The US-based Partnership for 21st Century Skills group have just released their latest map called “21st Century Skills and English“. The framework, which was developed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and NCTE, demonstrates how the integration of 21st century skills into English curriculum supports teaching and learning and prepares students to become effective and productive citizens in the 21st century. It contains teacher-created models of how 21st Century Skills can be infused into English classes – and contains a sections on creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving which I found interesting. There are also separate sections on information literacy, ICT literacy and media literacy, and I was pleased to note the prominence of understanding ethical and legal issues surrounding the access and use of information appearing as a key outcome in the Information Literacy strand.
This document is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in how the concept of 21st Century Skills may be applied within the English curriculum – although developed for the US context, the key strands and ideas are universally transferable, and the fact that it has been developed through consultation with so many practising teachers adds credibility to the examples provided.
As an addition to the above, today on Twitter Jo McLeay drew my attention to an English Classroom Support Wiki that contains some useful links to ideas and examples of the use of ICT in English – the Slideshow on the opening page is worth a browse.
I am a teacher and associated with the Character education programs in many schools of Texas. I always have the issue that why not Govt include character education programs in all levels of school and K12 education. This will give us power full charactered professionals in future.
Any ways u share a very informative document. Nice post
Hi Character Education
You raise an important issue here, and one that continually vexes most educators and education systems. In New Zealand there is a great deal of emphasis in schools on the identification of school values, and endeavours to ensure that these are reflected in all aspects of school life. The key issue here is that values, like character can only be taught about. For these qualities to be developed within the individuals they must be modeled at every level in the way the school operates, and explicitly reinforced.