Wednesday, May 14, 2014

7 Skills Students need for the future

Dr. Tony Wagner, co-director of Harvard's Change Leadership Group 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

http://youtu.be/NS2PqTTxFFc

He defines the "Global learning gap" 

Are we just teaching student's how to take test and promote memorization for test
 The millennium generation are differently motivated!

- They are tethered to the internet - Where having a bad day is having a slow internet connection.

THEY ARE USING THE INTERNET TO
- to socialize and extend friendships and learn from each other
- self directed exploratory learning
- tool for self expression- upload video, blogs, photos etc

Outside of school they are constantly connected-collaborative-creative- multi tasked and motivated.  Inside school their content is delivered through lectures and handouts. The traditional strategy of "sit and get" only engages  5% of their brains.

They have a different attitude toward authority - less fear and respect for adult authority-learn more form friends-  they crave coaching and mentoring from adults who do not talk down to them or talk at them -but engage them with a more mutual bases.

They need to make a difference- and intolerant of busy work.

How do we change?


1. Hold ourselves accountable for what matters most
-- College and work readiness assessment assesses - 4 skills - reading, writing, analytical reasoning, and critical thinking
 --Conduct  video taped focus groups- ask students and graduates "In what ways were you most and least prepared? "share  with faculty- incorporate the change

 2. Do the new work (The paradigm Shift) 
--  informational content is important but not enough
--  teach skills that matter most
--  use content to teach core competencies
--  identify how you are going to assess it

3. Do the work in new ways
-- Isolation is the enemy of improvement -- collaborate with other teachers other university to problem solve

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