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by Cong. Raymond V. PalatinoJuly 18th, 2012
Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century
A "who's who" team of experts from the National Academies' division of behavioral and social sciences and education and its boards on testing and on science education collaborated for more than a year on the report, intended to define just what researchers, educators, and policymakers mean when they talk about "deeper learning" and "21st-century skills."
- Cognitive skills, such as critical thinking and analytic reasoning;
- Interpersonal skills, such as teamwork and complex communication; and
- Intrapersonal skills, such as resiliency and conscientiousness (the latter of which has also been strongly associated with good career earnings and healthy lifestyles).
Americans have long recognized that investments in public education contribute to the common good, enhancing national prosperity and supporting stable families, neighborhoods, and communities. Education is even more critical today, in the face of economic, environmental, and social challenges. Today's children can meet future challenges if their schooling and informal learning activities prepare them for adult roles as citizens, employees, managers, parents, volunteers, and entrepreneurs. To achieve their full potential as adults, young people need to develop a range of skills and knowledge that facilitate mastery and application of English, mathematics, and other school subjects. At the same time, business and political leaders are increasingly asking schools to develop skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and self-management - often referred to as "21st century skills."
Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century describes this important set of key skills that increase deeper learning, college and career readiness, student-centered learning, and higher order thinking. These labels include both cognitive and non-cognitive skills- such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, effective communication, motivation, persistence, and learning to learn. 21st century skills also include creativity, innovation, and ethics that are important to later success and may be developed in formal or informal learning environments.
This report also describes how these skills relate to each other and to more traditional academic skills and content in the key disciplines of reading, mathematics, and science. Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century summarizes the findings of the research that investigates the importance of such skills to success in education, work, and other areas of adult responsibility and that demonstrates the importance of developing these skills in K-16 education. In this report, features related to learning these skills are identified, which include teacher professional development, curriculum, assessment, after-school and out-of-school programs, and informal learning centers such as exhibits and museums._________________________________________________________________________________
It is therefore clear that, while the description of 21st Century Skills by the National Academies of the United States emphasizes critical and deep thinking, DepEd's K to 12, sadly, as related by Congressman Palatino, focuses on matters other than cognitive abilities. Congressman Palatino is correct. People should examine closely the DepEd's K to 12 curriculum. People should not stop at the sound bites being used by proponents of DepEd's K to 12. DepEd's K to 12 curriculum is not good. It lacks depth and it is far from equipping the students with transferable knowledge and skills in the 21st century. Its spiral approach and poor instruction of science prove that the sound bites DepEd uses do not really correspond to the reality of its curriculum.
DepEd's K to 12 will be exhibited in shopping malls, but you will not find this curriculum in any peer-reviewed scientific education journal.