21st Century Skills, 14

The excerpt, 21st Century Skills: Why They Matter, What They Are, and How We Get There, explains the new skills students need to be learning in school in order to prepare them for college and careers in this millennium.  The vision developed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills incorporates a unified framework that includes creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving.  The excerpt goes on to explain how schools and students today have not adapted to the changing world, and being able to work with constant change is an essential skill for succeeding.  Organizations today place more value in collaborate working and less value in structured management.  People are expected to manage their own health, finances, and personal life.  Imagination, willingness to respond positively, taking on leadership roles, and interacting with others are all skills that set people apart.

After reading this excerpt I found that most of the claims being made were very relative to education today.  I especially liked when they stated, "Students need both knowledge and skills to apply and transform their knowledge for useful and creative purposes and to keep learning as content and circumstances change."  Being able to answer factual questions will not get you far in society today.  It is important to be able to use knowledge and apply it to new situations, as well as, devise approaches to solve complex problems.  All of this is going to require a deeper level of thinking and understanding, which the framework supposedly offers.