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=﻿21st Century Task Force=



Workforce trends
1. Automation 2. Globalization 3. Demographic Changes 4. Workplace Changes 5. Personal Responsibility

=﻿Webinars= 1.Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century School District - An overview of what one district is doing at the primary and secondary levels. A good introduction to a model similar to Coppel model. Glad to know I am not the only one struggling with identifying how much time a project is going to take. []

Discriptions of 21st Century Education
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Opposing Views on 21st Century Education
**I. The Critique of 21st Century Skills **

[|"Backers of '21st-Century Skills' Take Flak,"] March 4, 2009, Education Week

[|Motives of 21st-Century-Skills Group Questioned] Critics charge that the Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a veiled attempt by technology companies to gain more influence over the classroom. Education Week

[|Common Core - News | The Cognitive Science of Skills and Learning] Daniel T. Willingham. Let me begin by saying that I think the goals set by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (hereafter, P21) are for the most part ... [|www.commoncore.org/pressrelease-03.php]

[|Critical thinking? You need knowledge], By [|Diane Ravitch], Boston Globe Op-Ed, September 15, 2009 In an editorial in The Boston Globe, education professor Diane Ravitch of New York University writes that our drive for "21st century skills" has sidelined a knowledge-based curriculum, even though "skill-centered, knowledge-free education has never worked." Skills-based learning has been propagated in one guise or another throughout the 20th century, Ravitch says, and in every instance, failed. Yet its philosophical impact has been substantial: "[supporters] inserted into American education a deeply ingrained suspicion of academic studies and subject matter," Ravitch argues. "But we have ignored what matters most. We have neglected to teach [students and teachers] that one cannot think critically without quite a lot of knowledge to think about." Thinking critically, she says, involves comparing, contrasting, and synthesizing what one has learned. What matters most is our capacity to see beyond our own immediate experience. "The intelligent person, the one who truly is a practitioner of critical thinking, has the capacity to understand the lessons of history, to grasp the inner logic of science and mathematics, and to realize the meaning of philosophical debates by studying them." Without a love of knowledge and learning, we cannot expect anyone to use his or her mind well.

Rebutals to Critics of 21st Century Educations
II. The best replies to the critics:

[|Our 21st-Century 'Risk'. Teaching for Content and Skills], By Richard H. Hersh, Education Week, April 22, 2009. Article Tools.

[|21st-Century Skills: Evidence, Relevance, and Effectiveness?], By Scott Aronowitz, the Journal, April 8, 2010

[|A Well-Rounded Education for a Flat World], By Richard H. Hersh, Educational Leadership (subscription needed), September 2009 ... profoundly engaging, and authentic educational experiences that produce lifelong learners. ...

Finally some sense about 21st century skills, by Jay Mathews, Washington Post, [|Part 1--][|the Jerald report], December 4, 2009. [|Part 2, the Wagner Book], December 11, 2009. [|Part 3, the Wagner Dialogue], December 18, 2009.

III. Also you can find several articles pro and con in a special issue of Educational Leadership (subscription needed), [|Teaching for the 21st Century], September 2009

Links to resources for Project Based Learning
Buck Institute []

Bob Pearlman []

Edutopia []

Links to other schools missions statements
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