5 Characteristics of 21st Century Learners

What are the characteristics of a 21st century learner? Neil Matthews explains the 5 essential traits every student must have:

• Seeing the ‘big picture’
• Connecting skills across subjects
• Thinking critically and creatively
• Building relationships – communicating & collaborating
• Being career-ready and prepared for life

The following transcript is auto-generated from Youtube

hello I’m Neil Matthews and I’m proud to
juice myself as the principal of gems
Wellington Academy lkl
schools today have a huge responsibility
in terms of preparing students for life
in the 21st century today it is much
easier for students to acquire knowledge
and gather information and than it was
many years ago but increasingly it’s
important for schools to provide
students with the guidance and support
to develop those lifelong learning
skills that will enable them to be
successful in higher education
employment and in adulthood as teachers
we need to guide our students to see the
bigger picture in their learning so that
they can make connections and see a real
purpose for their studies and the
subjects that they’re learning about
while students will study subjects
across the curriculum from those
academic subjects to the more creative
they’re at the arts performance and
sports it’s vital that through our
teaching and learning students are
developing the skills of critical
thinking and query problem-solving
because it is those skills that will
enable them to be successful when they
move on to courses at universities and
into employment where they’ll be faced
with challenges every single day and
it’s important though that they are able
to apply the skills across all these
different subject areas we all face
problems and challenges every single day
in all walks of life and as educators
it’s vitally important that we enable
our students to develop the skills of
problem-solving risk-taking critical
thinking in order to enable them to
generate ideas and to solve problems in
many many different ways often the first
solution to a problem is not the best
one it’s not the most efficient one and
so it’s really important that in every
area of the curriculum students are
given the opportunity to tackle
challenges to work together to solve
problems which can enable them to be
innovative and creative and develop the
skills they’ll take into the future as
in employment in higher education as we
prepare our students for adulthood
it’s really important that they develop
the skills of building relationships and
collaborating and communicating with
many many different people it’s
important that students are given the
opportunity to to listen to each other
to to debate ideas and to share thoughts
and to develop those there’s really
important relationship building skills
that they will need as they go through
life begin to have families and to to go
into different employment areas and
where they’re going to meet many
different people from all walks of life
everything that happens in the classroom
every single day is so so important but
schools will be doing the students a
disservice if we don’t prepare our
children for for life and for adulthood
and to ensure that our children leave us
and ready for their careers in whatever
path they choose to take through
guidance and through counseling and
through giving students advice they’re
able to make decisions about their
future with the right information and
the right support in order to enable
them to be the most successful adults
they possibly can be