Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Old new-fangled skills

An organization dedicated to "infusing 21st century skills into education" commissioned a poll that had the vast majority of voters clamoring for supposedly new-fangled skills:

The national poll was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and Peter D. Hart Research Associates on behalf of the Partnership for 21stCentury Skills.

Among the other key findings:

• Eighty-eight percent of voters say they believe that schools can and should incorporate 21st century skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving skills, computer and technology skills, and communication and self-direction skills into their curriculum.

I could swear I heard these skills, particularly critical thinking and problem-solving skills, being bandied about for the better part of the 20th century, which led me to believe they are 20th century skills. Apparently, I was in error.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It'd be tickling--maybe frightening?--to trace the history of those skills, no? O.K. I'm not up for the research.

However, I'm going to put up a poll on Teach Effectively about different types of thinking skills. I need to keep my tongue in the proper cheek. Let's think critically now: Would that be the left of right cheek?