21st Century Skills Through Real-World Global Experience

There’s been a lot of talk this week about 21st century skills. The Washington Post’s Jay Mathews did a piece on it, the Christian Science Monitor chimed in, and Eduflack has posted a series of comments on the topic recently.

Most of the time, when we talk about 21st century skills, we’re referring to a facility with technology tools, critical thinking skills and the ability to synthesize content from various sources to create meaningful conclusions. Since I write about this topic in my book, The New Global Student, I wanted to take a moment to mention something that the others haven’t really emphasized.

One of the most important skills for students in the 21st century global economy is the ability to communicate clearly in a foreign language and work well with others from different backgrounds.
In a blended, borderless world in which people flow freely and job options are not restricted to any particular continent, 21st century workers will rely increasingly on their ability to be adaptable in new settings and competent when it comes to completing projects that require collaboration with others from around the world.

How do students who spend 16 years going to school in a familiar setting learn the skills they need to go global (no matter where they live)? Simple: they have to get out of their familiar setting. Period.

There’s no way to fake this–going to an international high school or majoring in global studies in college are poor substitutes for the brain-expanding experience of spending time abroad at a young age. Spending a semester abroad in college along with a bunch of other Americans isn’t likely to result in language fluency or greater cultural understanding. Our future leaders will be those who have actually lived in other cultures, learned at least one foreign language, and are completely comfortable working with a very diverse and international crowd. (President-elect Obama is a great example.) They have the ability to recognize differences in the way others see a problem and have gained the skills and confidence required to bring people together to create a workable solution to any given challenge.

Our students need 21st century skills along with the classic content our schools are designed to teach. But what matters most is sparking each student’s enthusiasm for learning and giving our kids a chance to step out of their comfort zones in order to see the world–and themselves–in new ways. Teaching for the 21st century requires a shift–in tools, in teaching methods, and in perspective.

The good news is that it’s actually surprisingly affordable (less than $2,000 a year!) to send a high school student abroad on a great exchange for an entire year (including airfare). The bad news: most parents are convinced that taking a kid out of high school for a year is an expensive proposition that will put them behind their peers.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Kids who go abroad in high school–and get support and mentoring when they return–are light years ahead of their peers in terms of global awareness, maturity, flexibility, confidence, communication skills, compassion and clarity regarding their own interests and talents.

Want proof? Take a look at some of the updates of the students profiled in my book. When it comes to developing the most essential 21st century skills, a US classroom just doesn’t cut it.

Tagged as: 21st century skills, Christian Science Monitor, critical thinking, cultural understanding, Eduflack, foreign language, global economy, global education, global studies major, high school exchange, international high schools, Jay Mathews, Maya Frost, semester abroad, study abroad, The New Global Student, The Washington Post