How do 20th and 21st century skills differ? Do we need both?

20th century education skills were constructed for a different time - the industrial revolution. These skills were made for a time when education was required to be contained, controlled, predictable, scalable, repetitive and measurable. The skills for this era appear to assume that all children are the same and are to come out of the education system the same. The skills taught were for specific jobs and each child was assumed to work in one of these jobs. These skills don’t appear to allow for much creativity, problem solving or individualism. There is no space for a learner to express themselves or step outside of the box. It seems very regimented and in today’s society, this is not what we want for our learners and not the skills they require to succeed in the future.

Contrasting these skills to 21st century skills such creativity, adaptability and the ability to self correct, these skills allow for much more individually among students. It allows them to drive their own learning, explore their passions, it allows learning to be intrinsically motivating as students interests and individuality is taken into account. We know these skills are transferable. We are teaching students skills they can take into different contexts and environments as opposed to just knowing specific knowledge. By teaching students these skills we are preparing for the future, these are life skills and are more important in the modern world than teaching children knowledge and facts. We know that children have the capacity continually grow and develop their knowledge, but they need the skills in which to use this knowledge in the future.

I think these skills differ dramatically and I think that the 21st century skills are much more valuable. While there is a place for some of the 20th century skills such as the initial teaching of reading, writing and math. I think that once children have got these basic skills there is no need to continue their learning journey this way. We can't put all children in the same box, I think this is where the 20th century skills are completely flawed for our future students and by valuing these skills in today's education system we are failing our students for their future. 

TED talk - "What 60 schools can tell us about teaching 21st century skills"

Preparing our Learners for the Future

Recently I attended a talk by Francis Valintine the founder and chair of The Mind Lab. Mind Lab is an education provider that is dedicated to enhancing digital literacy across New Zealand. This talk opened my eyes regarding the importance of incorporating digital technologies into our classrooms and how essential these skills will be for our learners in the future. 

What came through strongly in the talk was; 

• Many of the 'analogue' jobs in New Zealand are disappearing. These so called 'analogue' roles are turning into new digital roles and re branding under a different name. 
• We need to educate our children so that they learn skills such as the ability to be flexible and adaptable in order for them to be successful and ready for the future. 
• We want our children to continually gain new knowledge and find the solution to problems. Retaining facts is no longer important, it is these other skills which children need to learn for the future ahead.
• We are at a fundamental transition time in the world and we need to prepare our children for this. 

"Is our current education system preparing our children for a world that no longer exists?"


One thing that stood out to me in the talk was that New Zealand's third biggest issue was our "inadequately educated workforce", this was followed by our "insufficient ability to innovate". With all the technology and digital roles in our country that we can't fill - this has made me understand that we need to change our education system.

Our education system shouldn't look like it did decades ago. Although our literacy and numeracy skills are still fundamental in our schools, we must adapt our old teaching styles and be more willing to teach children new skills such as the ability to problem solve, collaborate and to be resilient.   

I really enjoyed the talk by Francis Valintine, it certainly opened my mind to what the future of education should look like. I am looking forward to learning more about collaborative practice and digital learning for the future with The Mind Lab. 

https://nztech.org.nz/blog/my-letter-to-parents-frances-valintine/

http://themindlab.com/about-us/

https://educationcentral.co.nz/opinion-frances-valintine-future-focused-who-are-we-fooling/

How can I apply my Research on Learning Through Play to the Classroom?

• Look into children’s urges - what do they enjoy playing with and what are they drawn to - how can we further stimulate this urge of theirs and cater for them? What can we put in the classroom for them? 

• Looking into extending some of the older children? (the play environment can cause them to get distracted with some of their formal learning and they don’t always fully extend themselves with the learning provocations - how can we get them to better manage themselves in this environment?) 

• Do we need more student voice in the classroom regarding the activities and the play equipment? I think we could cater to children's interests better - asking them what they would like in the classroom and put this in the classroom. 

• Valuing play in the classroom - giving sufficient time for it in the day and valuing it as a learning tool - I think we do this well. We have play at the start of the day and throughout the day right up to lunch. We have noticed that sometimes the children are really engrossed in their play in the morning. They are playing with each other well, making good social decisions and being really creative - we found that on these instances we didn’t want to disrupt them so we extended the time we allowed them to play. It really highlighted to me on these occasions that the play calmed the children for the day ahead. 

• Questioning - one of the most valuable tools in the classroom. By questioning the children this not only enabled me to extend the children's learning, it also highlighted to me how creative they are with their play and when they are constructing objects - every little part has a role i.e. why is that wing blue and the others are red? 

• I believe that the children are settling in to school really well. I think that learning through play is allowing the children to be more creative in the classroom, it is catering to more needs of the children which previously would not have been meet. Furthermore, children are learning how to collaborate in the classroom with other children.

• Already the students are demonstrating they are developing the following 21st century skills ITL research decided were important: collaboration, knowledge construction, self-regulation, innovations, communication. 

Questions I now have:

What does learning through play look like further up the school?

At primary school we are good at incorporating these 21st century skills into our teaching and learning, what is happening at secondary school - how has their environment changed?

https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research