A Study Of The 21st Century Skills Education Reform In The United States

Global knowledge economy,being rapidly-changing,technology-driven and interconnected,requires people to acquire certain needy skills to adapt to the new economic and social development paradigm.Currently,education reform in most countries of the world has shifted to the cultivation of the 21 st century skills or competencies,launching the 21 st Century Skills Movement in the world.Based on international experience,our country is also pushing forward the education reform of key competencies.As the curriculum programs and academic curriculum standards of key competencies have just been released,its implementation is of great importance at the moment.Since 2002,the down-top 21 st century skills education reform of the United States has lasted for 16 years and practiced widely in 21 states,which has formed a systematic theoretical foundation and accumulated rich practical experience that has a significant impact on US education as well as international education.Therefore,this study takes the 21 st century skills education reform in the United States as the research subject,explores its curriculum,teaching and evaluation,analyzes how the United States implements the 21 st century skills programs in states,school districts and schools through case studies,presents and analyzes the controversy over the 21 st century skills reform as well as carries out a historical research towards the educational reform pendulum between knowledge and skills in 20 th century from a longitudinal perspective,points out the new characteristics of the 21 st Century Skills Movement,with the purpose of striving to provide some reference for our country's knowledge-focused education and the current key competencies education reform.In terms of research content and framework,this study is divided into ten chapters except the conclusion.The introductory section of the first chapter elaborate the background,research subject,definition of key concepts,the current research status,the problems to be solved in this article and the overall assumption and framework of the research.Then,in the second chapter,this article will introduce and analyze the 21 st Century Skills Movement in the world,show the background,overall prospect,development of the 21 st century skills education reform and implementation of key aspects.Afterwards,the main part of the study will delve into the 21st-century skills education reform in United States.What comes first is to study its 21 st Century Skills Movement.Then,it goes to specifically study the curriculum,teaching and assessment of the American 21st-century skills,and presents how the United States promote and implement the 21st-century skills education reform in states,school districts and schools through case studies,which constitutes the third,the fourth,the fifth,the sixth and the seventh chapter.Specifically,Chapter 3 is going to examine the rising background,supports carrier and its development of the 21 st Century Skills Movement initiated by "Partnership for 21 st Century Learning",and specifically introduces and analyzes the content of the 21 st Century Learning Framework,the distribution of the 21 st century skills programs in each state,and the distribution and development of the 21 st Century Learning Exemplar Schools or Districts.The fourth chapter will focus on the American 21 st century skills' curriculum carriers and the integration path of curriculum,and the integration of the 21 st century skills in the "Common Core State Standards".Concern on the teaching of the 21 st century skills will be reflected in Chapter 5,it will focus and explore the reason why inquiry-based learning can be used as an effective method of teaching the 21 st century skills and how it is used,meanwhile it will use cases to illustrate how to teach the 21 st century skills in STEM and social sciences;in the end the challenges that the teaching of 21 st century skills face will be analyzed.Chapter 6 will make a analysis of American education's current assessment's problems,explore the 21 st century skills' assessment methods and principles,and the correspondence of " Every Student Succeeds Act " to the 21 st century skills' evaluation.Chapter 7 will analyse the strategic plans of 21 st century skills in the states and districts,and strategies of implementing the 21 st century skills in schools through case studies.In the eighth chapter,this study will present and analyze the current controversy towards the 21 st century skills that American academic circles aim at,analyze the controversy over the 21 st century skills mainly from the aspects of curriculum,teaching,evaluation and school practice,and discuss how to understand and cope with the controversy of the 21 st century skills.In order to deepen the understanding of 21 st Century Skill Movement in the United States,chapter 9 will carry out a historical research and sort out the educational reform movement focusing on knowledge or skills in the 20 th century of America,with the conclusion that emphasis on skills is a consistent tradition for the United States and the 21 st century skills are needed for the time with new characteristics and potential to fulfill,which has become a strategic educational choices and new direction of future education in US.Chapter 10,based on the review of the 21 st Century Skills Movement in the world,the 21 st Century Skills Movement in the United States and its educational reform practices,introspects our country's educational reality,and put up with targeted suggestions from the possible strategies of advancing China's high-level talents training and deserved measures of the implementation and improvement of China's key competencies education reform.In particular,this study argues that training high-order skills is an inherent requirement for training China's talents and establishing an education superpower and innovation-oriented country,and it also is a necessary talent resources support for participating in global competition.Therefore,in the education reform of key competencies,we should integrate the 21 st century skills,which in turn demand coordinated changes in curricula,teaching,evaluation,teacher professional development and technical facilities,etc.and strengthen the involvement of multi-stakeholders.