Saturday, May 29, 2010

tony wagner on 7 skills














what great insight from - would you hire your own kids... 7 skills schools should be teaching them.

1. critical thinking and problem solving - the challenge is this: how do you do things that haven’t been done before, where you have to re-think or think anew, or break set in a fundamental way—it’s not incremental improvement anymore. That just won’t cut it.

2. collaboration across networks and leading by influence - the ability to influence vs direct and command

3. agility and adaptability -  I can guarantee the job I hire someone to do will change or may not exist in the future, so this is why adaptability and learning skills are more important than technical skills.”

4. initiative and entrepreneurialism -  One of the problems of a large company is risk aversion

5. effective oral and written communication - not necessarily grammar, punctuation, or spelling—the things we spend so much time teaching and testing in our schools...  complaints heard most frequently were more about fuzzy thinking and young people not knowing how to write with a real voice.  {via fried's rework - writing is deciding trait when hiring and also skill most need to unlearn from schooling}

6. accessing and analyzing info - not just the shear quantity of info - but how rapidly and constantly the information is changing.

7. curiosity and imagination - engaged, interested in the world, inquisitive


after sharing insight from observing ap classes - he writes:
Even in our best schools, we are teaching kids to memorize much more than to think. And in the 21st century, mere memorization won’t get you very far. There’s too much information, and it’s changing and growing exponentially. Besides, most of the information we need is readily available on the nearest computer or PDA screen—provided we know how to access and analyze it. Where in the 20th century, rigor meant mastering more—and more complex—academic content, 21st century rigor is about creating new knowledge and applying what you know to new problems and situations.

The Seven Survival Skills can and must be tested through a combination of locally developed assessments and new nationally-normed, online tests such as the College and Work Readiness Assessment, which measures students’ analytic reasoning, critical thinking, problem-solving, and writing skills.


thank you for directing me to this post.. Adam Burk @pushingupward from  Cooperative Catalyst...


also just reading The Real Time Web and k-12 Ed - how school should be..

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