determine the next steps to effectively teaching

students 21st Century skills in your school.

The World is Changing Rapidly…

Source: Adapted from Levy and Murnane, The New Division of Labor:

How Computers are Creating the Next Job Market, Princeton

University Press, 2004.

Today's Jobs Require New Skills

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5

10

15

20

1969 1980 1990 1998

Perc

enta

ge C

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e

Complex

Communication

Expert Thinking

Routine Manual

Routine Cognitive

…And job skills are evolving as economies develop.

Type of Task Task Description

Routine Rules-based

Repetitive

Procedural

Manual Environmental adaptability

Interpersonal adaptability

Complex Thinking

Abstract problem solving

Mental flexibilitySource: Adapted from D Autor, Technological change and job

polarization: Implications for skill demand and wage inequality, 2007.

The Global Need to Train for

Market-Driven Skills

Source: IBM Enterprise of the Future: Global CEO Study 2008

www.ibm.com/enterpriseofthefuture

The Global Need to Train for

Market-Driven Skills

Source: Adapted from: Are They Really Ready to Work? Employers’ Perspectives on the Basic

Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to the 21st Century U.S. Workforce.

Employers say their top 5 “very important” applied skills for job success for students with secondary school or higher degrees are:

1. Professionalism/Work Ethic

2. Teamwork/Collaboration

3. Oral Communications

4. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

5. Written Communication

The Global Need to Train for

Market-Driven Skills

Chart Source: Pawlowski, Brett, Notes from the 2005 Business Education Network Summit, October

2005. U.S. Chamber of Commerce, deHavill and Associates. K–12

Employers Squarely Place Workforce Readiness Responsibility on Educational Institutions.

India’s Need to Train for Market-

Driven SkillsSkills Indian Leaders Said they Value Most:

1. Envisioning and articulating a path to the future;

strategic thinking; guiding change.

2. Being inspirational, accountable and entrepreneurial.

3. Supporting careful talent selection, grooming and

practices that advance business goals.

Source: Adapted from “Leadership Lessons from India”, Capelli, Singh, Singh and Useem, Harvard Business Review, March 2010.

India’s Need to Train for Market-

Driven Skills: NCFSituation

Learning has become a source of burden and stress on children and their parents ... The school system is characterized by an inflexibility that makes it resistant to change;

– Learning has become an isolated activity;

– Schools promote a regime of thought that discourages creative thinking and insights;

– What is presented and transmitted in the name of learning in schools bypasses vital dimensions of the human capacity to create new knowledge;

Questions to answer

• What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to achieve these purposes?

• How can these educational experiences be meaningfully organized?

• How do we ensure that these educational purposes are indeed being accomplished?

NCF Curriculum Proposals

– Connecting knowledge to life outside the school;

– Ensuring that learning shifts away from rote methods;

– Enriching the curriculum so that it goes beyond textbooks;

– Making examinations more flexible and integrating them with classroom life;

CreativityCollaboration

CommunicationCritical Thinking

Leadership

Global Awareness/

Cross-Cultural Skills

Flexibility/Adaptability

Initiative and Self-Direction

Specialized Study:

Industry and Function Levels

Basic Skills:

Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Languages

Skill

Gap

The Global and Domestic Skill Gap

What students are learning What industry wants employees to know

Specialized Study:

Industry and

Function Levels

Basic Skills:Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Languages

US Vision for Developing Market-

Driven Skills

•Flexibility and Adaptability

•Initiative and Self-Direction

•Social and Cross-Cultural Skills

•Productivity and Accountability

•Leadership and Responsibility

•Creativity and Innovation

•Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

•Communication and Collaboration

•Global Awareness

•Financial, Economic, Business

and Entrepreneurial Literacy

•Civic Literacy

•Health Literacy

•Environmental Literacy

•Information Literacy

•Media Literacy

•ICT

Partnership for 21st Century Skills

India’s Vision for Developing

Market-Driven Skills

Anything familiar? What are the commonalities?

Ten Core Life Skills:

1. Self-awareness

2. Empathy

3. Critical Thinking

4. Creative Thinking

5. Decision Making

6. Problem Solving

7. Effective Communication

8. Interpersonal Relationships

9. Coping with Stress

10. Coping with Emotions

Global Perspectives Course

Common Workforce

Readiness Skills

� Creativity and Innovation

� Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving

� Communication and Collaboration

� Flexibility and Adaptability

� Initiative and Self-Direction

� Global Awareness and Cross-Cultural Skills

� Leadership and Responsibility

Now What?

• Now, we understand which skills to develop.

• Next, we’ll define and practice these skills.

• Then, we’ll develop plans to teach these skills in

a way that complements the curriculum, not

competes with it.

Life Skills

• Creativity and Innovation

• Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving

• Communication and Collaboration

Creativity and Innovation

ExercisesWhat is thinking outside of the box?

Creativity Exercise: In Groups of 7, you will have

10 minutes to “think outside the box” and come up

with a new idea for the 10,000 old washing

machines we just gave your group. Nominate 1

person to present your pitch with pricing, a product

name and what it does. It cannot be re-sold as a

washing machine.

Small Group Exercise –Communication, Collaboration and Critical Thinking

Items Salvaged:

• A ball of steel wool

• A small ax

• A loaded .45-caliber pistol

• Can of Crisco shortening

• Newspapers (one per person)

• Cigarette lighter (without fluid)

• Extra shirt and pants for each survivor

• 20 x 20 ft. piece of heavy-duty canvas

• A sectional air map made of plastic

• One liter of whiskey

• A compass

• Family-size chocolate bars (one per person)

Tasks

1. Individually rank these 12 items in order of their importance.

2. Meet as a group and come to a consensus on the ranking.

Sub-Arctic Survival Answers

Correct Answers Rationale

1. Cigarette lighter (without fluid) Warmth (fire)

2. A ball of steel wool Warmth (fire)

3. Extra shirt and pants for each survivor Warmth

4. Can of Crisco shortening Signaling

5. 20 x 20 ft. piece of heavy-duty canvas Warmth (shelter)

6. A small ax Warmth (fire)

7. Family-size chocolate bars (one per person) Energy

8. Newspapers (one per person) Warmth

9. A loaded .45-caliber pistol Signaling

10. One liter of whiskey

11. A compass

12. A sectional air map made of plastic

Sub-Arctic Survival Debrief

Communication

• Who spoke most often?– What is the effect of their participation?

• Who spoke least?– Why? What affect did this have?

• How were “silent” and “noisy” members handled?

• Who had the most influence? Who had the least?

Critical Thinking

• Did you use a rational problem solving process?– Identifying the problem, Analyzing the problem, Proposing and evaluating solutions, implementing decisions

• How did you reach “consensus”?

• How many people actively participate in decision-making?

Collaboration

• How did you handle disagreements?– To what extent were there arguments about how to do the task?

– To what extent did team members take arguments personally?

– Were conflicts resolved or simply “buried”?

• Did you build a supportive environment?– Empathy, Equality, Spontaneity, Problem orientation

• Were members defensive if their ideas were challenged/rejected?– Evaluation / judging, Control, Stratagems / “games”, Superiority, Dogmatism?

• Did everyone stay engaged or some withdraw (literally or physically?

• Are people involved and interested?– Is there an atmosphere of work? Play? Competition?

Life Skills: Debrief

Debrief

What might inhibit a student or one of us from developing these skills?

What did we learn?

What surprised us?

How do we integrate learning these skills into our school/classroom?

Career Skills

• Flexibility and Adaptability

• Initiative and Self-Direction

• Global Awareness and Cross-Cultural Skills

• Leadership and Responsibility

Leadership and Responsibility

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do

something you want done because he wants to do it”.

-Dwight Eisenhower

“The price of greatness is responsibility”.

-Winston Churchill

“We must be the change we wish to see in the world”.

-Mahatma Ghandi

Career Skills Debrief

Debrief

What might inhibit a student or one of us from developing these skills?

What did we learn?

What surprised us?

How do we integrate learning these skills into our school/classroom?

A 21st Century Learning

Environment…

• Creates learning practices, human support and physical environments

that will support the teaching and learning of 21st century skill outcomes

• Supports professional learning communities that enable educators to

collaborate, share best practices, and integrate 21st century skills into

classroom practice

• Enables students to learn in relevant, real world 21st century contexts

(e.g., through project-based or other applied work)

• Supports expanded community and international involvement in learning,

both face-to-face and online

Source: Partnership for 21st Century Skills- Learning Environment White Paper.

http://www.p21.org/documents/le_white_paper-1.pdf

Classroom Tools

• Active participation every class, every day

• Web-based collaboration projects

• Project-based and activity-based learning

– Scenario simulations, role play, debates, competitions…

• Amazon.com

– Books like: “Hands-On Math Projects with Real-Life Applications”, Grades 6-12, by Judith A Muschla and Gary R Muschla

• Partnership for 21st Century Skills

– Subject-Based Tools

• http://www.p21.org/documents/21stcskillsmap_geog.pdf

• http://www.p21.org/documents/21stcskillsmap_science.pdf

• http://www.p21.org/documents/ss_map_11_12_08.pdf

• http://www.p21.org/documents/21st_century_skills_english_map.pdf

– Learning modules, project ideas, assessments, books and other tools and resources

• http://www.p21.org/route21/

Extracurricular and Off-Site Tools

• E-Portfolios

• Field Trips

• International Travel (EF Tours)

• Team-building exercises as a group

• Leadership camps

• Employment

• What are some other tools you are aware of?...

Goal-Setting

• Creating a 21st Century Learning Environment School-wide

• Bringing project and activity-based learning to the classrooms

• Bringing kids outside of the classroom to apply and demonstrate their ability to

improvise and use these skills

1. 5 day goal

2. 30 day goal

3. 1 year goal

Workshop Objectives and Debrief

Did we accomplish these?

1. Understand the skill gap between what we currently teach and what employers need.

2. Understand how children (and adults) learn best.

3. Determine the first step to effectively teaching students 21st

Century skills in your school.

EF Academic, Life and Career Skills Program

Guiding Principles

• Provide students a forum to rapidly develop the skills that employers value most in the next generation of prospective employees.

• Complement the curriculum and core subjects.

• Provide an engaging learning experience.

• Measure student progress.

Pre-Tour

•Benchmarking

•Goal Setting

On-Tour

•Activity-Based Learning

•Formative Reflection

Post-Tour

•Assessment

•Summative Reflection

Journal

Academic Skills•Applied Math, Science, Economics

and Social Studies

Life Skills•Creativity and Innovation

•Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving

•Communication and Collaboration

Career Skills•Flexibility and Adaptability

•Initiative and Self-Direction

•Social and Cross-Cultural Skills

•Leadership and Responsibility

Available Tours (as of October 2010)1. Aerospace: Germany and France

2. NASA: Orlando and Cape Canaveral