21st Century Skills: Rethinking How Students Learn, April/2010

Winner--2011 Independent Book Publishers Association Benjamin Franklin Award

This anthology introduces the Framework for 21st Century Learning from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills as a way to reenvision learning and prepare students for a rapidly evolving global and technological world. This dynamic new framework promotes innovation through critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and technology integration, while building on mastery of core content and background knowledge.

Highly respected education leaders and innovators address critical concepts supporting the Framework for 21st Century Learning and explore these overarching questions:

1. Why are the skills listed in the Framework for 21st Century Learning necessary?
2. Which skills are most important?
3. What can be done to help schools include these skills in their curriculum and instruction?

About the Author:
James Bellanca, MA, is founder and CEO of International Renewal Institute, Inc., and acting director of the Illinois Consortium for 21st Century Skills. He founded SkyLight Professional Development in 1982. As its president, he mentored more than twenty author-consultants as he led SkyLight in pioneering the use of strategic teaching in comprehensive professional development. Bellanca coauthored more than twenty books that advocated the application of thinking and cooperating across the curriculum with the theme not just for the test, but for a lifetime of learning. Currently, Bellanca is building on the theories of cognitive psychologist Reuven Feuerstein to develop more effective responses to the learning needs of students whose academic achievement continues to lag. A longtime proponent of teaching that is aligned with the advocated best practices of 21st century skills, Bellanca s most recent publications include Designing Professional Development for Change: A Guide for Improving Classroom Instruction; Enriched Learning Projects: A Practical Pathway to 21st Century Skills; Collaboration and Cooperation in 21st Century Schools; 200+ Active Learning Strategies and Projects for Engaging Students Multiple Intelligences; and A Guide to Graphic Organizers: Helping Students Organize and Process Content for Deeper Learning.

Ron Brandt, Ed.D., was editor of publications for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), Alexandria, Virginia, for almost twenty years before his retirement in 1997. During his career at ASCD, he was best known as executive editor of Educational Leadership magazine. In the 1980s, he promoted the teaching of thinking in elementary and secondary schools, collaborating with Robert Marzano and a team of other educators in development of a book, Dimensions of Thinking, and a related teacher training program, Dimensions of Learning. He is also the author or editor of numerous other publications. Before joining the staff of ASCD, he was a teacher and principal in Racine, Wisconsin; director of staff development in Minneapolis, Minnesota; and for eight years was associate superintendent of the Lincoln Public Schools in Lincoln, Nebraska.