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21st Century Learning and Workforce Readiness

The Partnership for 21st Century Learning is one of the leaders in the effort to educate educators about 21st Century Skills. Some 21st Century skills include:

• Emphasize deep understanding rather than shallow knowledge
• Engage students with the real world data, tools, and experts they will encounter in college, on the job, and in life--students learn best when actively engaged in solving meaningful problems
• Enables innovative learning methods that integrate the use of supportive technologies, inquiry- and problem-based approaches and higher order thinking skills
• Create learning practices, human support and physical environments that will support the teaching and learning of 21st century skill outcomes

What do these have to do with students creating quality questions?

​You cannot, for example, learn the skills shown in the first three bullets above without asking quality questions.

Common Core

TPACK

Social Studies Standards and Frameworks

Choose the image that you most prefer. They both say the same using the SAMR Model. Where do you spend most of your time integrating technology into your classroom. Remember technology is a tool. Use the right tool at the right time while aiming for Modification and Redefinition of tasks.

​Students who use quality questions may start to use technology for modification and redefinition of tasks themselves.

The author of The Thinking Stick, Jeff Utecht, capture the essence of the 4 Cs through the thoughts posted here.

​It takes critical thinking and creativity to ask quality questions. Through communication and collaboration with peers, simple questions can become quality questions.