Developing 21st Century Skills Through Arts Integration

There is growing concern and discussion about 21st century skills, and how to best prepare today’s students for success in the global economy. Associations and organizations, such as The Partnership for 21st Century skills (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/), are being founded to take on the task of advocating for this set of learning and life skills and to develop frameworks, standards and other guidelines for teaching critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and collaboration.

One edweek.org blogger (http://www.edweek.org/forums/?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3a047dba43-3f1d-45c3-831f-9125f292c0a4Forum%3aeb75a863-0040-451e-93bc-fbc5ad8abf24Discussion%3a7c8ddc85-0128-4864-9d9a-c76c9753bb67&plckCategoryCurrentPage=0&intc=mt) recently posted his thoughts on the matter:

The 21st century economy will rely, more than ever, on workers creative capacity –the ability to think unconventionally, question established practices, imagine new scenarios and produce astonishing work.
So how can thinking be taught without impacting on the time given to traditional subjects and affecting the content requirements of our curricula?

The key is integration. By using a framework that teaches students to 1) work together to create an end product, 2) reflect on and revise their work, and 3) think of many ways to arrive at an answer, teachers can improve students’ learning and life skills while also teaching math, science, history and literacy.