21st century skills our students need

“I’m calling on our nation’s governors and state education chiefs to develop standards and assessments that don’t simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test, but whether they possess 21^st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking and entrepreneurship and creativity.”- Barack Obama, President of the United States

Today’s students will enter a workforce that is vastly different from that of their parents. Increasingly, they must be able to: work in teams that are cross-functional and often global to solve complex and important problems that critically affect the world while responding creativity to rapidly changing business landscapes using rapidly evolving technologies. So, what are the skills our students need to deal in the 21^st century?

These skills are: critical thinking, team-work, creativity, cross-cultural understanding, technology, self-direction, communication, etc.

Global education is essential to students’ development of knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for future employment and for building successful relationships in an increasingly interconnected society. Incorporation technology in meaningful and authentic learning experiences with students in the classrooms allows us- teachers to foster students’ understandings of the interrelationships of peoples worldwide.

We, teachers have an important responsibility to prepare our students to function in and contribute to a global society.

Global awareness programs help us teachers to involve our students in different projects. Doing these projects enhances our students’ abilities to work collaboratively with their peers of diverse backgrounds, to understand and seek solutions to global issues and acquire 21^st century skills. Project learning is not just about memorizing facts. It’s about students applying what they learn to solve a complex problem. Students engage in active inquiry, exploring an issue from multiple perspectives, learning how to ask pertinent questions, gathering relevant information, and synthesizing a solution. Studies show that well-designed learning projects can lead to deeper subject matter understanding and to students who think more like experts in their field of study.

Teaching children about global issues and encouraging them to see the world through other eyes is of huge importance. In an increasingly interconnected world, today's young generation need to learn to be able to engage in communication with people from a wide range of different cultures and traditions.

Schools are increasingly finding ways to help students develop as global citizens. Our students have to know themselves and where they come from – and identity is always important – but we also should encourage them to look beyond their school and recognize the incredible opportunities that are created by diversity and the richness of culture that is across our planet.

Students nowadays have easy access to the world of information through the internet. However, they still need to be guided through the process of discovery so that a deeper understanding of their own place in the world is developed.

This is why fostering global awareness and international collaboration in our classrooms are so beneficial to our students.  We understand this and have traditionally encouraged the need to put learning into context.

Global awareness and international collaboration encourage our pupils to see things from different perspectives and help them make informed decisions, acquiring transferable skills that will be useful to them and will remain with them for life.