Changing minds: Global Learning Mindsets for the 21st century

By DR. ROBERTA LENGER KANG

When I was in high school, my English teacher, Mrs. Horn, required her students to write a research paper. This process included daily trips to the school library, where I used a card catalog to look up the name of a book that may, or may not, have the information I was looking for. Once I found a book in the card catalog, I had to hunt for it using the Dewey decimal system, locate the book, and then begin searching for the basic facts about my topic. Mrs. Horn was a stickler for notecards. Our research papers needed to have 75 accompanying index cards so that we could organize our information one fact at a time, before typing it out on the word processor or typewriter.

How times have changed. Most school libraries today have more space dedicated to technology than books, and the long process of searching through dusty publications or old-timey microfiche has become a thing of the past. But here’s the thing: the importance of research papers hasn’t changed. And the importance of research hasn’t changed. What has changed is our access to information. 

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Shifting educational landscape

The radical advancement of technology and the internet has fundamentally changed our relationship with information. A 20th century education taught us how to find information — but finding information is no longer a problem. If anything, in the 21st century, we have access to too much! With hundreds of thousands of hits through internet searches and recommendations for related information, the question is no longer how to find the facts, but what to do with the information that’s literally a click away. How do we interpret this information? This is the question that teachers and school leaders struggle with as they attempt to make key concepts relevant to children in a rapidly changing world.

These advances in technology have not only changed our relationship to information, they’ve changed our relationship to other people. Instant connection, instant messaging, and instant information-sharing have changed the landscape of interactions.

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Educating students for tomorrow, today

We can no longer sustain a 20th century mindset in a 21st century world. The Global Learning Alliance (GLA), with its commitment to cross-cultural research collaborations and a desire to define a pedagogy that takes into account the dynamic needs of a shifting educational landscape, knows that the task before us is to educate students today for the world they’re poised to lead tomorrow.

The GLA is the outgrowth of CPET’s ground-breaking research on the features and practices surrounding 21st century teaching and learning. It has evolved from the seeds of a research project and is now a consortium of schools and universities around the world dedicated to understanding, defining, applying, and sharing the principles and practices of a world-class education within a wide range of educational contexts. As a result of ongoing research, we have been customizing the Global Mindset Framework, a tool that helps educators consider new skills for a new world. 

The Global Mindset Framework builds on the importance of the critical thinking skills of the 20th century by fostering skills in collaboration, creativity, caring, and global consciousness. 
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Mindset	Description
Caring	The ability to think beyond facts and figures, and to recognize the value of oneself and others. Self-awareness, confidence, and empathy, will set students apart in the 21st century.
Collaborative	The ability to observe, reflect, engage with multiple modalities, and collaborate strategically. Collaboration in the 21st century is a key factor for innovation. Students need to be able to establish positive interpersonal dynamics and communicate with peers to solve problems.
Creative	The ability to imagine, question, simulate, and appreciate ambiguity. In this case, creative is not synonymous with artistic — rather, the creative mindset focuses on an individual’s ability to innovate, spark new ideas, and chase curiosity.
Critical	The ability to interpret, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate. Similar to Blooms Taxonomy, in the 21st century, students will need to use facts and information in combination with prior knowledge, context, and evaluative criteria to think critically about the world around them, separate fact from fiction, and use their best judgement to make decisions.
Global	The ability to solve real-world problems, cultivate a global consciousness, think intertextually, and seek multiple perspectives. We live in a complicated world with big problems that affect communities both locally and globally. When we value a global mindset, we’re supporting students to be conscientious of how a local problem may impact other people, other cultures, and other geographic locations.

​If we want to ensure that our students are developing the skills needed for the next hundred years, we must begin considering a new pedagogy for a new era. We must consider the implications on our curriculum, assessments, and instruction, if we are going to add these essential skills in our schools. 

TAGS: 21st CENTURY SKILLS, ROBERTA LENGER KANG