Assessment & Teaching of 21st Century Skills

As we started researching 21st Century Assessment and Learning Environments, we discovered this organization (Assessment & Teaching of 21st Century Skills). The six founding country-members include:

• Australia
• Finland
• Portugal
• Singapore
• United Kingdom
• United States of America

The organization aim is to create clear, operational definitions of 21st Century skills, assist in creating assessments of such skills, and provide classroom-based strategies for teaching these skills. The project was designed by personnel representing Cisco, Intel, and Microsoft and is housed at the University of Melbourne.

Of particular interest to us were the white papers they have created over the past year. They include: 21st Century Skills, Methodological Issues, Technological Issues, Classroom Learning Environments and Formative Evaluation, and Policy Frameworks for New Assessments. I must admit that I have only started to read these papers; however, from what I have read, they provide compelling arguments for re-creating our learning environments so that the curricula and structure of the schools meets the needs of preparing students for the 21st Century.

A couple key terms we read include: knowledge creating environments, constructivist (as well as inquiry-based, project based learning, discovery learning, etc.).

21st Century Assessments

A century ago, philosopher John Dewey advocated for an education system which would do more than teaching the basic core academic subjects. In the past two decades, several United States government commissions have recalled this notion as they have issued reports with the underlying theme of global economic competition. One such example, the New Commission on Skills of the American Workforce’s report of 2006, sends the message that basic skills are necessary but not sufficient (Silva, 2008). As a result of reports such as this one, schools around the country are calling for implementation of what is considered to be ‘must have’ skills for students. These 21^st century skills as they have come to be known, emphasize what students can do with knowledge, rather than what units of knowledge they have (Silva, 2008).

Similar to many states across the country, the North Carolina State Board of Education has set forth goals outlining the school’s role to ensure 21^st century skills are included in productive learning environments. Specifically, the SBE states:

NC Public Schools Will Be Led By 21st Century Professionals

ü Every teacher and administrator will use a 21st Century assessment system to inform instruction and measure 21^st Century knowledge, skills, performance and dispositions.

NC Public Schools Will Produce Globally Competitive Students

ü Every student’s achievement is measured with an assessment system that informs instruction and evaluates knowledge, skills, performance and dispositions needed

in the 21st Century.

The problem, however, is the assessment system currently being used by the state measures only whether students’ possess a specific piece of knowledge. It does not measure whether students can analyze the information, evaluates its use, or create new knowledge from it (Silva, 2008).

Students today are becoming increasingly more technologically proficient outside of the classroom. As a result, schools are beginning to integrate technology both inside and outside of the classroom to capitalize on 21^st century skill implementation opportunities. Some states are beginning to use technology to adapt to student evaluation (Tucker, 2009). Unfortunately, it seems as if North Carolina is using technology to create a computerized version of the same pencil paper tests currently being used.

Tucker argues that technology has the potential to do more than just make the current testing approach more efficient. There are several new research projects to demonstrate how information technology can assess new skills and concepts more comprehensively (Tucker, 2009). These assessments use multiple forms of media that allow students to use visual and graphic representations for educators to examine students’ ability to solve problems. This, in turn, helps teachers to better understand a student’s cognitive ability and design instruction needed for that student to move forward (Tucker, 2009). Rationales, examples and detailed explanations of these models and other models can be found by visiting:

http://www.slideshare.net/teachandlearn/assessment-in-the-21stcentury-classroom-presentation

http://www.educationsector.org/research/research_show.htm?doc_id=716323

http://www.p21.org/documents/Assessment092806.pdf

Classroom teachers can employ assessments of 21^st century skills by veering away from the traditional pencil paper recall of information assessments and utilizing more performance based assessments. These types of assessments use the work of researchers such as Marzano, Kendall and Bloom. Educator blogs supporting 21^st century assessment systems can be found at:

http://www.edutopia.org/reinvent-assessment-21st-century

http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/21st-century-skills-assessment

Teachers who have access to various types of technologies may find those to be beneficial assessment tools. The following links may be of use:

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/edtools.html

http://web20guru.wikispaces.com/Web+2.0+Resources

Resources:

Silva, E. (2008). Measuring skills for the 21^st century. Retrieved from

http://www.educationsector.org/research/research_show.htm?doc_id=716323

Tucker, B. (2009). Beyond the bubble: Technology and the future of student assessment.

Retrieved from http://www.educationsector.org/research/research_show.htm?doc_id=716323