ASSESSING CORE COMPETENCIES OF 21stCENTURY LEARNING
HOW TO USE THIS TOOL
This rubric should be used as a frame of reference to assess and explore the development of the competencies within the framework of lessons, unit plans, projects and class discussions. Users should be able to quickly and confidently review their lessons and establish competency areas that are being tapped into, within their lesson, and also identify areas that need to be further developed.
Quite simply, teachers will examine and place aspects of their lessons into the table below. Once all components of the lesson are placed into the chart, users can quickly determine which competencies are apparent within the lesson and which components can be enhanced.
Included within this document are:
- 21st Century Learner – Competency Graphic (see cover page)
- The Competencies Described
- Competency Table Template
- Competency Table Exemplar – with project description
- Brief Literature Review
THE CORE COMPETENCIES DEFINED[1]
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: Students have well-developed critical thinking skills to review, analyze and assess the validity and relevance of information coming from a variety of sources and points of view, and are able to apply higher-level cognitive and critical thinking skills and perspectives required within a variety of contexts.
Creativity and Innovation: Students recognize and engage in opportunities to be creative and innovative in personal and social life as much as at work. They are curious and open to new and diverse ideas, and appreciate the creative works of others. They value aesthetic expression and demonstrate initiative, imagination, spontaneity and ingenuity when engaging in a range of creative and innovative processes.
Social Responsibility and Cultural, Global and Environmental Awareness: Students are responsible citizens who contribute positively to the quality and sustainability of their environment, communities and society as a whole. They respect social, cultural, economic and environmental interconnectedness, and the rights and beliefs of others within local and global communities.
Communication: Students seek to understand and interpret the thoughts, ideas and emotions of others and express their own, clearly and effectively, in appropriate ways, for different audiences and for a variety of purposes within local and global communities.
Digital Literacy: Students make responsible, ethical and critical use of technology needed for a knowledge society, and explore the potential of new technology to communicate, learn, solve problems, make decisions, and create new knowledge in a variety of digital environments and media.
Lifelong Learning, Self-Direction and Personal Management: Students understand that learning is for life, and for personal fulfillment, active citizenship, and professional growth. They are aware of their talents and their passions, and use them to motivate their learning and to manage their strengths and areas in need of improvement.
Collaboration and Leadership: Students demonstrate leadership in their personal lives, at work and in their communities, building relationships, managing conflict and working in teams to achieve common goals.
COMPETENCY TABLE TEMPLATE
Lesson ComponentTaken directly from the reflections of the teacher / Lifelong Learning and Personal Management
Students understand that learning is for life, personal fulfillment, active citizenship and professional growth. / Collaboration and Leadership
Students demonstrate leadership, build relationships, manage conflict and work in teams. / Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Well-developed critical thinking skills to review analyze and assess information. / Creativity and Innovation
Students recognize and engage in opportunities to be creative and innovative.
COMPETENCY TABLE TEMPLATE, cont’d
Lesson ComponentTaken directly from the reflections of the teacher / Social responsibility, cultural, Global & environmental awareness
Students contribute to the quality and sustainability of their environment, respecting social, cultural, economic and environmental interconnectedness. / Communication
Seeks to understand and interpret thoughts ideas and emotions of others and effectively express themselves. / Digital literacy
Uses technology in a responsible, ethical and critical manner and explores new technology to communicate learn, solve problems and make decisions.
COMPETENCY EXEMPLAR: PROJECT DESCRIPTION
This sample was utilized in a Reggio inspired early learning classroom. The description is provided to give readers an understanding of how the template can be utilized and provide a framework to be reflective in teaching practices that foster development of the core competencies.
ROAR!
Roar was a project developed over a few days in a junior kindergarten classroom, where the end result was a book and a movie that the students enjoyed and shared with their families.
Background activities:These activities were built up over many days.
- Dress up clothes: One of the students asked me if I had any dress up clothes. I told her I did and asked her what she was specifically thinking about. She asked me what I had. I told her a list which included many things, one of which was bird costumes. She was intrigued, so I showed her a photo, and then she asked if I could bring those. I told her that I could but we needed to ask the rest of the class if they were in agreement. We had a classroom meeting and ask the other students what they thought. They all agreed that the bird costumes were a good idea.
- Planning a space: I told the students that if I was going to bring in dress up clothes we needed to create a space to play with them. We began brainstorming and the students decided we needed to build a tree and a bird house.
Building the tree: As a group we looked at trees and decided to build ours out of paper. In small groups of their own choosing, we rolled out, twisted and measured paper to create the branches. At one point this activity also included the wonderful gross motor skills of taking turns climbing a ladder.- Building the birdhouse: After looking at many birdhouses, we brainstormed what needed to go into making a birdhouse that we could play in. They agree on elements such as:
- A hole to get into the house
- A tunnel to crawl through
- A roof and walls
- A perch or a ladder
- More ‘bird-ness’ meaning, pictures of birds and bird decorations
- Little things to pretend food
- The costumes and a mirror
The students had to work together to plan and create the birdhouse. The entrance was created by 5 students working together, including one student who typically did not work well with other children. (Video footage available)
- Big Brave Brian: The students found a book on my shelf and asked me to read it. As I was reading it I made the judgement call to skip a few pages with what I considered to be very scary illustrations. Some of the students figured out that I did that when they were looking at the book on their own and were quite upset with me. I explained that I skipped those pages because I was worried that some students may be afraid of those pictures. We had a class discussion about it. We ended up deciding that we would show the pictures but warn the students when they were coming so that they could choose if they wanted to see or not. All the students felt comfortable with this decision.
- Monster masks: While I was working on the tree with some students, three others were on the carpet looking like they were playing a little rough. I went over and asked them what they were doing. They told me that they were acting out “Big Brave Brian”. I explained that to me it looked like they were just playing rough. I asked them how we could make sure that others knew they were acting out the story. They suggested making masks. We began making masks. Most of the class joined in and made one.
- The Book and the Movie: Once the class had finished their masks, they wanted to play with them. They began making up a story. I gathered them as a group and we used the smart board to create a story board for a story. We began acting it out. Children organized themselves into who wanted to be birds or monsters. Two children wanted to be ‘stage managers’ instead. While acting it out and taking photos for the book one child suggested we make a movie. So using the video function on my camera I took footage of them acting it out and they helped me edit it into a movie. They wanted a beginning to the movie so a song was created using the tune of twinkle twinkle.
COMPETENCY TABLE EXEMPLAR
Lesson ComponentTaken directly from the reflections of the teacher / Lifelong Learning and Personal Management
Students understand that learning is for life, personal fulfillment, active citizenship and professional growth. / Collaboration and Leadership
Students demonstrate leadership, build relationships, manage conflict and work in teams. / Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Well-developed critical thinking skills to review analyze and assess information. / Creativity and Innovation
Students recognize and engage in opportunities to be creative and innovative.
Dress up clothes / Dress up clothes: The student that asked about the dress up clothes and then saw that it could happen learned that you can make things happen for yourself if you ask. / Dress up clothes: After deciding in conversation with one student that she was interested in the bird dress up clothes we talked to the whole group and asked how they felt about them. This was a discussion where children were allowed to voice their opinions.
Planning the space / Planning a space: In the discussions held about creating a space, there were many considerations such as, if the space could have lots of kids playing at it, who would make it and how it would be made. / Planning a space: One of the children wanted to make a tree if we were to have bird costumes but the rest of the class felt that it would be impossible to make a tree. Through some discussions with another class that had made a tree and looking at pictures, they decided that they could make a tree out of paper in a similar way. / Planning a space: In deciding that the tree could be made out of paper, the idea was presented to twist the paper to look like branches. They also decided to use the existing loft as a framework.
Building the tree / Building the tree: In building the tree the students needed to navigate space and discuss physical needs. They needed to take turns and work together to twist the paper into branches. / Building the tree: While building the tree the students needed to figure out how long to make the branches. They figured out how to measure using non-standard units of measure. They also had to figure out how to attach the branches. / Building the tree: They began to see how paper could be used as a sculpting tool as well as adding to it to make it even more beautiful. During these discussions it was decided that we needed to build a birdhouse in the tree as well.
Building the birdhouse / Building the birdhouse: The students discussed and added what they thought the most important aspects of a birdhouse would be. Navigating space and splitting up tasks was a challenge / Building the birdhouse: After looking at many bird houses they needed to break the house down into its shapes. They then needed to figure out how to shape the cardboard into those shapes. / Building the birdhouse:
When discussing the possible materials they could use for the birdhouse, cardboard and fabric was chosen. The students experimented with coloured paint to make it how they thought it should be.
Big Brave Brian / Big Brave Brian: The students who were afraid of the picture had to take responsibility for their own needs and decide whether or not to look at the page. / Big Brave Brian: The students and I needed to discuss the conflict and figure out how to solve the problems. The students needed to display empathy and understanding to those who did not want to see the scary pictures.
Making the masks / Making the Masks: The students needed to come up with away to effectively play “Big Brave Brian” the mask making allowed them to be creative and make a mask that reflected their idea of monsters.
Book and movie / Book and Movie: The students needed to decide what role they were most comfortable with. Some of the children decided to be ‘stage managers’ instead of birds or monsters. / Book and Movie: The students had to navigate the space with each other, take turns and the follow instructions. / Book and movie: In trying to find a way to show our learning the idea of making a book was put forward. The movie idea sprang out of the book creation. The song created came after watching the first edited version and the children felt like it needed a better beginning.
COMPETENCY TABLE TEMPLATE, cont’d
Lesson ComponentTaken directly from the reflections of the teacher / Social responsibility, cultural, Global & environmental awareness
Students contribute to the quality and sustainability of their environment, respecting social, cultural, economic and environmental interconnectedness. / Communication
Seeks to understand and interpret thoughts ideas and emotions of others and effectively express themselves. / Digital literacy
Uses technology in a responsible, ethical and critical manner and explores new technology to communicate learn, solve problems and make decisions.
Dress up clothes / Dress up clothes: The student who asked about the dress up clothes was able to inquire based on information that she had from the slide show. She was also able to rationalize from a list given to her based on her own interests. / Dress up clothes: The child who inquired about the dress up clothes did so because of watching a photo story during an assembly in the gym.
Planning the space / Planning the space: When thinking about making the tree, I suggested talking to a teacher that had made one before. We thought of some questions and then went to her classroom to ask. / Planning the space: We looked at pictures of trees on the smart board and compared their branches.
Building the tree / Building the tree: There were many times while building the tree that students were frustrated with how others were doing it or that they hadn’t had a turn yet. They needed to effectively communicate their needs.
Building the birdhouse / Building the birdhouse: There were many times while building the birdhouse that students were frustrated with how others were doing it or that they hadn’t had a turn yet. They needed to effectively communicate their needs. / Building the birdhouse: We looked at many pictures of birdhouses on the internet using the smart board.
Big Brave Brian / Big Brave Brian: The students needed to understand the needs of those that were afraid of the pictures. They needed to be understanding and empathetic in order to come up with a solution. / Big Brave Brian: This was a pretty big debate. The students needed to be able to communicate their needs to the others and the group needed to hear and respect the individuals.
Making masks
Book and Movie / Book and Movie: The students saw how cameras and photos can be used to make a book. The students helped me to edit the movie and saw how acting and playing could be turned into a movie.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Boyd, S., & Watson, V. (2006). Shifting the frame: Exploring integration of the key competencies at six normal schools. Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research.This case study highlights how six “Normal Schools” in New Zealand adopted and implemented Key Competencies to bring about change in their schools, in practice, culture and student experience. Students, teachers and administrators participated in surveys following their participation in this case study. The results of the case study all indicated positive feedback for implementation of the Key Competencies into their schools. This article is worth the lengthy read as it is beneficial in providing references for implementation of Key Competencies on a school wide basis. It also highlights and provides strategies to work with staff and students along the change process.
Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2007). 21st century curriculum and instruction. United States. Taken from
This discussion reviews the impact of curriculum and instruction with pedagogies rooted in 21st century learning and development. They discuss the importance of an integrated approach to teaching and learning, with focus not only on curriculum, but on the learner, the school environment, and assessment methodologies. A focus is on technology and ensuring educators are preparing students for the modern life.
Nancy Bromley
Sarah Mandolesi
[1]Adapted from “Action on Curriculum: Why Competencies Matter”, Alberta Education, Draft, March 2011