Written by Matthew Moeller

21st-Century Education
The fundamental issue is not of new versus old education nor of progressive against traditional education but a question of what, if anything whatever, must be worthy of the name Education. John Dewey, 1897 (Nutbrown & Clough, 2014)

Are the educational activities that we design for our students worthy of the name education? Are we preparing our students for success as employees and citizens in the 21st century? Reflecting on these questions and determining what needs to be changed in our classrooms and schools can be uncomfortable, messy, exhausting, and complicated, but it is a tragedy to prepare students for a future that doesn’t exist.

21st-Century Employees
What knowledge and skills do our students need for their future careers? Too often today’s students are being “educated” based on an educational system that focuses on knowledge, is one-size-fits-all, and is based on the factory assembly-line model developed over one hundred years ago. Business owners are already clamoring for employees who excel at problem solving and can communicate to and with multiple generations and cultures. Tucker (2019) shared:

The kinds of jobs that will enable people to earn a decent living will require a much higher level of skills and very different kinds of skills than those that previously sustained most people. This is a huge departure from everything that has gone before, because a large percentage of our children, whose education in the current system does not do enough to help them foster these skills, will be unemployable or working for miserable wages in the economy that appears to lie ahead. (p. 69)

Are we equipping our students with these higher-level skills?

21st-Century Citizens
What do students need to know and do to function as citizens? Key skills include the 4 Cs (communication, critical thinking, collaboration, creativity) and problem solving, emotional resilience, communication to multiple generations, and leading in a cross-cultural environment. While foundational knowledge of key historical events, dates, and names can be helpful for effective citizenship, these facts are available instantaneously today through the devices that our students carry. It is more essential that we provide learning activities in which our students learn how to collaborate with fellow citizens, communicate viewpoints, think critically about issues, and develop creative solutions. Tucker (2019) wrote:

The best teachers . . . have always known that we study history not to accumulate a storage bin of events and dates and battles and changes of government but to understand the forces behind those events and the way humans have reacted to those forces over time, so that students can approach their duties as citizens with an understanding of the importance of the institutions of freedom and democracy. (p. 68)

To help our students develop these critical skills for citizenship we can guide them to analyze historical and current events, natural phenomena as well as fictional stories, and think through these five steps (Dewey, 1909):

• The recognition of a difficulty,
• The definition of the difficulty,
• The suggestion of solutions,
• The development of the implications of the suggestion, and
• The conclusion.

These events provide opportunities to engage the future leaders of the United States in the higher-level thinking, communication and collaboration they will need to be successful citizens.

Today’s students are empowered with more tools and opportunities than any previous generation. Today’s teachers can use these tools and opportunities to ensure they are prepared for their tomorrow. To make learning activities more effective, teachers can make them . . .

• Personal (Give students some choice in their topics and approaches to make it more meaningful.),
• Authentic (Give students a real audience and purpose for their task.), and
• Global (Have students consider how they could help meet the United Nations’ 17 Global Goals for sustainable development.).

Is the curricular practice and organization of our schools designed to address the best interests of our learners or is it running on habit? It is so easy to revert to the way we were taught in the past and to lower levels of thinking such as fact recall. The status quo is always easier, but is it best? Including higher-order thinking in our class discussions and assessments can be exhausting for students and teachers alike. It will take time to develop, but this practice is necessary to equip students to be able to reason, reflect, and make sound decisions on their own without prompting from teachers or assignments. After extensive research, Susan Brookhart (2011) concluded:

Using assignments and assessments that require intellectual work and critical thinking is associated with increased student achievement. These increases have been shown on a variety of achievement outcomes, including standardized test scores, classroom grades, and research instruments. These increases have been demonstrated in reading, mathematics, science, and social studies. And they have been documented particularly for low-achieving students. (pp. 9-10)

We are making choices for the generation we are called to nurture. We are empowered with more tools, opportunities, and resources than any previous generation to develop these skills. You can go to https://futureready.org/ to find resources to help you provide the education your students need for their futures.

Matthew Moeller (’96) serves as curriculum coordinator/instructor at Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School-Jackson WI.

References
20 tips for putting Google’s 20 percent time in your classroom. (2014). Retrieved
from http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/12/08/google-time-classroom-117/

Brookhart, S. M. (2011). How to assess higher-order thinking skills in your classroom. Hawker Brownlow Education.

Dewey, J. (1909). How we think. D.C. Heath.

Dossin, L. (n.d.). Preparing students for success. Retrieved from http://futureready.org/

The 17 Goals. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.globalgoals.org/.

Hattie, J. A. C. and & Donoghue, G. M. (2016). Learning strategies: A synthesis and conceptual model.” Npj Science of Learning, vol. 1, no. 1, 2016, doi:10.1038/npjscilearn.2016.13.

Jacobs, H. H. (2010). Curriculum 21: Essential education for a changing world. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Nash, R. (2016). From seatwork to feetwork: Shifting the classroom workload from teachers to students. Corwin.

Nutbrown, C. & and Clough P. (2014) Early childhood education: History, philosophy and experience. SAGE.

Pink, Daniel H. (2011). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. Canongate.

Talks, TEDx. (2015). Teaching methods for inspiring the students of the future | Joe Ruhl | TEDxLafayette. YouTube, YouTube, 27 May 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCFg9bcW7Bk.

Tucker, M. S. (2019). Leading high-performance school systems: Lessons from the world’s best. ASCD

November, A. (2012). Who owns the learning: Preparing students for success in the digital age. Hawker Brownlow Education.