Kudos for 21st-Century Education

Sept. 2011

Opinion

As the founding president of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, I was focused on advocating federal and state policies to advance “21st-century education.” Last summer, I went around the country and met with 30 local superintendents and asked them the following question: “What could I do to support your efforts to advance 21st-century education in your district?”

We came up with the idea of putting together a professional learning community (PLC) of superintendents and district leaders who are committed to building critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity skills into their student outcomes, pedagogy and leadership strategies. A few of us loved this idea and decided to launch EdLeader21, a “community of practice” for district leaders who are implementing 21st-century education initiatives. As of today, 65 districts from 24 states have joined the community. About 10 years ago, the National Academy of Sciences began to strongly criticize AP® Biology, claiming that both the course and exam were not preparing young people for the real challenges of science. In response, the College Board began a long process of redesigning the course curriculum and exam.

Earlier this year, after reading that the College Board was ready to release the new AP Biology Exam in 2012, I reached out to Gaston Caperton. I told him that because our PLC was so focused on critical thinking, problem solving and applied learning, we would be very interested in hearing more about the redesigned AP Exams. He was kind enough to ask the AP Program’s Trevor Packer and Auditi Chakravarty to conduct a webinar for our community. During the webinar, I listened carefully to Trevor when he posted two PowerPoint slides. The first was a question from an old AP Biology Exam:

Question 1:

The creeping horizontal and subterranean stems of ferns are referred to as:

Answers:

1. Prothalli
2. Fronds
3. Stipes
4. Roots
5. Rhizomes

Then he put up a question from the new AP Biology Exam:

Question 2:

H+ + HCO₃ ← → H₂O + C0₂

The equation above shows a reversible reaction that occurs in blood. An Olympic marathoner training at high altitude in Colorado feels dizzy and begins hyperventilating while taking a run. Her blood pH is elevated, resulting in alkalosis. How will normal blood pH be restored?

Answers:

1. An increase in O₂ concentration in the plasma will lead to a decrease in H+ concentration.
2. An increase in CO₂ concentration in the plasma will lead to an increase in H+ concentration.
3. A decrease in sweating will lead to an increase in HCO₃ concentration.
4. A decrease in respiration will lead to an increase in plasma O₂ concentration.

Looking back and forth at the two questions gave me goose bumps. I realized that in the simple contrast between those two questions, we were looking at the difference between 20th- and 21st-century education.

It led me to ask myself a series of questions:

What Is 20th-Century Education?

Look at question 1 again. What does it represent to you? Straight memorization? Instant recall? The way many of us were taught?

Now think about how students would learn the answer. When we were in school, we would wait for the answer to pop up in a lecture. Today, unfortunately, that is the way most of the information is still conveyed.

It’s boring, but more significantly it teaches too narrow a slice of what is truly science. Question 1 just asks for a simple answer without any deeper understanding. It doesn’t challenge students to understand “why” or to think like a scientist.

What Is 21st-Century Education?

Now look again at question 2. What does it represent to you? You don’t have to memorize the formula — they give it to you!

But what do you have to do? You have to understand the implications of the formula well enough to know how to apply it. The question requires critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

This reminds me of a story that was in the news this spring. The MIT Media Lab appointed its new director. His name is Joichi Ito, and he got a lot of coverage in part because he is a college dropout — twice!

In covering the appointment and Ito’s status as a college dropout, John Markoff of The New York Times wrote: “Later he attended the University of Chicago, where he studied physics, but once again found it stultifying. He later wrote of his experience: ‘I once asked a professor to explain the solution to a problem so I could understand it more intuitively and he said, “You can’t understand it intuitively. Just learn the formula so you’ll get the right answer.” That was it for me.’”

Ito was obviously frustrated by the focus on mere memorization but, unfortunately, we appear to be fostering a generation of students who seem to be less focused on “understanding” and more focused on “how can I pass the exam?” We as educators need to challenge them more than this.

How Do We Prepare Our Students for Question 2?

Focus again on question 2. Imagine how students would find out the answer to that question. Would they be sitting in rows or working in teams? Would the teacher be lecturing or alongside coaching them?

Think profoundly about these questions:

• Where is your school or district in the continuum between 20th-century and 21st-century education?
• What should school look like to help your students answer question 2?
• And, perhaps most important, what do we need to do to change our learning environments, pedagogies and assessments to create a 21st-century learning environment?

As I have traveled around the country, I’ve found that students not only are prepared to step up to harder academic challenges, but also are more engaged if they are challenged to use content and skills when trying to solve real-life problems. For example, math can be taught much more effectively if it is presented in the context of business methods and financial literacy. Problem-based learning is clearly a part of the solution to creating a framework for a 21st-century education.

Conclusion

I think you can sense my genuine excitement at the prospect of the newly redesigned AP Exams and the new Common Core State Standards putting more emphasis on critical thinking, problem solving and applied learning. These developments will have the impact of forcefully raising the bar for all of our students.

They will also raise the bar for all of our teachers and administrators. It won’t be enough to just give students new assessments. We will need to support our teachers and administrators as they step up to the challenges of providing a 21st-century education. We need to help them reflect on the profound implications of 21st-century education for their daily practice. And we will need to give them specific tools, professional development, mentoring and coaching as they make this powerful transition. This will be a heavy lift — but one well worth taking on. Kudos to the College Board and the AP Program for putting this new challenge squarely in front of us!

Ken Kay is CEO of EdLeader21. Prior to his current position, Ken spent eight years as president of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.