Staff Development DayData to Inform Practice

(21 century skills and capabilities)

NSW Department of Education & Communities

NSW Public Schools – Leading the Way www.det.nsw.edu.au

Dr Max SmithSenior Manager

Student Engagement & Program Evaluation

Conjoint Professor

School of Education

University of Newcastle

18 July 2011

As the Japanese proverb so ably puts it:

None of us is as smart as all of us

We need to move out of our comfortable silos and draw on each and every human being’s talents and energies

Educators as future makers• Education is a largely future oriented enterprise • Amongst its purposes are preparing people to live well in

the future: preparing them as future citizens and as future workers

• But more than preparing learners for the future, education plays a significant part in constructing the future

• What and how young people learn in school and tertiary education today very much influences what the world will be like in the future

• Education, then, is a future making process • Educators are future makers

As for the future, your task is not to foresee but to enable …French writer and philosopher Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Assessment literacyAssessment literacy as a strategy involves developing the

capacity of teachers and principals collectively to:

1. Gather and access dependable student achievement data

2. Make critical sense of the meaning of the data

3. To develop school improvement action plans based on (1) and (2)4. Be effective players, proactive and open about the uses and abuses of

achievement data -- being engaged in public discussion with a range of stakeholders so that the rationales for decisions are transparent

Fullan et al (2001), Accomplishing Large Scale Reform: A Tri-Level Proposition, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Prepared for the Journal of Educational Change, November

http://www.hfrp.org/content/download/3809/104680/file/PolicyForumPaper-120710-FINAL.pdf

Affective and academic outcomes:

The virtuous circle• It is readily

recognised that positive social affect improves academic outcomes

• Recognising the link between academic success and social outcomes is less commonly discussed

SocialAffect

AcademicOutcomes

e.g. The effect of learning in science on quality of life

e.g. The effect of self-concept on examination grades

Reflection:Assessment in the middle years• Uses collaborative 21st rubrics. Students and teachers

collaborating to develop learning activities and assessment tasks and inclusive of 21st century skills

• Allows students to own their learning and see assessment as an integral part of this

• Features open ended tasks that allow relational and extended abstract levels of understanding to be displayed

• Engenders independence in learning• Promotes higher order thinking and creativity • Features open-ended, authentic tasks that allow relational

and conceptual (extended abstract) levels of understanding to be displayed

The Department’s commitment

• The Department of Education and Communities is committed to preparing people to live well in the future: preparing them as future citizens and as future workers

• The Department is concerned not only to develop basic skills in literacy and numeracy, important as they are, but also to develop in all students 21st century capabilities

Social/affective v’s academic outcomes

Social/affective outcomesLow High

Aca

dem

ic a

chie

vem

ent

Low

Hig

hHigh achievers

Low achievers

Alie

nate

d st

uden

ts

Bon

-viv

ants

Academic Press

(Geeks)

Sinking schools

(Students at risk)

Lighthouse schools

(Transcendents)

Underperforming Schools

(Social Butterfly)

Goal congruence

ESSA science against liking-for-science

School-level relationship

ESSA science against liking-for-science

Student-level relationship

A taxonomy of social outcomes

OUTCOME EXAMPLES VIEW OF THE SOCIAL

Affective/attitudinal Pro-social values &behaviours

Feelings and beliefs Meta-cognitive

competencies

Psychological Individual skills &

attitudes Perceptions of self

and others

Social competencies Acceptable values,attitudes norms

Social skills (groupwork, problem solving,support for others)

Social practiceperspective

Institutional indicators Attendance rates Exam results

Rationalist Aggregated

Observed school andclassroomenvironment

Playground behaviour

Classroommanagement

Socialinteractionist

Ethnographic

Ainley, J., Batten, M., Collins, C. & Withers, G. (1998). (TBC)Schools and the Social Development of Young Australians. Melbourne: ACER.

Challenges of the 21st centuryFive challenges stand out and are often discussed in the literature: 1.Social challenges - vitality of our democratic society2.Economic challenges - such as preparing our students for employment in jobs that do not yet exist, creating ideas and solutions for products and problems that have not yet been identified, using technologies that have not yet been invented3.Technological challenges - such as preparing ourselves for the increasing power of, and dependence on, science and technology; information overload; and increasing global integration4.Health challenges - maintaining and improving our physical and mental health5.Ecological challenges - finding ways to live and work that are less harmful to living systems

21st century capabilities #1

The ability to think well including abilities to:

•think critically, that is examine, reflect, argue and debate

•think deeply and logically

•solve problems in ways that draw upon a range of learning areas and disciplines

•be creative, innovative and resourceful

21st century capabilities #2

The ability to live well including the abilities to:

•manage one’s emotional, mental, spiritual and physical wellbeing

•relate well to others and form and maintain healthy relationships

•have concern for the lives of other living beings

http://www.p21.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=119

Microsoft ITL research project• The ITL pilot showed that when educators develop

learning activities that require 21st century skills, students demonstrate them

• Howev4er, only 10% of assessment activities incorporated any 21 century competencies

• And more than 50% of learning activities scored the lowest possible score, suggesting that many educators are only in the early stages of teaching these skills

• Showed that educators need clear definitions of these skills, examples of how to develop them through teaching and learning, and a way to measure their success

Announced in January 2011http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2011/jan11/01-09workskillspr.mspx

The REAL FrameworkReflective Engagement (for) Authentic Learning

Three Dimensions

Four Levels

Affective responses to learningvaluing & enjoying

Cognitiveintellectual qualitydeep understand.

Operativelearning exp.towards success

Conceptual

Relational

Multidimensional

Unidimensional

Five probes

Geoff Munns et al.The Fair Go Project

Munns, G. & Woodward, H. (2005) Pen 155. Primary English Teachers Association

Questions about 21st century capabilities• What exactly are the 21st Century Capabilities?

• How can they be assessed? Pencil and paper/ tick a box tests do not seem sufficient?

• How are 21st Century capabilities best learned? How can teachers best support students in cultivating 21st Century capabilities?

• Assuming 21st century skills can and should be taught within the traditional disciplines, are they different from one discipline to another?

• What are the implications for teacher education and professional learning of the imperative of 21st Century capabilities for all?

• How can we validly and reliably evaluate education system’s efficacy in developing students’ 21st century skills?

• How do we build the capacity of systems to develop 21st century skills?

Reflection:Assessment of 21 century competencies

The Whole Mind

Dan Pink in his book reminds us that the future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind:

• creators and empathizers• pattern recognisers and meaning makers• artists• inventors• caregivers• consolers• big picture thinkers

The goal will be to invent a job, not find a job … a form of social entrepreneurshipBased on:

Confidence Build individualFriendships strengths

basedRisk taking education withPassion a strong global Unique ideas orientationMotivationInnovation

The diligent (righteous) gardener

Professor Yong Zhao, Presidential Chair and Assoc. Dean for Global EducationCollege of Education, University of Oregon

The stone age didn’t end

because they ran out of stones