PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE John Heath, Batavia High School
MUSIC is a 21st Century Skill Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
To be on track today for college and careers, students need to show that they can analyze and solve complex prob- lems, communicate clearly, synthesize information, apply knowledge, and generalize learning to other settings.
Arne Duncan,
US Secretary of Education (as quoted in the
21st
Century Readiness for Every Student: A Policymaker’s Guide, published by
Partnership for 21st Century Skills)
As we stated in the fall journal, the Part- nership for 21st
Century Skills (P21) has
taken our traditional skills of Reading, wRiting and aRithmatic and combined them with the four C’s of critical think- ing and problem solving, communica- tion, collaboration, and creativity and innovation. Te Partnership along with many of our State Boards of Education, including Illinois, believe this approach to restructuring our teaching of the core academic subjects will meet the needs of today’s students and get them “on track” as Secretary Duncan states. Troughout this issue of the Illinois Music Educator we will be providing further information for our members. I will be discussing critical thinking and problem solving. My colleagues will present the other three areas in their articles.
As a core academic subject, we are in the company of academic areas that for along time have been the driving force for our educational system. We now have the opportunity to demonstrate to academia, our politicians, the business world, and our students and their families, what I throughout my career have believed, that Music is the only academic subject that
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is all inclusive of the other academic sub- jects. We are the umbrella under which everything else falls.
P21, in helping us to integrate these higher-order thinking skills (the 4 C’s) into our classrooms, has developed a framework that… “describes the skills, knowledge and expertise students must master to succeed in work and life; it is a blend of content knowledge, spe- cific skills, expertise and literacies.” (P21 Framework Definitions) Within the P21 Framework Definitions document, all the different facets of this program (21st
Century Student Outcomes and
Support Systems) are presented, defined and shown how they are interconnected. Te Student Outcomes present the knowledge, skills and expertise that all students should have to be successful in today’s culture. Tey are core subjects and 21st
century themes; learning and
innovations skills; information, media and technology skills; and life and career skills. Te Support Systems needed include standards and assessments, cur- riculum and instruction, professional de- velopment, and learning environments.
Critical thinking and problem solving, along with creativity and innovation, com- munication, and collaboration are found under the learning and innovation skills. Here is the outline as they present it.
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Reason Effectively
• Use various types of reasoning (in- ductive, deductive, etc.) as apropriate to the situation
Solve Problems
• Solve different kinds of non-familiar problems in both conventional and innovative ways
• Identify and ask significant ques- tions that clarify various points of view and lead to better solutions
When you take a look at these bullets and I am sure when you look at the bullets for the other three skills (communica- tion, creativity and collaboration), you will see many aspects of your teaching and your program jumping out at you. I see discussion with my students on form and analysis, on performance critique, on aesthetics, on what makes a good piece of music. I see the teaching of aspects of performance; notes and rests, articula-
Illinois Music Educator | Volume 71 Number 2 Use Systems Tinking
• Analyze how parts of a whole interact with each other to produce overall outcomes in complex systems
Make Judgments and Decisions
• Effectively analyze and evaluate evi- dence, arguments, claims and beliefs
• Analyze and evaluate major alterna- tive points of view
• Synthesize and make connections between information and arguments
• Interpret information and draw con- clusions based on the best analysis
• Reflect critically on learning experi- ences and processes
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