21st Century Skills: Rethinking How Students Learn

Winner of the 2011 Independent Book Publishers Association Benjamin Franklin Award

This anthology will introduce the Framework for 21st Century Learning from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills as a way to re-envision learning and prepare students for a rapidly evolving global and technological world. Highly respected education leaders and innovators focus on why these skills are necessary, which are most important, and how to best help schools include them in curriculum and instruction.

This book is part of The Leading Edge™ series.

Benefits:

• Obtain theories, strategies, and methods of change from a diverse group of leading researchers.
• Increase rigor by infusing 21st century skills into core subjects.
• Realize the importance of students mastering content and skills, moving beyond the old standards of memorized information.
• Nurture critical student skills such as ingenuity, agility, and adaptability.
• Teach students to apply and transform their knowledge for useful and creative purposes.

Contents:
Foreword: 21st Century Skill: Why They Matter, What They Are, and How We Get There
Introduction
Chapter 1: Five Minds for the Future
Chapter 2: New Policies for 21st Century Demands
Chapter 3: Comparing Frameworks for 21st Century Skills
Chapter 4: The Role of Professional Learning Communities in Advancing 21st Century Skills
Chapter 5: The Singapore Vision: Teach Less, Learn More
Chapter 6: Designing New Learning Environments to Support 21st Century Skills
Chapter 7: An Implementation Framework to Support 21st Century Skills
Chapter 8: Problem-Based Learning: The Foundation for 21st Century Skills
Chapter 9: Cooperative Learning and Conflict Resolution: Essential 21st Century Skills
Chapter 10: Preparing Students for Mastery of 21st Century Skills
Chapter 11: Innovation Through Technology
Chapter 12: Technology Rich, Information Poor
Chapter 13: Navigating Social Networks as Learning Tools
Chapter 14: A Framework for Assessing 21st Century Skills Agenda

Editors:

James A. Bellanca is nationally recognized as a practical 21st century skills and deeper learning innovator who provides educators with the how-to knowledge to make project- and problem-based learning ready to go on the next school day. He is a senior fellow with the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and editor of their innovative online P21Blogazine. He is the 2013 recipient of the Malcolm Knowles Award for lifetime contribution to the field of self-directed learning from the International Society for Self-Directed Learning.

With his extensive experience as a classroom English and language arts teacher, alternative school director, professional developer, intermediate service center director, business owner, and not-for-profit executive, Jim has developed expertise for transforming mandates, such as the Common Core State Standards, into practical classroom tools that enrich instruction and engage students.

He is executive director of the Illinois Consortium for 21st Century Schools and lead trainer for Mind Quest: Project-Based Learning in the 21st Century Classroom, which helps schools with large English learner populations and children of color/poverty adopt the Project-Based Learning model of instruction.

Jim has worked with educational leaders in Chicago, Los Angeles, Cleveland, New York, Illinois, West Virginia, New Jersey, Michigan, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, and Israel. His specialty is the application of group investigation and inquiry models of learning as the primary methods for assisting school leaders and teachers adopt 21st century models of instruction. His aim is to assist school districts to design, implement, and assess programs that promote 21st century skills to increase academic performance among all children, including high-risk student populations.

Ron Brandt, EdD, was editor of publications for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), Alexandria, Virginia, for almost twenty years before his retirement in 1997. During his career at ASCD, he was best known as executive editor of Educational Leadership magazine. In the 1980s, he promoted the teaching of thinking in elementary and secondary schools, collaborating with Robert Marzano and a team of other educators in development of a book, Dimensions of Thinking, and a related teacher training program, Dimensions of Learning. He is also the author or editor of numerous other publications. Before joining the staff of ASCD, he was a teacher and principal in Racine, Wisconsin; director of staff development in Minneapolis, Minnesota; and for eight years was associate superintendent of the Lincoln Public Schools in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Contributors:

John Barell, Linda Darling-Hammond, Chris Dede, Rebecca DuFour, Richard DuFour, Douglas Fisher, Robin J. Fogarty, Nancy Frey, Howard Gardner, Andy Hargreaves, David W. Johnson, Roger T. Johnson, Ken Kay, Cheryl Lemke, Jay McTighe, Alan November, Bob Pearlman, Brian M. Pete, Douglas Reeves, Will Richardson, and Elliott Seif.