Student Outcomes for the 21st Century
Learning and innovation skills are what separate students who are pre-
pared for increasingly complex life and work environments in the 21st
century from those who are not. Students in our schools today live in a
technology- and media-driven environment marked by access to an abun-
dance of information, rapid changes in technology tools, and the need to
collaborate and make individual contributions as they prepare for both
the workplace and participation in democracy. Today’s life and work envi-
ronments require far more than thinking skills and content knowledge.
To b e e f f e c t i v e i n t h e 2 1 s t c e n t u r y, c i t i z e n s a n d w o r k e r s mu s t b e a b l e
to communicate, to team, to continuously learn, and to function in a
visual, data-rich society. The school and community must emphasize the
increasing importance of learning to learn in light of the shift to a digital
age that values intellectual capital. This vision redefines the purpose of
public education. The school’s vision must seek to create learners who
have the self-confidence, independence, and high-tech proficiencies to
continuously learn—meeting challenges innovatively and creatively (Part-
nership for 21st Century Skills, 2007).
According to the vision, students need to be prepared with the fol-
lowing skills:
•Creativity and innovation.
•Critical thinking and problem solving.
•Communication and collaboration.
•Flexibility and adaptability.
•Initiative and self-direction.
•Social and cross-cultural skills.
•Productivity and accountability.
•Leadership and responsibility.Leading and Learning with Habits of Mindcan help you start down
a path to that vision. It provides a road map for individuals, for classrooms,
and ultimately for a full-system approach to enhanced curriculum,
instruction, and assessment. For our purposes, we think a “system” is
approached when the Habits of Mind are integrated throughout the
culture of the organization—that is, when all individual members of a
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