21st Century Learning Initiative

In November of 1999, John Abbott and Terence Ryan published an article in the journal Educational Leadership entitled Constructing Knowledge, Reconstructing Schooling. That article helped set a tone and a direction for significant changes is the approach to education.

The Goal

While there are a number of organizations and websites that focus on 21st Century Learning, perhaps the best statement of purpose for the 21st Century Learning Initiative has been published by an organization that bears that name. It can be found in the first paragraph as follows:

• The 21st Century Learning Initiative's essential purpose is to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning that draw upon a range of insights into the human brain, the functioning of human societies, and learning as a community-wide activity. We believe this will release human potential in ways that nurture and form local democratic communities worldwide, and will help reclaim and sustain a world supportive of human endeavor.

While the article by Abbott and Ryan was influential in the expansion of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, the movement actually dates back to 1983 and the establishment in Britain of a trust called Education 2000. Between 1995 and 1997, Education 2000 brought together a team of 60 researchers, educational practitioners, policy makers and academics in a series of six conferences in the U.S. Abbott and Ryan synthesized the work of those conferences in their book, The Unfinished Revolution.

Impact on the Classroom

From the perspective of school systems, 21st Century Learning has already made serious inroads into classroom activity. The emphasis on technology in education is perhaps the most obvious place where the influence of the ideas behind the 21st Century Learning Initiative can be seen. Access to technology and technology literacy in America is mandated by the No Child Left Behind law.

The 21st Century Learning Initiative stresses teaching life skills in the classroom. It is hard to imagine life today without computers and the Internet, without keyboards and word processors, without multimedia presentations and PowerPoint slides. Chalkboards and overhead projectors have been replaced with ELMOs and SmartBoards. The 21st Century Learning Initiative sees technology as essential to learning and as providing a link between the school classroom and the outside world.

The 21st Century Learning Initiative has also helped to create a focus on the skills required for independent learning. Students need to have information and communication skills. They need to develop thinking skills and the ability to solve problems. And they need interpersonal and self-directional skills that include social responsibility, the ability to work as part of a group, and the ability to be accountable to themselves and others. The growing use of collaborative learning approaches and of activities that promote higher level thinking skills over the traditional "memorize and regurgitate" approach can be attributed at least in part to the movement for 21st Century Learning.

The movement can also be thanked for a growing focus on content specific to the future. While 21st Century Learning continues the traditional emphasis on core content areas like math, science, reading, and social studies, it also promotes civic and financial literacy and a focus on global awareness.

Perhaps the strongest focus of 21st Century Learning has to do with the context of learning. The emphasis on connecting what is taught in the classroom to what happens outside of school is a major focus for 21st Century Learning.

The movement is expanding. And it is definitely here to stay. It is likely to continue to influence change in the classroom - and some of those changes will be profound.

Print Article

Email Article

View All Articles

How to subscribe to feeds