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If you teach in 2019, you have probably been told, “You must teach 21st century skills.” What are these highly coveted skills that students must learn in order to thrive in the 21st century and beyond? Are we creating a new generation of six-million dollar men and women--just because “we have the technology?” Most “21st century skills” literature discusses a need to prepare today’s youth for the world beyond school. The higher ed news website eCampusNews refers to these skills as “workforce skills.” Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association wrote that students must be competent in the 4 C’s-- “to compete in [a] global society.” The Common Core State Standards provide guidelines for reaching college and career readiness for all students. All three of these entities focus on life AFTER school AKA the end goal.
The Doodles crew--DDLS students--recently learned the second principle of design: the ends principle. Teachers apply the ends principle by designing learning with student outcomes in mind. Our job as teachers is to elevate our students to do and be better than when they entered our classrooms. The purpose of 21st century schools is to produce students who are: problem solvers, information users, community participants, knowledge users, literate, and ethical decision makers. You might say that students would be a real pickle in today’s world if they did not develop fluency in these skills.
Consider the case presented in J. Abner Peddiwell’s educational satire, The Saber-Tooth Curriculum. “Dr. Peddiwell,” also known as 20th century education figure Harold Benjamin, lectures about a paleolithic tribe that fails to develop a system of education that will ultimately lead to the betterment of its people. The system goes through many iterations but in the end lacks a clear vision for the purpose of education. A member of a rival tribe (on the other side of the mountain) remarks:
They do have something they call education, but it is just a collection of traditional activities, a machine which they worship for its own sake. The result is pitiful...They are forever blocked in attempts to better their lives by reason of having only mis-education, pseudo education, in place of real education.” (p. 135-136)
The tribe with pseudo-education “educates” its youth with the “degrading busyness” of rock play, relies on an oligarchical “board” of education, uses rare technology for the sake of using technology (e.g. using “rare” tigers in tiger-scaring exercises), and fails to change its paleolithic curriculum as the society changes. There is no ends principle in the minds of the paleolithic peoples; they stick to what is routine and reinvent the wheel any time the educational system needs to be shaken up a little bit.
The satirical situation of The Saber-Tooth Curriculum is unfortunately as much a reality in the 21st century as it was when it was first published in 1939. The culture of schools is one in which abstract pieces of knowledge are taught, learned, tested, and forgotten. Knowledge, at this point, is just one tool in a student’s toolbox. The Profile of a Virginia Graduate calls upon students to become “life ready individuals” and to gain experience in content knowledge, workplace skills, career exploration, community engagement, and civic responsibility. The purpose and end goal of 21st century education is to prepare students to be “future ready” for life beyond school.
Our job as teachers is to help students link what they are learning to what they are living through authentic learning opportunities. Instead of sticking to the status quo and teaching content that is no longer relevant, we must design a system of education with education’s #1 customer in mind: the student. We can prioritize empathizing with our students instead of implementing a teacher-centric system. We can be open to uncertainty and failure, as we traverse the unknowns of designing new educational opportunities. Perhaps we can even stop and enjoy a few daisies on the way.
Great Blog Caitlin, very insightful. As we discussed in class, education is always repeating itself wrapped in a new term. 21st century learner is the new "Buzz" word. When I began teaching the phrase was "Preparing them for the future" Wish I knew the difference..lol
ReplyDeleteThank you for a concise and thorough article summarizing The Ends Principle. I do agree that our job as teachers is to help students link the lessons to their life through authentic learning opportunities. This is a two-way process, teachers providing authentic learning opportunities and students buying-in into the process. Until we can rally the kids to join the fun, our efforts would not really make a difference.
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