Thursday, January 6, 2011

21st Century Learning Skills and Mastery

By Sam Piha


On December 29, 2010, KQED radio featured a forum on 21st Century Learning Skills: creativity, innovation, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. We believe that afterschool programs have a unique role in developing these skills.

The forum speakers discussed the importance of developing these skills in order to prepare young people for the modern workplace. They also spoke of the importance of helping young people develop a sense of mastery. 

"If you could help someone master one thing, whatever that one thing is - needlepoint or skate boarding or video editing - being at the top of the mountain gives them the opportunity to see what it’s like to get to the top of the mountain. We always say at Pixar and DreamWorks, if you give me someone who has mastered something, we can help them master almost anything else....because every kid is different, having a full range of different pathways to different mountains is absolutely critical to having the broad dimensional workforce." - Randy Nelson, Head of Artistic Development and Training at DreamWorks Animation and former Dean of Pixar University. 

To listen to the comments of Randy Nelson, Bernie Trilling, author of "21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times," and Miguel Salinas, senior manager of Adobe Youth Voices, click here

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