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1
Introduction
A
mericans have long recognized that investments in public education
can contribute to the common good, enhance national prosperity,
and support stable families, neighborhoods, and communities. In
the face of economic, environmental, and social challenges, education is
even more critical today than it has been in the past. Today's children can
meet future challenges if they have opportunities to prepare for their future
roles as citizens, employees, managers, parents, volunteers, and entrepre-
neurs. To achieve their full potential as adults, young people will need to
learn a full range of skills and knowledge that facilitate mastery of English,
mathematics, and other school subjects. They will need to learn in ways
that support not only retention but also the use and application of skills and
knowledge--a process called "transfer" in cognitive psychology.
Today's educational policies and practices will need updating to help
all children develop transferable knowledge and skills. American students'
performance is not impressive when they are tested through the Programme
for International Student Assessment (PISA) for their ability to not only
understand but also apply their knowledge. PISA tests are designed to mea-
sure students' capacity to apply knowledge and skills in key subject areas as
well as their ability to analyze, reason, and communicate effectively as they
pose, interpret, and solve problems. On the 2009 PISA reading and science
tests, the scores of U.S. 15-year-olds were only average when compared
to students from the other industrialized nations making up the OECD;
in mathematics, the scores of U.S. 15-year-olds were below the OECD
15
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16 EDUCATION FOR LIFE AND WORK
average.1 Part of the reason for the weak average performance of American
students is uneven learning and achievement among different groups of
students. Disparities in the relative educational attainment of children from
high-income versus low-income families have grown enormously since the
1970s (Duncan and Murnane, 2011). In a related trend, the gap between
average incomes of the wealthiest and poorest families has grown.
Business leaders, educational organizations, and researchers have begun
to call for new education policies that target the development of broad,
transferable skills and knowledge, often referred to as "21st century skills."
For example, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills2 argues that student
success in college and careers requires four essential skills: critical thinking
and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and in-
novation (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2010, p. 2).
Although these skills have long been valuable (for example, Thomas
Alva Edison observed in 1903 that "Genius is 1 percent inspiration, 99
percent perspiration"), they are particularly salient today, and education
officials are beginning to focus on them. Sixteen states have joined the
Partnership for 21st Century Skills, based on a commitment to fuse 21st
century skills with academic content (Partnership for 21st Century Skills,
2011) in their standards, assessments, curriculum, and teacher professional
development. Some state and local high school reform efforts have begun
to focus on a four-dimensional framework of college and career readi-
ness that includes not only academic content but also cognitive strategies,
academic behaviors, and contextual skills and awareness (Conley, 2011).
At the international level, the U.S. secretary of education participates on
the executive board of the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills
(ATC21S) project, along with the education ministers of five other nations
and the vice presidents of Cisco, Intel, and Microsoft. This project aims to
expand the teaching and learning of 21st century skills globally, especially
by improving assessment of these skills. In a separate effort, a large majority
of 16 OECD nations surveyed in 2009 reported that they are incorporat-
ing 21st century skills in their education policies, such as regulations and
guidelines (Aniandou and Claro, 2009).
COMMITTEE CHARGE
To increase understanding of the research related to deeper learning,
21st century skills, and related educational goals, the Carnegie Corporation
of New York, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the John D. and
1OECD (2010).
2This nonprofit organization includes business, education, community, and governmental
groups.
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INTRODUCTION 17
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the National Science Foundation,
the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the Pearson Foundation, the Raikes
Foundation, the Susan Crown Enchange Fund, and the Stupski Foundation
charged the National Research Council (NRC) as follows:
An ad hoc committee will review and synthesize current research on the
nature of deeper learning and 21st century skills and will address the
following:
· Define the set of key skills that are referenced by the labels "deeper
learning," "21st century skills," "college and career readiness," "stu-
dent centered learning," "next generation learning," "new basic skills,"
and "higher order thinking." These labels are typically used to in-
clude both cognitive and noncognitive skills--such as critical thinking,
problem solving, collaboration, effective communication, motivation,
persistence, and learning to learn that can be demonstrated within core
academic content areas and that are important to success in education,
work, and other areas of adult responsibility. The labels are also some-
times used to include other important capacities--such as creativity,
innovation, and ethics--that are important to later success and may
also be developed in formal or informal learning environments.
· Describe how these skills relate to each other and to more traditional
academic skills and content in the key disciplines of reading, mathemat-
ics, and science. In particular, consider these skills in the context of the
work of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief
State School Officers in specifying Common Core State Standards for
English language arts and mathematics, and the work of the NRC
in specifying a A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices,
Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas (hereafter referred to as the
NRC science framework).
· Summarize the findings of the research that investigates the importance
of such skills to success in education, work, and other areas of adult
responsibility and that demonstrates the importance of developing these
skills in K-16 education.
· Summarize what is known--and what research is needed--about how
these skills can be learned, taught, and assessed. This summary should
include both the cognitive foundations of these skills in learning theory
and research about effective approaches to teaching and learning these
skills, including approaches using digital media.
· Identify features of educational interventions that research suggests
could be used as indicators that an intervention is likely to develop the
key skills in a substantial and meaningful way. In particular, for learn-
ing in formal school-based environments, identify features related to
learning these skills in educational interventions in (a) teacher profes-
sional development, (b) curriculum, and (c) assessment. For learning
in informal environments, identify features related to learning these
skills in educational interventions in (d) after-school and out-of-school
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18 EDUCATION FOR LIFE AND WORK
programs and (e) exhibits, museums, and other informal learning cen-
ters. For learning in both formal and informal environments, identify
features related to learning these skills in education interventions in (f)
digital media.
HOW THE COMMITTEE APPROACHED THE CHARGE
To address these five areas of concern, the committee reviewed research
literature across several disciplines, including cognitive science, educational
and social psychology, economics, child and adolescent development, lit-
eracy, mathematics and science education, psychometrics, educational tech-
nology, and human resource development. The committee drew on recent
NRC workshops focusing on demand for 21st century skills, the intersec-
tion of science education and 21st century skills, and the assessment of
21st century skills, as well as on papers commissioned for an NRC plan-
ning process on behalf of the Hewlett Foundation. It considered the work
of the ATC21S project and emerging research on the relationship between
cognitive and noncognitive skills and abilities and adult outcomes (see
Chapter 3).
The committee met three times. The first meeting included an open
session with representatives of the FrameWorks Institute, which focused on
how the public thinks about education and early childhood development.
In the closed session of the first meeting, teams of committee members
focusing on each topic in the study charge delivered brief presentations
summarizing relevant research findings. These presentations and discus-
sions provided the basis for a preliminary draft of this report. At its second
meeting, the committee deliberated on the preliminary draft and decided to
focus the report on learning for transfer. Following the second meeting, the
committee and staff revised the preliminary draft extensively, and this new
draft was discussed at the committee's third meeting. At the third meeting,
the committee also developed preliminary conclusions and recommenda-
tions based on the draft. Following this meeting, the committee and staff
again revised the report. In a final teleconference, the committee discussed
and reached consensus on the conclusions and recommendations. The draft
report entered the NRC review process in February 2012. Following receipt
of review comments it was revised and publicly released in July 2012.
ORGANIZATION OF THE REPORT
Following this introductory chapter, Chapter 2 begins to address the
question of how to define deeper learning and 21st century skills, pro-
posing a preliminary taxonomy with clusters of competencies. Chapter
3 summarizes several different strands of research on the importance of
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INTRODUCTION 19
these competencies to success in education, work, and other areas of adult
responsibility. Chapter 4 focuses on deeper learning, which the committee
views as learning for transfer. Chapter 5 discusses deeper learning and 21st
century competencies in the disciplines of English language arts, science,
and mathematics. Chapter 6 discusses teaching and assessing transferable
knowledge and skills, in both formal and informal learning environments,
and identifies research-based methods and instructional design principles
for effectively developing the desired knowledge and skills. Chapter 7 con-
siders key elements within the larger educational system that may help or
hinder wider implementation of educational interventions to support the
process of deeper learning and the development of 21st century competen-
cies. Chapters 3 through 7 end with conclusions and recommendations, and
all of the conclusions and recommendations are included in the Summary.
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