21st Century Skills - The 4Cs

Learning and Innovation Skills - the 4Cs (for more info: 21st Century Skills)

1. Critical thinking
2. Creativity
3. Communication
4. Collaboration

I think I am fascinated with the 21st Century Skills because I did not learn in this fashion. When I was going to school in the 70s, these skills were almost not at all included in my learning. When I went back to the classroom in the 90s, as a teacher, I used these skills as an enrichment to the school experience. Now these skills are expected to be part of the learning for our students.

These skills change our expectations of students' learning. We do not want our students to read a book or listen to the teacher and repeat what we said. We want them to understand the big picture, make connections to their previous knowledge, discuss with their classmates and formulate their own schema of the new knowledge. There is also a major change in the expectation of the work that students produce. We expect every student to come up with a unique product using their preferred medium.

The teacher role needs to go through a shift from being the supplier of information to becoming a facilitator of learning. The teacher will not be giving the students the new knowledge but helping them to find resources, to ask good questions, and to formulate hypothesis and test them. And finally to communicate their findings in a clear and unique way.

Not an easy change, but definitely exciting!

Nihad Mourad