Equipping ourselves for the 21st century

Andreina España

Think about the last time you worked in a group…

What was your role?

How did it go?

Think about a problem you had at work recently…

How did you solve it?

Tradition and innovation

• Chomsky: Linguistic competence• Hymes: Communicative competence

• Professional development and professional competencies

• J. Delois and UNESCO and the 4 four pillars of education

4 pillars of education

Learning to know: learning tools Learning to do: preparing for the

future Learning to live together: discovery

and involvement Learning to be: complete fulfillment

The Framework

The framework combines Core Subjects with 21st century topics such as global awareness and civic literacy and with the development of the skills:

Learning and innovation skills Information, media and

technology skills Life and career skills

http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/

21st century skills Learning and innovation: Creativity and

innovation, Critical thinking and problem solving, Communication and collaboration

Information, Media and technology skills: Information literacy, Media literacy, ICT literacy

Life and career skills: Flexibility and adaptability, Initiative and self-direction, Social and Cross-cultural skills, Leadership and responsibility

21st century skills = soft skills = competencies = transferable skills = life skills

Jonnaert, 2002

• learning should be functional and practical.• emphasis should be on know-how / can-do

versus just learning / knowing. • there should be reflection and self-evaluation.• there must be a systematic approach.• they should be placed in situations and case

studies, not de-contextualized.

To develop life skills…

What do you associate with the term

‘skills’

Language skills

Reading / Listening / Speaking / Writing

Task-related skills

completing cloze passages / matching / doing multiple-choice questions / etc

What ‘skills’ do students acquire in the language classroom?

Language learning skills

applying learned rules / working rules out from context / understanding vocabulary from context / etc

What ‘skills’ are required outside the classroom?

Percentage of employers rating as important, according to a recent survey:

The right academic qualifications

The ability to appreciate an alternative point of view

Communication and the ability to work in teams

The ability to grasp complex information

27%

42%

62%

68%

Source: GRADdirect, 2008

Employers who feel that graduates lack ‘soft skills’, including the ability to communicate effectively 55%

Also highlighted as concerns are an employee’s ability to:

manage their own learning

solve problems

be motivated

Graduate Recruitment Survey 2008, Association of Graduate RecruitersGraduate Recruitment Survey 2008, Association of Graduate Recruiters

• reaching a compromise

• being assertive

• time-management

• thinking creatively

• understanding statistics

• persuading others

• identifying resources

• preparing presentations

• being self-aware

• establishing priorities

Some typical life skills

How can we go about teaching these life skills?

1 Categorize the skills to ensure a balanced, systematic approach and to aid development

2 Focus on individual skills in meaningful, motivating ways

• reaching a compromise• being assertive• time-management• thinking creatively• understanding statistics• persuading others• identifying resources• preparing presentations• being self-aware• establishing priorities

Categories

Organization and planning skills

Collaboration skills

Information and research skills

Thinking and problem-solving skills

Self-direction and learning skills

Organization and planning skills• time-management• preparing presentations

Thinking and problem-solving skills• thinking creatively• establishing priorities

Self-direction and learning skills• being assertive• being self-aware

Information and research skills• identifying resources• understanding statistics

Collaboration skills• reaching a compromise• persuading others

How can we go about teaching these life skills?

1 Categorize the skills to ensure a balanced approach and to aid development

2 Focus on individual skills in meaningful, motivating ways

target skill: thinking creatively

• understand the problem

• open your mind and be creative

• identify the best solution

(the ability to think in new, innovative ways; thinking ‘outside the box’)

Hi, guys.

As you know, the C-600 has been on the market for some time now. I think we should start thinking about the features for our next cellphone, the C-710 – apart from a camera and text messaging, of course! I want to hear what ideas you have. Have a meeting and see what you can think of. Then we can get together and discuss it.

Good luck, and be creative! Remember – even crazy ideas might work!

Gillian EdgarProduct Manager

To: Product design team

Subject: New product features

Technique: ‘random word’

Open a book at random at any page. Pick a word from that page (nouns work best). Focus on that word and use it to inspire ideas.

Apply your creative thinking to the real world. Think about the features you have come up with and answer these questions. Then choose three features you want to keep.

Which features will:…everyone be interested in?…people use most often?…probably be too expensive or impractical?…people use only rarely?

Features to keep:

___________________________________

___________________________________

___________________________________

• Students generally acquire certain types of skill in the language classroom.

• Although important skills, they are not necessarily the ones that give students most flexibility in their future careers or the ones that employers value most highly.

• Students also need to develop their life skills.

• We can aid that development through a systematic approach.

• We should aim to provide clear focus on individual life skills in meaningful, motivating contexts.

• Our students can develop both their English-language skills and their life skills at the same time.

Summary

Equipping ourselves…

Andreina EspañaPublisher, México

aespana@grupomacmillan.com