21st century skills: Global competence

Another in the series of NSBA conference sessions relating to "21st century skills" spoke to the issue of global awareness. "Global competence" was defined as including the following: 1) knowledge of international issues; 2) the ability to work in other cultural environments; and 3) language skills other than English.

What makes global competence important is the significant share of future economic growth that will come from overseas markets, and the fact that 20% of future jobs will be tied to international trade. In addition, most of the big issues that will demand the next generation's attention have obvious global implications; solutions will require global knowledge and the ability to work cross-culturally.

So how do we go about teaching global competence? Typically, the most efficient way to help students develop these skills will be to imbed it in the curriculum that is already there. The access to global resources that technology has made possible obviously makes that another important component.

Consider the implications for world language instruction, not only of online courses - not many schools can afford to hire a Mandarin language instructor - but also of classroom-to-classroom video conferencing with sister schools in other countries. As we heard numerous times throughout the conference, we'll need to find ways to implement foreign language instruction in the elementary grades.

(Here’s a modest, but interesting idea that came out of the Teacher Inquiry Conference. Kyle Bentley used the time of the “daily opening” to teach his 2nd graders one word of Spanish per week. While that’s obviously not enough to develop fluency, it does expose the students to another language while it begins to lay a foundation for future study, without cutting into curricular time.)

Clearly, global skills would become an increasingly important component of professional development and a potential criteria in faculty hiring decisions.

Another useful free resource developed by Apple: the Learning Interchange (ali.apple.com). "Ali" is a social network for K-12 educators that has content ranging from lesson ideas to in-depth curriculum units.

Professional Development School

What I consider to be an extraordinary annual event occurred last Saturday morning at the Park Forest Elementary School in State College: the 10th annual Teacher Inquiry Conference. This is the culminating event of the Professional Development School - a joint venture of the State College Area School District and the College of Education at Penn State - which places about 70 teacher interns in State College classrooms for an entire school year.

As part of their internship, each student addresses an "inquiry" around an educational issue of personal interest, and then reports on the results.

Deciding on which five out of seventy sessions to attend is challenging, but I began with Morgan Bracken's "Student-Led Class Meetings: Passing the Power to the 1st Graders". I was interested in the implications for integrating 21st century skills - such as communication, leadership and collaboration - into the classroom experience of even young students.

When her students returned from Christmas break, she had observed an increase in "classroom community" issues - cutting in line, "tattling", etc. - and she wondered if giving her first graders ownership in the classroom - allowing them to identify classroom issues, and propose their own solutions - might help. Would student-led classroom meetings affect the sense of community and personal responsibility among the students in her class?

So, each week she chose four students to lead a class meeting. Those students would decide on the issue to address - selected from notes dropped in the "grievance box" - and then lead a discussion on potential solutions.

She found that while her students needed some training in how to lead a meeting (a practical civic skill that one that not every adult has), many of her young students flourished in the new role – and that it was not always who you might expect. (This has been a consistent finding in research, and suggests the value of providing multiple and various leadership opportunities to students throughout their academic careers.) Even some students who had felt uncomfortable speaking in front of the entire class were enthusiastic about being placed in this leadership role.

The class as a whole demonstrated that first graders are able to talk about social issues on their own, as well as develop appropriate solutions.

So, there were a number of positive outcomes. One thing that didn't change significantly, however, was actual behavior!  While there was agreement on what should be done, the students didn’t always follow through. Perhaps this is an age/emotional development issue; certainly a question for future inquiry.

Among Morgan’s other conclusions: these meetings are more effective when held “as needed”; and the “grievance box” was a useful tool for helping students take responsibility for classroom issues.

Innovating the 21st Century High School

ACOT2 is the next phase of Apple’s ACOT initiative that investigated how the routine use of technology might change teaching and learning. The recently released ACOT2 is more specifically focused on how to create a learning environment that will support the teaching of 21st century skills. The result: “Six Design Principles of the 21st Century High School”.

1)    First, but not trivial: understanding what is meant by “21st century skills and outcomes”.

2)    Relevant and Applied Curriculum  Educators increasingly understand that they need to be able to answer the question: “why do we have to learn this?” In addition, the 21st century classroom will be more project-based and multidisciplinary.

3)    Informative Assessment  This was another example of the convergence that was evident throughout the conference. Informative assessments were central to the session on “Assessing 21st century skills”.

4)    A Culture of Innovation and Creativity  Another concept that was reinforced throughout the conference related to the importance of developing the creative abilities that are inherent in every student. Teachers can help create this environment by providing opportunities for students to engage in deep, complex thinking in an environment that is positive and tolerant of failure.

5)    Social and Emotional Connections with Students  It was somewhat surprising to hear this from someone from a technology background, but one of the key design principles for the 21st century high school is providing students with a social and emotional connection to their school, in order to fully engage the learning process – which relates back to the first session on brain research. As an example, she told a story of a principal who made a point of identifying how every student was connected to the school, either through a particular teacher, coach or adviser.

6)    Ubiquitous Access to Technology  It almost goes without saying that students need 24/7 access to information, resources, and technologies in order to do research and analysis, to communicate, and to publish their work using a variety of media to varied audiences. This recognizes that the typical student experience is one of collaboration and being always connected.

While it could be said that Apple has a vested interest in this – for many years their products have been recognized as well-designed for educational purposes – their work struck me as another example of doing well by doing good.  In that same vein, Apple has begun to assemble a vast array of public domain educational resources that they have collated at iTunes U. (This can be found at the iTunes store, and can be searched by subject area, or by source provider.)

Assessing 21st century skills

Back to the NSBA conference:

As inevitably happens at these conferences, at some point you wish you could be in two places at the same time. So I missed the session on "Assessing 21st century skills" - an important issue that I've mentioned previously - but I did manage to get the notes and capture some key ideas.

First, a brief mention of what is meant by 21st century skills, and why it's becoming important.

Most people understand that many of the jobs requiring routine manual labor have left our economy, and those that remain are not well paid. What fewer people realize is that many of the jobs involving routine cognitive skills are leaving as well. (For example, x-rays are now typically "shipped" overseas electronically, where routine diagnoses are performed for a fraction of the cost.)

The consequence for the next generation is that the best jobs are going to require highly developed communication and critical thinking skills. So how do you "teach" these skills - and how do you measure what you've taught?  Not only does there have to be accountability to students, parents and political stakeholders, teachers need to know whether their teaching has been successful.

Educators and business leaders are increasingly questioning whether current educational assessment systems – which rely primarily on multiple choice exams - focus too heavily on whether a student can recall discrete facts, rather than the ability to complete complex thinking and problem-solving tasks.  Nor are these assessments typically designed to measure how well students can apply what they know to new situations.

So, in addition to the "summative" assessments to which we've become accustomed, we need to develop effective “formative" assessments, in which the assessment becomes part of the learning process. This provides immediate and continuous feedback to both the student and the teacher. Other benefits of formative assessments are that students tend to become resources for one another, and they are more likely to take ownership of their learning.

A number of these “formative” assessment tools have already been developed, such as “mClass” for mathematics and the TerraNova Performance Assessments, but there is clearly more to be done.

A postscript from the spring issue of “Threshold”: at Stanford Medical School, they use gaming to teach emergency room teamwork. (Collaboration is another important 21st century skill.) In the interactive game, each student treats the “patient” working through an avatar whose decisions can be analyzed after the exercise.

Public Issues Forum – What is the 21st Century Mission for Our Public Schools?

Before it disappears from the C-Net rotation - the last showing is scheduled for this Sunday, April 20, at 8:00 a.m. on channel 98 - I wanted to mention the most recent Public Issues Forum, which was held in Schlow Library on the evening of April 10th.

Centered on the question - What is the 21st Century Mission for Our Public Schools? - this forum provided the community with a rare opportunity for a public conversation - that is, one involving community members of varying perspectives - on a complex topic.

There are two aspects of a public issues forum that make it fairly unique, and which can be explained by what it is not. First, it is not a panel of experts, with the public observing from the audience. In fact, for the purpose of the forum, there are no experts; the central purpose of a forum is for the participants to listen to one another, in order to come to a better understanding of why someone might see the issue in a different way.

Neither is a public forum a debate, where one "side" wins. Rather, it is a deliberation, in which the participants weight the trade-offs imbedded in the various approaches to the issue and identify what is important to them - and why - and then look for areas of common ground. There are no "sides."

The portion that I heard contained some fascinating insights from high school and college students, parents and business people, as well as educators. It was certainly clear to me that we need to find a way to continue this conversation. I'm sure I'll have more to say about this later, but in the meantime, I encourage you to watch it for yourself.

Park Forest Middle School

Everyone who attended the board visit to Park Forest Middle School came away impressed by what they saw. I particularly enjoyed the tech ed classes and a sit-in on a PRIDE lesson (a worthwhile investment in school spirit which on this day involved students from all three grade levels.)

But I’ll single out one creative idea to share with you. On the afternoons of the PSSA exams, which occur in the morning over three days in April, teachers and administrators had noticed that the stress and adrenaline left over from the exams made it a challenge to get the students back into the usual routine.

So they decided to schedule the school's annual Health, Community Service, and Multicultural Fairs on those three afternoons. Not only does this provide a break from the routine, many of the activities give the students the much needed opportunity to blow off some steam. (In response to student feedback more physical activities were scheduled this year.) Another result that came out of the post-event student surveys: students began to report that they "looked forward" to the PSSAs. That's quite an accomplishment.

Sandra Day O'Connor

The remarks of general session speakers are not always entirely relevant, but that was not the case this year.  This was particularly true for Justice O'Connor, who made an articulate argument in support of civics education.

Appropriately, one of the speakers preceding O'Connor's speech made this observation: "public education does not serve the public, it creates the public."  Or as Kofi Annan was quoted by another speaker, "No one is born a good citizen".

O'Connor fully got my attention when she said, "I believe civics should be one of the most dynamic subjects that can be taught." (A pet peeve of mine: I have often noted, at least half-seriously, that teachers who make history or math boring have committed a crime against humanity.)

I was thrilled to hear her say that we need to build a civics curriculum that is "interactive", "learned in context" and "used in real-life situations".  The goal of civics education is not for students to memorize a set of dry facts, but for them to "develop a toolbox of skills of practical value" that can be used in volunteer work, jury duty and community organization.

One example she gave of a successful curriculum: students who studied the philosophies of the "Founding Fathers" and then applied those arguments to current situations. (It is fairly clear to me that not very many present-day citizens have a clear understanding of those philosophies.)

Another example: in Kennebunkport, Maine, where it it is being demonstrated that a student-driven approach to school climate issues is preferable to a top-down strategy that depends on rules, monitors, and punishments. Instead, students are allowed to evaluate teachers and to collaborate with other students in exploring how to make course work more relevant.

In other words, students are learning how to have a meaningful impact in the environment in which they spend much of their time.

And the student jazz band that performed prior to O'Connor's speech was extraordinary - almost as good as ours.

Brain Research and the Learning Environment

Recent brain research also supports the growing awareness that we need to provide students with opportunities to become emotionally connected to their learning. In addition to creating an atmosphere of safety and security, this can be accomplished, in part, through physical spaces that support a sense of student ownership.

Anyone who has walked the halls of an elementary school is familiar with “public displays of student work”. Still evident in middle school, they are often hard to find in a typical high school. But it turns out that student display areas have an important role in helping to create a sense of student ownership. It is also important for students to have gathering places that promote social interaction, and learning spaces that support collaborative groupings of varying sizes.

Sterile learning environments are not conducive to creative thinking. (This probably says something about the ancient habit of arranging student desks in nice, neat rows.) Facilities’ design should take into account how color and texture can create a sense of warmth, as well as stimulation for the brain.

The physical classroom environment should be seen as part of the school’s overall educational strategy. In fact, the quality of that environment has been shown to have a greater impact on learning than the educational level of the classroom teacher.

A finding that runs counter to an assumption from the old days when I was in school: having a view of living things (such as the outdoors) aids student concentration. In fact, having efficient access to outdoor learning areas is being seen as increasingly important.

Brain Research and Curriculum

Another part of that first presentation had implications more for curriculum than facilities.  As the brain develops, it builds connections wildly and randomly until about the age of six, at which point it begins to prune what isn't used. ("Use it or lose it.") This has significant implications for initiatives to implement foreign language instruction at the primary level - something our students have told us that they strongly support.

As I mentioned yesterday, learning begins as sensory input.  It then cycles through the different physical areas of the brain responsible for reflection (what does this mean? what is it similar to?); abstraction (new ideas, hypothesis development); and finally, action, where the new learning is tested - another application of "use it or lose it". This is the part of the brain that establishes learning as permanent, and is the aspect of learning that is often short-circuited by standardized testing. 

This profoundly demonstrates the importance of integrating into the curriculum opportunities for students to physically demonstrate what they have learned, either through presentation, performance - integrating the arts? - or teaching what they have learned to others

Brain Research and Facilities

The first in a series of posts about the NSBA conference last weekend in Orlando:

The first session, "What Brain Research and Neuroscience Tell Us About Educational Facilities and School Design" provided a scientific and research foundation for a number of ideas I've held more or less intuitively. As it turned out, it also set the tone for the entire conference.

To start with the obvious: all learning begins as sensory input (aural, visual, etc.). The important implication is that educational facilities should be designed to maximize the quality of that input.

Audio: in a typical classroom, a student will hear only about 75% of what the instructor says. (Imagine reading a book with every fourth word redacted. Then imagine taking a test on it.) Of course, this will vary considerably depending on the teacher, the student, where the student sits, and the acoustical qualities of the room.  Facilities’ design - including room acoustics and quality voice amplification - can impact that last item significantly and largely overcome the previous three. The implications for foreign language instruction - an important 21st century competency - are obvious.

Natural and flexible lighting: research has demonstrated a "clear correlation between the availability of natural lighting and improvement in test scores." Natural lighting has also been shown to reduce stress (which inhibits learning). Flexibility and consideration for limiting glare are important, given the increasing use of classroom technology. Flexibility adds additional value because even modest variations in the physical learning environment help to stimulate the brain.

Discussions about air quality are often limited to concerns over air borne contaminants (mold, etc.), but it is more than that. Outside air acts as a brain stimulant, and adequate (but quiet) air circulation keeps the oxygen/CO2 level at a proper balance. This may also seem obvious, but it's often overlooked: high carbon dioxide levels put people to sleep. One idea I had not heard before: displacement ventilation. Air flow that enters at the floor level and exits through the ceiling is far more effective than traditional ceiling input/exhaust systems.

To be continued..