According to the United States National Education Association, there are essential 21st-century skills every kid should learn, and they are, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, and Critical thinking. These skills help us succeed in today’s world, and be relevant in the marketplace.
Apart from kids that have intentional parents, who go to lengths to ensure their children learn these things, the majority of the children are left at the mercy of schooling to pick these things.
There’s no surprise that upon graduation, people still go for extra training by their company or involve themselves in self-directed training programs, to make them competent for today’s workplace. The traditional education system was designed to serve a society that no longer exists, the predominantly agrarian and manufacturing society. In this age where the biggest corporations are data-based, the set of skills needed to function in that kind of world are these skills we have mentioned. Unfortunately, the traditional educational curriculum wasn’t well designed to produce these skills.
However, increasing demands from parents and bodies, who are aware of these existing realities, have made it expedient for teachers and educational administrators to intentionally design their classes to have these skills, and a high-performing teacher has these things in the classroom.
According to a 2010 study — by the American Management Association, called the AMA 2010 Critical Skills Survey — the “Four Cs” will become even more important to organizations in the future. Three out of four (75.7 percent) executives who responded to the AMA survey said they believe these skills and competencies will become more important to their organizations in the next three to five years, particularly as the economy improves and organizations look to grow in a global marketplace.
How does a teacher set up their classroom to be an equipping one?
Collaboration. Teamwork is a very important skill in today’s world. There are times when you need to be on your own, but there are times when you need to work and tolerate each. Organizations want employees to be team players so that they can able to think beyond themselves and their gains to the context of the organization’s broader goals. Traditional schooling has a system of examination where collaborating can be termed exam malpractice. It is important to share the tests, the class works and examinations to have the ones that will assess the children in groups, and the ones that will assess them individually.
Students can be taught how to use mathematics to solve problems and then divided into teams to carry out a task, like solving a crime or predicting the weather, using mathematical models and formulas.
More examples of collaboration will be seen in communication.
Communication. The ability to express intents and motives clearly, without any conflict is a vital skill in the workplace. Communication Skills are varied, from making simple requests to the ability to negotiate to being able to manage and resolve conflicts. Simple things a teacher can do to help the kids build these skills include debates, setting guidelines on how to make requests, teaching them how to resolve conflicts by modeling to them, etc. Let’s choose this scenario where a difficult kid refuses to engage in class work. And when the teacher asked to know what was wrong, the kid just blurted out that he hates school and hates everyone. The typical response would be to tell the kid to come and face the music or to move to the principal’s office for discipline. However, a 21st-century m compliant teacher would not react to the student, but rather look beyond the actions to know what is really bothering the student. It could go like this,
“I can see that you are not okay with the classwork, tell me, what is the actual problem, what you find difficult, so that I’ll know how to help you.”
The kid can reply, “I really don’t like maps, I get confused with all the numbers I have to memorize to get this right.”
Teacher: “Do you think if we help you with the numbers you can cope?”
Kid: “Well, maybe, I think?”
Teacher: “Okay, we will be doing that. But first of all, I would love you to say to the class that you’re sorry.”
Kid: (mutters under his breath) “I’m sorry.”
Teacher: You’ve done well. Maybe next time, you’ll politely raise your hand and ask for help so that you’ll be helped. Is that okay?”
Kid: Yes.
The dialogue, which can go a different way from the illustration, is focused on looking beyond the child’s action to what the problem is, and then guiding the child to know how to solve the problem. Children misbehave not because they are dare deviled, but because they are not equipped with the skills to solve the problems when they encounter them. When they are taught from childhood how to solve those problems rather than shouted at, we are intentionally raising a competent next generation.
Another part of communication taught to kids is the ability to express what you think in the form of writing, and this is not limited only to essays. A teacher can make a writer out of any topic in any subject.
For example, instead of asking the students to just define photosynthesis, you could tell them to make an argument on how photosynthesis is the process that is sustaining life. Or you can ask them to explain in a long-form essay what the fate of the food we eat is.
One challenge with the traditional schooling system is that our essays have many rules that don’t even apply in the real world. Some of the restrictions provided in the essays are ignored in many works of fiction. The ability of the teacher to know how to not overstep the rules but also allow the students to express themselves is key. Children should be encouraged to be able to find their voices and be able to argue existing norms, in that way, they’ll learn how to be assertive, persuasive, and even creative.
Children should also be encouraged to make presentations, and they can do this in groups, making collaboration work. Divide them into groups, then give them a topic to go and research. Let them present the topic while showing how the different responsibilities were shared. Also, make sure to shuffle the groups so that the brighter students are well distributed across the groups. Also, shuffle the group leaders so that leadership will be rotational.
Creativity and Innovation. In the age of fast-paced innovation and invention, creativity is a valuable skill that is required by companies. Despite it being very important, it cannot be measured or certified, however, its proof is in the result. Like every other skill, creativity isn’t offered as a course in the university but can be taught everywhere in different ways, and that includes children.
Creativity is the process of generating new ideas and process, that makes the existing ones better and more interesting. Human beings are easily bored with familiarity, and to keep getting their attention or to keep their interest, you need to be creative. It’s said that the human attention span reduces every time, and according to Microsoft, it’s now a mere eight seconds. Yet, people are kept on the screen for hours unending. This is because of creativity and the power of creators. Creators are bringing out new ideas, new sounds, new visuals, or retelling the ones we have known before in better ways to bring novelty to the human mind.
Creativity in music leads to a remix, which is always better or breathes new life into the original. Different genres of music came out when people thought to make the existing music more interesting.
In your classroom, you can make the children more creative by always asking them to find better ways to do what they are doing. In the Food and Nutrition class, you could ask them to find better ways to prepare yam other than what they are used to. You can make them find better ways to organize the classroom for some special classes. Creativity is always a function of trying out new things and fusing ideas, so be sure to expose your children to different options for a subject matter.
You can also ask students to find creative solutions to bullying in school and make a play about it.
Critical Thinking.
One of the most important things missing in our traditional basic schooling system is that we were not taught how to think, we were mainly taught to get facts, memorize them and give them out in examinations. This method is becoming obsolete as many of those facts we memorize are available to us at the click of a finger. In the age of AI, it’s becoming more useless to memorize facts. What matters more then, is the ability to reason with facts and make better decisions. This is called critical thinking or rational thinking, as some will prefer. This is the stuff of high executives, especially, the ability to think clearly even when under pressure and make accurate judgments.
We can adapt our classrooms to be a place for raising critical thinkers. The most common way to do this is to adopt a discussion-based approach to your subjects and topics. Instead of just giving them what is in the text or curriculum, lay out the topic, and ask students what they think about it. If they support it, ask them to give you points why they support it
You can also try and play the devil’s advocate as you discuss, by taking opposing sides and letting them sweat it out in proving their points. This will stretch their thinking, and also make them question things.
Finally, make them question things. Yes, let them know that it is their responsibility to ask questions and dispute things, even the ones that are very traditional. Let them ask for reasons why they will believe things.
This can be extreme though, as it can make them too skeptical, but the advantage is that it’ll raise children that can’t just be influenced by popular opinions or trends. In this age of social media, people can be swayed by fake news and news that aren’t fully true. Only critical thinkers have a level of immunity against such because they question everything, they test every spirit.
Making your classroom a place where students can be bold to dispute claims, even yours, will raise strong confident students who will be on course to change the world.
Conclusion.
These things aren’t easy to do. The reality is that not all teachers can do these, only the types who are ever learning and have the ability to adapt, and be humble to learn can do this. Some teachers are afraid of giving out power to children, so as not to be embarrassed. However, you get really powerful when you give out power to others. It’s in giving powers to others that your real strength is shown.
Do you think you can adapt these things in your class? Let’s hear other ways you can make these 4 Cs work in your classroom.
KC Umeh is a High-Performance consultant to Businesses, an Educational Consultant to Schools, and a highly sought Teachers’ coach. He uses the tools of psychology, philosophy, and building systems to produce outstanding, reproducible results. He is also a family life coach, that produces tools for building blossoming families, where individuals live in harmony and express themselves to their best potential.