The majority of all scientists who have ever lived are alive today, busy making new discoveries. We can predict with certainty also that our students will need information skills.
We don't know the situations to which our students will have to adapt, but we do know they will need a range of thinking skills if they are to be successful. Change means adapting, and adapting means problem solving, predicting, questioning, applying old skills to new situations, and analyzing and evaluating options. Preparation for accelerating change must include development of a full range of thinking skills. We can no longer imagine with confidence what our lives will include a decade from now, never mind the myriad changes that will occur over the entire course of the lives of our students. Think for a moment of all the things we have today that were not invented just a decade ago. We take for granted picture phones, television watches, personal digital assistants, video conferencing, and GPS tracking devices that keep us updated in real time on traffic conditions - all of which were things of science fiction but a few decades ago. The change rate itself accelerates exponentially as new technology produces even newer technology. Today, we as teachers have the unprecedented challenge of preparing students for a world we can only dimly imagine. The teacher could prepare the student for a life in a predictable and relatively constant world. The teacher had a good idea of what information and skills students would need for a lifetime. Thinking skills are an essential, if not the single most important element of a good 21st century curriculum.Ī century ago, most people lived in rural areas and were employed in agriculture. One dimension of primary concern is thinking skills. Educators worldwide increasingly recognize that we must revise our educational objectives if we are to prepare students for life in the 21st century.
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