ACTIVITY: What is your education quote?
Is education
necessary
in order to
become
successful?
TWENTY-FIRST
CENTURY SKILLS
You may hear teachers talking about
the importance of gaining twenty-first
century skills, but what exactly are
these skills that educators are referring
to? And why are they so important?
The simplest definition of ‘twenty-first
century skills’ is: the skills that today’s
young people need in order to thrive
at school, at university and beyond.
For example, a student in the 1990s
would not have needed to know much
about technical literacy. For a student
today, however, technical literacy is a
necessity. The skills you will need in the
future are constantly changing, which
is why it is so important that you know
the current skill needs. One of the
many challenges you face as a student
is keeping up with the skills you need
now, and even predicting those you
may need 30 years into the future.
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■■ ATL
■■ Critical-thinking skills: Formulate factual, topical, conceptual and
debatable questions
Task
THINK–PAIR–SHARE
Look at the quotes on the opposite What makes a question a powerful
tool?
page and write down your response
to them in note form. Discuss your Evaluate the questions below and
thoughts with your partner. Say if decide if they are factual, conceptual
you agree or disagree with each or debatable.
quote and give reasons.
●■ When did the Battle of Waterloo
Write your own education quote that
fits with your experiences and reality. ●■
take place?
Why do plants outnumber
Share your quote with the class. Are animals?
the class quotes similar or different? ●■ What causes a rainbow?
In which ways? ●■ What advantages did the Germans
have at the start of the Second
World War?
ACTIVITY: Classrooms then and now
■■ ATL
■■ Critical-thinking skills: Identify trends and
forecast possibilities
Nineteenth-century classroom vs twentieth-century classroom vs
twenty-first century classroom
How welcoming is your school environment? Your classroom environment
is very different from that of your parents and your grandparents. It is an
environment that can inspire and ignite learning, and is one where you spend
a lot of time.
Look at the then and now photographs on the opposite page and identify
the main features that influence the learning style represented in each image.
Write a paragraph to describe each classroom environment. Evaluate the
learning that would have taken place in each setting.
English for the IB MYP 4&5: by Concept
 All I want is an education,
and I am afraid of no one.
Education is the most powerful
weapon which you can use to
change the world.
■■ Malala Yousafzai The function of education
is to teach one to think
intensively and to think critically.
Intelligence plus character – that
is the goal of true education.
Education is the passport to the
future, for tomorrow belongs to
■■ Martin Luther those who prepare for it today.
King, Jr
■■ Nineteenth-century classroom
■■ Twentieth-century classroom
12 Why twenty-first century skills?
Refer back to the opening pages of
this chapter and look at the questions
listed under the headings ‘factual’,
‘conceptual’ and ‘debatable’. In pairs,
brainstorm ideas and write a list
of your own questions on twenty-
first century skills. What are the
defining characteristics for each type
■■ Nelson Mandela of question?
◆■ Assessment
opportunities
◆■ In this activity you have
practised skills that are
assessed using Criterion
Criterion C: Communicating in
response to spoken, written
and visual text.
■■ Malcolm X
■■ Twenty-first century – Harkness classroom
◆■ Assessment opportunities
◆■ In this activity you have practised skills that
are assessed using Criterion C: Communicating
in response to spoken, written and visual text
and Criterion D: Using language in spoken and
written form.
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