Learning and Innovation Skils: Learning to Create Together

The P21 Education Framework has morphed from the traditional framework to include the following skills:

• Learning and Innovative Skills
• Information, Media, and Technology Skills
• Life and Career Skills

The learning and innovative skills focus on:

• Critical thinking and problem-solving
• Communication and collaboration (complex communication skills)
• Creativity and innovation (application of learning)

All of these skills are needed for business to create better services and products in the global marketplace. In turn, all of these skills are need to help our students to become life-long learners and productive members of society.

The new framework challenges educators to look at how we are educating students. Are our learning experiences meaningful? Are our students motivated to learn? Is what we are teaching have practical application? Are we preparing them to communicate and work together?

Education is not moving away from the commitment to core knowledge in subject areas. It calls for a commitment to knowledge core, high demands on thinking, and active use of knowledge. Page 52 states, "Creating, analyzing, understanding, and evaluation can all be used together in rich, well-designed learning activities and projects to improve the effectiveness and longevity of learning results."

This chapter follows the collaborative work done on the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in 2002 by student teams from around the world. It shows the application of all skills: critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, creativity, and innovation. The work done by these students had tremendous influences on the world as well as learning communities everywhere.

As we move forward in the Innovative Age, creativity and innovation need to be encouraged. As educators we do not abandon the knowledge, we move towards fostering the imagination and creativity of students to expand on that knowledge. P. 57: "Creativity and innovation can be nurtured by learning environments that foster questioning, patience, openness to fresh ideas, high levels of trust, and learning from mistakes and skills."

In conclusion, helping student develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, communication and collaboration skills, and creativity and innovation skills in the classroom helps prepare them for a world where these skills are prized.