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Seven Skills Students Need for Their Future
From the cover of Dr. Wagner's book, The Global Achievement Gap.
There are two major trends in the world that pose a fundamental challenge--and many opportunities--to our educational system. One is the world is shifting from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy. The other is the rising generation--brought up on the Internet--is very differently motivated to learn.
These two forces, argues Dr. Tony Wagner, co-director of Harvard's Change Leadership Group, compel us to reconceptualize education in this country. In his thoughtful analysis of future industry needs and education readiness studies, Dr. Wagner has identified what he calls a "global achievement gap," which is the leap between what even our best schools are teaching, and the must-have skills of the future:
- Critical thinking and problem-solving
- Collaboration across networks and leading by influence
- Agility and adaptability
- Initiative and entrepreneurialism
- Effective oral and written communication
- Accessing and analyzing information
- Curiosity and imagination
Dr. Wagner points out that in today’s digital age, the “Net generation” is, among other things, accustomed to instant gratification and use of the web for extending friendships, interest-driven, self-directed learning; and are constantly connected, creating, and multitasking in a multimedia world—everywhere except in school.
In order to motivate and teach this generation, the school system must be reinvented to be accountable for what matters most. That means to do the work--teaching, learning, and assessing--in new ways.
Students must acquire knowledge, but “we need to use content to teach core competencies,” he states.
To learn more about the seven skills, and how to reinvent the education system to prepare our graduates for the 21st century, please view the accompanying video and PowerPoint. This presentation is based on Dr. Wagner's book: From The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach The New Survival Skills Our Children Need—And What We Can Do About It (Basic Books, 2008). The program was made possible through the generous and visionary support of the MetLife Foundation.
Author: Heather Singmaster
Discussion question
At one point in his remarks, Dr. Wagner states that "we have no idea how to teach or assess these skills." It is difficult to do systemically, but good teachers exercise these skills in the classroom all the time. What are your approaches for student skill development? And how can we bring it to scale so all students can succeed in a global knowledge economy?
One thing we can do is stop the bleeding of school librarians! These instructors are at the forefront of inquiry based learning (and always have been)
Inquiry allows the student to become immersed in the details of a problem that allows them to focus and think carefully and creatively, testing and teasing out solutions that goes beyond information collection to information processing. I am a school librarian and have long been a proponent of walking along side students as they process through their information seeking, much like a mentor would an apprentice.
Recently the New Jersey Association of School Librarians engaged in a statewide research study: One Common Goal: Student Learning (study details can be found at:www.njasl.org)
What the study found is that student research capabilities and success are explicitly linked directly to collaborative inquiry-based instruction implemented through instructional teams, where the instructional role of the school librarian is key to helping develop deep knowledge and understanding, rather than that of information collection and skills of finding information. Part of the inquiry-centered approach to learning through the school library is modeling the inquiry process with teachers.
We find these principles very important, and it comes with a requirement that the school and the teacher learn to "let go" and allow the student to reclaim some independence in the learning process! At Tree of Life International School, we are studying how students can be guided through a core curriculum, but still be afforded the liberty necessary to get engaged and involved. It seems we need to relax the focus on the weekly plan, and increase the focus on the student's acquisition and demonstration of skills. We're looking to the result, not the process.
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