21st Century Skills – The 4 C’s

Communication, Collaboration,
Critical thinking, and Creativity
Content provided by the
Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21)
http://www.p21.org
What Skills Make a Successful?
Let’s take a look at a video now…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KMM387HNQk
What did the video teach us about…
Communication?
Collaboration?
Critical thinking?
Creativity?
Communication
Communicate Clearly!
Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively
Oral, written, and nonverbal communication skills
Listen effectively to understand meaning
Use communication for a range of purposes (e.g. to
inform, instruct, motivate and persuade)
Communicate effectively in diverse environments
Collaboration
Collaborate with Others!
Demonstrate ability to work effectively and
respectfully with diverse teams
Exercise flexibility and willingness to be helpful
Sometimes compromises are necessary to
accomplish a common goal
Assume shared responsibility for collaborative work
Value and appreciate contributions by each team
member
Critical Thinking
Reason effectively to solve problems!
Analyze how parts of a whole interact with each
other to produce overall outcomes
Make judgments and decisions
Effectively analyze and evaluate evidence,
arguments, claims and beliefs
Reflect critically on learning experiences and
processes
Solve different kinds of non-familiar problems in both
conventional and innovative ways
Creativity
Think creatively!
Use a wide range of idea creation techniques (such
as brainstorming) and refine/elaborate ideas in order
to improve and maximize creative efforts
Work creatively with others
Be open and responsive to new and diverse
perspectives; incorporate group input and
feedback into the work
View failure as an opportunity to learn
Problem Solving and
Decision Making
A Process

The steps that provides

a rational and analytical
way of looking at
decisions.

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Decision Making Process
* Identify the Problem
* Develop Alternatives
* Evaluate each Alternative
* Select the Best Alternative
* Implement the Decision
* Follow-up and Evaluate

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 6.3

Steps in Problem Solving

and Decision Making
Identify and diagnose Develop creative Evaluate the
the problem alternatives alternative solutions
“Some of these
“What really, really “Let’s dream up
ideas are good;
is our problem?” some great ideas.”
others are wacko.”

Implement the Choose one

Evaluate and control
decision alternative solution

“How really good “Now let’s take “This alternative is

was that idea?” action.” a winner!”

Adapted from Exhibit 6.1

 What is a Problem?
A discrepancy between an existing
and a desired state of affairs.
&
Identifying the real problem is no
easy task.

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 Problem Identified
What are the surrounding
circumstances
&
Is there more than one way to
resolve the issues
???

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 Alternatives Developed
Identify the strengths and weakness
of each alternative
&
Select the one that best addresses
the salient discrepancies

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 Make a Decision
Implement the decision and take the
steps necessary to ensure correct
timing and execution.
Follow-up and evaluate the results

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