Innovating Education for the 21st Century: Skills for Students Today

1. Learning to Innovate, Innovating to Learn Tony Wagner, Ed.D. Innovation Education Fellow Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard tony_wagner@harvard.edu www.tonywagner.com

2. “The formulation of the problem is often more essential than the solution.”Einstein

3. The New Educational Challenges • NEW SKILLS for Work, Continuous Learning & Citizenship in a “knowledge society” for ALL STUDENTS • Convergence of skills needed for careers, college, citizenship in the 21st c • Students lacking skills relegated to marginal employment & citizenship • The only people whose jobs cannot be automated or off-shored in a “hyper connected” world are the innovators • The “Net Generation” is differently motivated to learn • Boredom is the leading cause of low achievement & student dropouts; boys, in particular…

4. The Seven Survival Skills for Careers, College, And Citizenship • Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving • Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence • Agility and Adaptability • Initiative and Entrepreneurialism • Effective Oral and Written Communication • Accessing and Analyzing Information • Curiosity and Imagination

5. Implications for “Reinvention” From An Information-based Learning System Focus on “Timeless Learning” (academic content that has persisted over time); content is a glutted commodity—low value in the classroom To A Transformation-based Learning System Focus on using content to master the competencies of “Just-in-Time Learning”, or experience over content

6. The Culture of Learning versusThe Culture of Innovation • Individual Achievement versus Collaboration • Specialization versus Multi-disciplinary Learning • Risk Avoidance versus Trial and Error • Consuming versus Creating • Extrinsic versus Intrinsic Motivation • Play, Passion, and Purpose

7. Redefining Rigor: 5 “Habits of Mind” Learning to Ask The Right Questions • Weighing Evidence • How do we know what’s true and false? What is the evidence, and is it credible? • Awareness of Varying Viewpoints • What viewpoint are we hearing? Who is the author, and what are his or her intentions? How might it look to someone with a different history? • Seeing Connections/Cause & Effect • Is there a pattern? How are things connected? Where have we seen this before? • Speculating on Possibilities/Conjecture • What if? Supposing that? Can we imagine alternatives? • Assessing Value—Both Socially and Personally • What difference does it make? Who cares? So what? From www.missionhillschool.org

8. Questions Parents Might Want To Ask: • To your child: What do you want to explore? What are you curious about? What are you passionate about? • To your child’s teachers: What skills are you teaching, and how are you assessing them? • To the school: • What are you doing to improve instruction, and how do you know it is working? • How well are your graduates prepared for college and careers, and how do you know?

9. “Evidence-driven” Continuous Improvement:Some Questions for Teachers & Administrators To Consider • What skills are you teaching, and how are you assessing them? • What is the school doing to systematically improve instruction, and how do you know it’s working? Are you a better teacher than 2 years ago—if so, in what ways, and how do you know? • How well are your students prepared for college, careers, and citizenship, and how do you know? • Is your school “adding value?” How do you know?

10. Redefining Educational Excellence:Accountability • Hold Ourselves Accountable for What Matters Most • Use The College and Work Readiness Assessment to assess analytic reasoning, critical thinking, problem-solving, and writing (www.cae.org) • Videotape focus groups with recent grads & survey students (High School Survey of Student Engagement) http://ceep.indiana.edu/hssse/index.htm

11. Redefining Educational Excellence:Academics • Doing the New Work: teaching & assessing the skills that matter most • Develop strategies for teaching & assessing the 3 C’s: Critical/Creative Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration—in every class and at all grade levels • Pilot interdisciplinary courses around essential questions and capstone projects for 5th, 8th, and 12th projects. • Require all students to have digital portfolios, work internships, and service learning projects

12. Redefining Educational Excellence:Collaboration & Transparency • Doing the New Work in New Ways “Isolation is the enemy of improvement” • Every teacher on teams for collaborative inquiry—looking at student & peer work • Transparency in information exchange • Videotape teaching & supervision (lesson study vs. evaluation) • Peer-reviewed digital portfolios for teachers & leaders

13. Coming to a Bookstore or Kindle near you…

14. And More Still . . .