21st Century Assessments
Several years ago the Partnership for 21st Century Skills published a document that outlined what schools should be thinking about when preparing students for the 21st century. This past June, the organization published a second report, this time focusing on the assessment of those 21st century skills: The Assessment of 21st Century Skills: The Current Landscape.
Key dimensions of 21st century learning are outlined:
- 21st Century Content (Global Awareness, Financial, Economic and Business Literacy and Civic Literacy)
- Learning Skills (Information and Communication Skills, Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills, and Interpersonal & Self-Directional Skills)
- Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy.
The report states that in these areas, there is a lack of assessments and analyses focused on elements of 21st century learning. (5) New assessments must be developed!
But meeting the demands of the 21st century requires more than content knowledge. In order to provide both flexibility and security in an era characterized by constant change, 21st century students need “knowing how to learn” skills that enable them to acquire new knowledge and skills, connect new information to existing knowledge, analyze, develop habits of learning, and work with others to use information, which is why the Partnership has identified learning skills (information and communication skills, thinking and problem solving skills, and interpersonal and self-directional skills) as part of its 21st century education framework. (18)
How are schools addressing alternative assessments for the 21st century? A technology-rich, constructivist environment would seem to be conducive to what is being suggested. While the report focuses on common summative assessments, we also need to do much work in the area of developing formative assessments used in our technology-rich classrooms.
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