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eSchool News
How the 4 Cs prepare students for life after high school
4Cs: Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, Communication
By Sandra Love, Ed.D.
January 11th, 2021
The 4 Cs are more than skills taught in school--they'll stick with
students throughout their academic, professional, and personal growth
As our world continues to become more connected through technology,
today’s students have boundless access to a wealth of information. But,
to effectively leverage these resources, students need to be able to
make meaning of them.
According to educator Thomas Hoerr, the very notion of intelligence has
changed. We no longer rely on the limits of our single mind to access
the information resources we need to solve problems. Problem solving
has always involved teamwork and cooperation. Today, however, open
source programs, wikis, blogs, and other Web 2.0 technologies enable
total strangers divided by space and time to collaborate.
Successful problem solving in the 21st century requires us to work
effectively and creatively with computers, with vast amounts of
information, with ambiguous situations, and with other people from a
variety of backgrounds.
There will always be a growing need for people who can effectively
analyze, problem solve, and work constructively with others. All of
these actions require four competencies, also known as the 4 Cs:
critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication.
In my experience, educators agree the 4 Cs are important, but have
expressed concern for effectively putting them into practice. It’s not
uncommon to encounter a series of isolated activities offered to
students so teachers can check the box of one of the four competencies.
The connection to the world beyond classroom walls is often missing.
If we don’t give learners an opportunity to gain these critical skills
in grades K-12, they will struggle to navigate college and the
workforce. To ensure students are prepared for life beyond high school,
educators must proactively incorporate the 4 Cs throughout curriculum.
Critical thinking
According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers and
Achieve, critical thinking and problem-solving skills are two key areas
in preparing students for college and career readiness.
Modern society requires us to be active critical thinkers. We must sift
through a vast array of information regarding financial, health, civic
and even leisure activities to formulate plausible plans of action.
In the workplace, employees must employ critical thinking to better
serve customers, develop better products, and continuously improve
themselves within an ever-changing global economy.
Students need opportunities to question data, consider different
perspectives of issues, evaluate information and present their points
of view with logical reasoning. Critical thinking begins in the early
years and continues throughout life – it’s not reserved for a special
population, time of day or location. Critical thinking is needed in all
walks of life.
As educators, we must cultivate academic critical thinking mindsets
within our students. Critical thinking enables students to take
initiative, and exhibit persistence where they display
‘stick-to-itiveness’ as they engage in tasks and follow through until
completion.
Cultivating a culture for thinking is imperative. I support a
school-wide emphasis where all stakeholders understand its importance
and use a shared language to promote its practice.
Mentoring Minds, a provider of K-12 critical thinking materials,
recommends integrating nine traits of critical thinking across
curriculum, where students learn to:
• Adapt: I adjust my actions and strategies to accomplish tasks.
• Examine: I use a variety of methods to explore and analyze.
• Create: I use my knowledge and imagination to express new and innovative ideas.
• Communicate: I use clear language to express my ideas and to share information.
• Collaborate: I work with others to achieve better outcomes.
• Inquire: I seek information that excites my curiosity and inspires my learning.
• Link: I apply knowledge to reach new understandings.
• Reflect: I review my thoughts and experiences to guide my actions.
• Strive: I use effort and determination to focus on challenging tasks.
Adding to the importance of critical thinking, research into the
success rates of college students and high school seniors has shown
that students’ level of critical thinking is predictive of their grades
or cumulative college grade point averages.
Creativity
Summed up in ASCD Education Update, creativity, ingenuity, and
innovation are the keys to success in the evolving global economy.
Innovation and creativity are required for personal and professional
success in today’s competitive workforce. To prepare young people for
work and life beyond, educators must spark student creativity.
The following resources are recommended by the National Education Association for incorporating creativity in the classroom:
• Critical and Creative Thinking – Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Dan Pink’s Right Brain Discussion Guide for Educators
• Mathematics and the Arts
• Teaching Creativity
• Intel: Visual Ranking, Seeing Reason and Showing Evidence Tools
Beautifully summed up by Daniel Pink in his book A Whole New Mind, “In
a world enriched by abundance but disrupted by the automation and
outsourcing of white-collar work, everyone must cultivate an artistic
sensibility. We may not all be Dali or Degas. But today we must all be
designers.”
Collaboration
From remote work to online learning, technology enables us to connect
through a variety of channels and communicate with people from around
the world. The enablement of this global economy means individuals from
diverse backgrounds and varying strengths must work together to resolve
challenges.
We must apply this same mindset in the classroom, giving students ample
time to collaborate with others and respect the knowledge, culture, and
offerings of peers. Moreover, collaboration promotes confidence,
helping students foster a sense of self-esteem and enabling them to
develop healthy emotions and encourage teamwork.
Teachers are facilitators, responsible for modeling standards of
behavior that guide students. A collaboration-centric classroom will
have activities that invite students to work independently, with
partners and in groups.
In an Edutopia guide, Mary Burns, a senior learning technologist, suggests five strategies to deepen student collaboration:
• Create learning activities that are complex.
• Prepare students to be part of a team.
• Minimize opportunities for ‘free riding’.
• Build in opportunities for discussion and consensus.
• Focus on strengthening and stretching expertise.
When students work collaboratively, they learn from each other – using
each other’s knowledge and experiences to solve challenges.
Communication
Being able to express thoughts clearly and articulate opinions is
essential to academic, career and personal success. Students must be
equipped to process the sometimes-overwhelming amount of communication
in their daily lives.
Communication is closely related to collaboration. If students are
unable to communicate effectively, they will struggle to collaborate.
The National Council of Teachers of English’s (NCTE’s) 21st Century
Curriculum Assessment Framework recommends twenty-first century
learners develop the following competencies:
• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology.
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally.
• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes.
• Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information.
• Create, critique, analyze and evaluate multimedia texts.
In The New Division of Labor, Economists Frank Levy and Richard Mundane
have described the new world of work in which the most desirable
jobs—the ones least likely to be automated or outsourced—are those that
require expert thinking and complex communication.
Educators must acknowledge the need for more than reading and writing.
With the workforce constantly evolving, students must not only master
academics, but also learn to communicate and collaborate in new
environments, think critically and have the skills to create innovative
solutions.
To effectively teach communication, we must transition from instructors
to facilitators. The 4 Cs invite students to be active learners and
thinkers who are able to ask questions, problem-solve, and investigate
ideas. Students must be able to articulate what they are learning, and
why.
In summary
We can’t leave the acquisition of 21st century skills to chance.
Administrators, teachers and parents must accept responsibility for
teaching our learners to think critically, complete tasks creatively,
collaborate to overcome challenges and communicate ideas.
Thinking is active, not something that is done to a student.
Cultivating an environment for thinking in our schools is imperative. I
support a school-wide emphasis, where all stakeholders understand the
importance and use a shared framework for critical thinking. When
students see that the 4 Cs are valued throughout their school and at
home, they are likely to thrive.
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