In the article The Workforce Readiness Crisis, it states, “particularly disturbing is the study's findings on the current lack of preparedness of the nation's high school graduates. In addition to the deficiencies in communication and professionalism shared by those with varying degrees of college education, well over half of new workforce entrants with only a high school diploma are deficiently prepared in all ten of the skills that employers rate critical.” How can we expect students to be successful in whatever they choose to do with their lives after high school if they are not equipped with the know-how to apply these 21st century skills to the knowledge they have learned. As technology continues to make the world smaller and smaller everyone needs to be able to deal with what lies ahead for them in the “real world”.
After being a manager in my field for the past five years the ability to have these skills makes the difference between not only the amount of shifts awarded but just keeping a job in general. We make it a priority to try and coach employees on these skills to see if they will pick up on them and be an integral part of the team but for a lot of them it’s too late and they have already become apathetic to the process and either quit or get terminated.
If you take a in-depth look at the critics’ articles they aren’t even truly against integrating these ideals into education, they just don’t want the content knowledge to go by the wayside and for this movement to be eased into since it is not data based at this time. For example, Diane Ravitch states, (in her article Critical thinking? You need knowledge), that she believes, “What matters most in the use of our brains is our capacity to make generalizations, to see beyond our own immediate experience. The intelligent person, the one who truly is a practitioner of critical thinking, has the capacity to understand the lessons of history, to grasp the inner logic of science and mathematics, and to realize the meaning of philosophical debates by studying them.” Isn’t that what this movement is trying to accomplish in the end?
I think that the critics of 21st century learning are taking the p21 information too literally. In the article, Flawed Assumptions Undergird the Program at the Partnership for 21st-Century Skills, the president of P21 Ken Kay states “Our real expertise is in the setting of goals. Other people have the expertise in how to make it happen.” These standards or any standards really are just an outline. It’s up to educators to put on their thinking caps when they make their lesson plans to be creative and find ways to implement these standards into their content learning and research ways to coach them so students can be better equipped to be successful members of society.
Nice read on the debate. It is about balance - I think you will agree that there is a middle ground and these "life skills, aka 21st century" can be a part of schools without sacrificing content knowledge. The challenge will be whether the practitioners are prepared to do this in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteYou have an interesting perspective, having been out in the workforce. Sounds like you have seen some of the issues about preparedness for work. It gets you to think about the purpose of schooling.