Episode 6: What 21st-century Skills are needed for kids to compete in this New Age Workforce?

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Take the quiz today. Foreign welcome to another episode of K12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr. Kim Fields, former corporate manager turned education researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustration frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators that I had while raising my two kids who were in the public school system. I really wanted to know how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. If you're looking to find out more about current topics in education that could affect you or your children, as well as the practical actions that you can take to address these issues, then you're in the right place. In today's episode, I will be discussing the skills necessary for our kids to compete in the 21st century society. The skills that got us to this point aren't the same ones that will need to carry us, and especially our kids, into the 21st century. We used to depend on good old fashioned hard work with using our hands. We've moved away from that into a workforce that that rewards the skills of creativity, problem solving, critical thinking, all skills that require mental energy to solve the problems of today. Our children need to develop these skills in order to compete in the workforce of the future. Schools need to be on board with teaching these critical skills to our kids so that they support all children and advance society as a whole. You have concerns about whether your kids will have the skills necessary to compete in this highly competitive job market and you hope that the skills can be acquired at schools. The truth is, most schools aren't equipped to teach these skills proficiently because they're focused more on assessments and testing. We've got to ensure that we support our kids in supplementary ways so that the skills that are needed by employers now and in the future are ones that these kids, our kids, will have added to their toolkits. This episode explores the skills that have been identified in the research as requisite for being successful in the new marketplace. These skills are enlightening and the findings are even more enlightening as well as practical. There are practical things that you can do to ensure that your kids have every possible advantage. The environment in which most organizations operate has become increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Students will need to have capabilities in the areas of agility and flexibility, growth, mindset and resilience, teamwork and collaboration, and new skills and knowledge acquisition. In order for a student to become agile and flexible in their thinking, they need to be able to sense unpredictability and to act quickly in response, as well as have the ability to identify new ideas and approaches. Resilience is at its highest when kids are young. However, as children grow into their teenage years, resilience levels tend to fall dramatically by as much as 50% by the time a young person reaches the ages of 18 to 23. Low resilience is connected to poor physical health, higher rates of stress and anxiety, feelings of low self esteem and self worth, and poor academic performance. The growth, mindset and resilience include having the desire to continuously learn and the ability to bounce back from adversity and hardships. Therefore, building the strength and greater ability to cope. Taking ownership and accountability as well as becoming more self directed and disciplined are also part of this capability. Teamwork and collaboration are always going to be required skills because it's it necessitates the ability to work with others that are different from yourself. In order to create better, more durable results in this fast changing world, students will need to possess the ability to identify and anticipate changes in the environment and to apply any newly acquired knowledge and skills that will be needed in an effective environment. In order for public schools to support students in acquiring these skills, the schools need to provide quality universal pre K education that is consistent for all children across all schools. Schools also should receive equitable funding, especially in underserved and marginalized communities which often lack proper funding. Schools must also ensure that every child can read before the third grade, which is the key determinant of long term success in school and beyond. Social and emotional skills are also required for 21st century workplace success because these skills involve self regulation, self direction and accountability in addition to effective teamwork and relationship building, problem solving, critical thinking, innovation and creativity. While requisite skills skills, technological skills, especially computer programming and digital fluency, are foundational skills that embody creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and problem solving, all of which are important proficiencies to bring into the workplace. The growth mindset that students need to develop is basically formulated from a theory that purports the that intelligence can be developed instead of being a fixed commodity. The growth mindset isn't just about effort, it's about learning and improving. The growth mindset approach helps children feel good in the short term and the long term by helping them thrive on challenges and setbacks on their way to learning. The proficiency of soft skills such as effective communication, presentation skills, effective writing, and empathy are all vitally important. Nearly 50% of today's jobs won't even be options for kids by 2033 because most of these jobs will have been automated, according to an Oxford University study. Even now, many employers report that they are struggling to find workers with the skills they require, especially creativity, problem solving, design thinking, and teamwork skills. A recent RAND report noted that 33% of employers in a recent poll indicated that educational institutions were graduating students with the expertise that the companies needed. Only 33% found that educational institutions were graduating those with with these requisite skills. The need to apply these 21st century skills is even being applied to pre K children. It is used in the context of block play. The White House in 2009 introduced the initiative Educate to Innovate to help children in the United States build the skills needed to become more globally competitive in the technology industry. The initiative outlines the need for stronger educational focus on STEM subjects. The intent was to prepare all students, regardless of where they live or which schools they attend, to be college and career ready. Early childhood educators can use STEM education, Common Core state standards and 21st century skills by using tools such as blocks and developmentally appropriate practices in the STEAM standard, which includes an art component in addition to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. When children play with blocks, they are engaging in design technology, the creation of something that is useful or helpful or that solves a problem. Block play allows children to interact with both science and mathematics contexts in authentic, meaningful and hands on ways. By integrating learning standards, STEAM and 21st century skills, educators can provide all children, including children who are gifted, children with special needs, and those who are dual language learners, the opportunities that support optimal outcomes. So here's how this background applies to K12 education. Senior corporate executives from various companies including Abbott Healthcare, Adobe, American Airlines, bank of America, IBM, Microsoft, to name a few, have indicated that if they could design one course to be implemented in high schools around the country, that course would focus on cybersecurity, technology and money management as well as the soft skills such as kindness, creativity and communication. Some of these corporate executives even suggested a course on understanding how things work like toilets, cars, money, faucet, shut offs, and of course on resilience in which the student would learn how to survive failure. Students aren't learning these 21st century skills because of the outmoded model of educating students. Currently, that model is the transmission model and it doesn't provide for the application of skills to complex problems. Through the transmission models, students can learn information, but typically they don't have much practice applying the knowledge to new context, communicating it in complex ways, using it to solve problems, or using it as a platform to develop creativity. Given these factors, the transmission model is not the most effective way to teach 21st century skills. Students can learn these skills, they just have to be taught differently. According to researchers Saad Vedra and ophir in the October 2012 issue of the Phi Delta Kappen Journal, there are nine lessons relatable to teaching 21st century skills. Lesson 1 Make it relevant Students learn better when the concepts are relevant to their lives and when the concepts resonate with them. Lesson 2 Teach through the Disciplines Students need to not only learn the knowledge of a particular discipline, they also must learn the skills associated with principles producing knowledge within the discipline. Lesson 3 Develop thinking skills Lower order thinking skills are relatively common in the existing curriculum, whereas higher order thinking skills are less common. Higher order thinking skills require the teacher to ask probing questions in order to spur deeper thinking, and these types of lessons may take more time to develop as the teacher trades off breadth versus Depth.

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Learner transfer this involves applying the skills and knowledge of one discipline to another as well as transferring what they learned in school to other areas of the student's life. Examples of skills that might transfer include the ability to work in teams or to understand cause and effect. Lesson 5 Teach students how to learn Educating students for the 21st century requires teaching them how to learn on their own. In order for this to work, students must be aware of how they learn, which is the modern concept of metacognition. Teachers can develop students metacognition by encouraging them to explicitly examine how they think. When students examine their metacognition, it allows them to think about mistakes and failures as opportunities for self inquiry and growth rather than indictments of worth or ability. Lesson 6 Address misunderstandings directly to overcome misconceptions, learners of any age must actively construct new understandings. Lesson 7 Treat teamwork like an outcome Teamwork involves collaborating with others, which has already been identified as a 21st century key skill and an important condition for optimal learning. One example of this that is often seen in the classroom is when students discuss certain concepts in pairs or groups, and then share what they understand with the rest of the class. It's interesting to note here that while most American parents lament about large class sizes in the Asian school community, they prefer larger classes so that they have enough input and discussion in which to find different solutions to a problem. Lesson 8 Exploit technology to Support Learning Technology allows students new ways to develop their problem solving, critical thinking, and communication skills. The Internet provides countless sources, many of which are inconsistent in information and contribute substantive source bias. This gives students the opportunity to practice filtering out information from unreliable sources and then send synthesizing the information from legitimate sources. While technology generally has a broad consensus that it holds great promise for education, in reality it has not lived up to that promise because teachers haven't had the opportunity to learn how to maximize technology for effective use in the classroom. And finally, lesson 9 foster career creativity Creativity is a prized skill because it fosters innovation. Creative development needs to be nurtured and it can be learned through the disciplines. Again, if students find lessons relevant to their lives, they are more intrinsically motivated to learn and to use newfound knowledge and understanding to generate creative solutions. In order to support these nine ideas, it's important to recognize that the standards and purposes of education are changing and the curriculum frameworks, instructional methods, and assessment strategies must also change. Many school districts still relegate 21st century skills or digital age learning to second tier status behind priorities such as test scores, school reform initiatives which include differentiated instruction, rigor and relevance and teaming strategies which include instructional teams, school community councils, and things of that nature. Some of the reasons provided in the research as to why 21st century skills have been given such a lukewarm reception by public schools nationwide is because of 1 a lack of clarity about what constitutes 21st century skills skills 2 the absence of resources for measuring success and 3 a dearth of evidence linking effective technology use with student achievement as measured by standard tests. When asked a question about what constitutes 21st century skills, most K12 educators, including parents, teachers, administrators, and even students students themselves indicate that it's technology an overemphasis on technology without equal focus on integrating other skills like life and career skills learning and innovation skills has left the majority of classrooms nationwide devoid of 21st century skills teaching. This has resulted in classroom learning experiences that are lacking higher order thinking and real world connections to the content as well as an isolated use of technology just for technology sake. Research studies over the past 20 years that have focused primarily on technology use have delivered mixed results in terms of the overall impact on student achievement. However, the literature does confirm that technology used in conjunction with other elements of of the 21st century skills like critical thinking, problem solving, collaborative learning methods or realizing higher achievement gains than classrooms just focus on technology in and of itself. Without a proven track record of raising test scores, the role of 21st century skills in this time of high stakes testing will continue to take a back seat, unfortunately to other instructional and non instructional priorities in schools. Now you want to make sure that your kids are prepared as possible for the new workforce of the 21st century. Here are some ways that you can encourage resilience building Factors for your kids 1 practicing good physical and mental health 2 staying active and incorporating stress reduction activities 3 building connections such as fostering inclusivity and having honest and open conversations on difficult topics. Additionally, to build critical thinking, problem solving and team building skills, you could one Set aside time for reading and literacy such as building vocabulary through word games 2 understand the social emotional connection and find ways to incorporate these into daily life through chores and planned events, for example 3 perform playgroups and encourage collaboration with others 4. Develop new project ideas that you could work on with your kids to help them explore new ideas and create new solutions. This could be through block play, Legos, backyard adventures, and five Play board games. Some board games have advanced features and you may want to incorporate those in order to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills. Here are Today's takeaways. Nearly 50% of the jobs won't even be optioned for kids by 2033 because most of these current jobs will become automated. The 21st century skills needed to successfully compete in the workforce fall into three categories of complex interrelated skills including one learning and innovation skills like critical thinking, problem solving, communication and Collaboration, and Creativity2Life and Career skills such as social, emotional learning, self regulation, self discipline and accountability and 3 information media and technology skills. The 21st century problem solving skills are more cognitively demanding than the typical learning experiences students are accustomed to, and they may experience discomfort and frustration when learning these skills. Yet the learning of these skills is vitally important for them to remain competitive and become successful in the new workforce. Some of the reasons provided in the research as to why 21st century skills have been given such a lukewarm reception by public schools nationwide is because of a lack of clarity about what constitutes what these skills are. There's an absence of resources for measuring success, and there's limited evidence linking effective technology use with student academic achievement as measured by standardized tests. Finally, students need to develop a growth mindset which is basically a theory that indicates that intelligence can be developed instead of coming from a fixed commodity. The Growth Mindset approach helps children feel good in the short term and the long term by helping them thrive on challenges and setbacks on their way to learning. If this is the type of subject matter and discussion that resonates with you, please subscribe to my podcast on whatever service you're listening to this also, I'd love to hear from you, so please leave me a message of comment or review and share this episode with anyone that you think would find it valuable. Be sure to tell your friends, family and community about my podcast. Thanks for listening today. I hope you'll come back for more K12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle. By the way, if you have a burning question about a crime or an issue or a specific topic that you'd like me to cover and explore, shoot me a quick email@kimberationthrougheducation.com to let me know what your question is. I mentioned that I plan on reviewing a book a month in Episode five, so if you're interested in a particular book or have a certain book in mind that you're curious about that you would like me to review, just drop me a comment or an email at kimliberation through education.com and share your book title. Until next time, aim to learn something new every day.

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