21st Century Capabilities: Collaboration

As noted at our April 1 meeting, the plan is to address one capability per week for the next five weeks. This week we're moving on to Collaboration.

Below you'll find the definition of Collaboration as determined by the two teams from the April 1 meeting along with ideas about how that capability might translate to the workplace, higher education and community life.

After taking a moment to review the definitions, respond to the following questions:

• How important might this capability be for SPS students?
• What might be the implications if we don’t explicitlyaddress the capability through curriculum, instruction, and assessment, i.e., if we maintain the status quo?

Team G Description/Definition: Recognizing and utilizing individual strengths by engaging in productive conversations working toward a common goal.

Team H Description/Definition: Utilizing appropriate social skills to share with diverse groups, resulting in a positive outcome.

What might this capability look like in business or the workplace?

Team G
• Ability to contribute to a project
• Agenda, mission, vision, norms
• Avoiding “Group think”
• Commitment to norms
• Efficacy
• Electronic participation
• Formal or planned (scheduled)
• If in marketing, being able to sell your product and decide how to do that
• More effective, efficient use of time
• Networking skills-emotional intelligence
• Norms of dialogue and discussion
• People together in a group
• Product team
• Self awareness
• Sharing responsibility
• Social graces
• Strength finder
• Talking

Team H
• Are all outcomes positive?
• Collaborating with different stakeholders to produce most effective produce or resource
• Collective problem solving
• Communication, listening and speaking, problem solving with each other
• Decision making
• Efficient and effective use of resources
• Gathering input/feedback to improve
• Mutual goal
• Utilizing various media (i.e. global communication), teleconferencing
• Variety of departments working together
• Working together to produce a high-quality outcome
• Working with partnering businesses, cross promotions, etc.

What might this capability look like in higher education?

Team G
• Ability to define agreement
• Agenda
• Consciousness
• Cooperation and tolerance
• Electronic participation
• Formal or planned (scheduled)
• Groups
• High craftsmanship
• Increased focus
• Interdependence
• Open mindedness
• Talking

Team H
• Sharing ideas to enhance the learning experience
• Students working together on a project
• Cooperative learning projects
• Teacher-student relationships to increase education
• Collaboration between all 3 stakeholders

What might this capability look like in the community or life experience?

Team G
• Ability to get along with others
• Be open minded
• Coalition building
• Groups
• Impromptu
• Leveraging resources
• Public/private partnerships
• Social networking
• Social or functional
• Talking

Team H
• Scheduling
• Political issues
• Town hall meetings
• Church meetings
• Neighborhood alliances
• A snowball effect community and global outreach
• Planning event; funeral, wedding, holiday, medical, and education

21st Century Capabilities: Communication

As noted at our April 1 meeting, the plan is to address one capability per week for the next five weeks. This week we're moving on to Communication.

Below you'll find the definition of Communication as determined by the two teams from the April 1 meeting along with ideas about how that capability might translate to the workplace, higher education and community life.

After taking a moment to review the definitions, respond to the following questions:

• How important might this capability be for SPS students?
• What might be the implications if we don’t explicitlyaddress the capability through curriculum, instruction, and assessment, i.e., if we maintain the status quo?

Team E Description/Definition: The ability to effectively express and receive information, thoughts, and feeling to a rand of audiences using a wide variety of mediums.

Team F Definition/Description: Two-way transfer of knowledge, thoughts, or ideas through verbal, non-verbal, or written means with attention to tone, social norms, vernacular, and diplomacy to convey a clear, concise, and accurate message.

What might this capability look like in business or the workplace?

Team E
• Ability to communicate with bosses, co-workers, and customers
• Ability to summarize data
• Coaching subordinate
• Communicating goals
• Computer skills
• Customer service
• Electronic
• Email etiquette
• Ethical-when to say what, how to be
• Express feelings appropriately
• Face-to-face
• Job interview
• Leadership skills
• Listening and seeking clarity
• Listening set aside
• Non-verbals
• Phone
• Public
• Public speaking
• Research
• Successful project completion
• World language
• Writing
• Writing job evaluations
• Writing resume


Team F
• Acceptance of other ideas and opinions/understanding of ideas or opinions
• Clarity of expectations
• Different methods of communication to reach identified audience(s)
• Important for collaboration
• Interpret and prioritize information
• Interviewing potential employees
• Listening skills
• Negotiating
• Podcast/Webinars and email

What might this capability look like in higher education?

Team E
• “Blackboard” interaction
• Career decisions
• Collaboration
• Community building
• Conflict resolution skills
• Cross cultural language skills, especially Spanish
• Electronic
• Framing
• Improved achievement
• Listening
• Non-verbal
• Public
• Research
• Responsibility for self independent learning
• Work as a team-member

Team F
• Collaboration among peers
• Communication between students and teachers through various electronic formats
• Communication with college peers/social life
• Content knowledge/differing opinions/ideas
• Projects; podcast/webinar

What might this capability look like in the community or life experience?

Team E
• Advocacy
• Being able to communicate loudly and with force, not timid
• Effective parenting
• Framing
• Listening
• Marriage/family
• Non-verbal
• Passing on story of culture
• Private
• Problem solving
• Providing resources
• Seeking to understand and be understood
• World language, bilingual

Team F
• Social networking texting
• Cell phones
• Family, school, home, church, friends
• Getting along with others; diplomacy, acceptance, social norms
• Talking with others releases stress

21st Century Capabilities: Critical Thinking

As noted at our April 1 meeting, the plan is to address one capability per week for the next five weeks. This week we're moving on to Critical Thinking. (If you haven't responded to Global Thinking, there's still time).

Below you'll find the definition of Critical Thinking as determined by the two teams from the April 1 meeting along with ideas about how that capability might translate to the workplace, higher education and community life.

After taking a moment to review the definitions, respond to the following questions:

• How important might this capability be for SPS students?
• What might be the implications if we don’t explicitlyaddress the capability through curriculum, instruction, and assessment, i.e., if we maintain the status quo?

Team C, Definition/Description: Utilizing a process to analyze and evaluate problems.

Team D, Definition/Description: Utilizing a process to analyze and solve problems.

What might this capability look like in business or the workplace?

Team C

• Ability to analyze data and implement change in marketplace

• Ability to filter large volume of data that is growing exponentially

• Analyzing data

• Being proactive--PDSA

• Challenging/avoiding “group think”

• Identifying needs

• Solving problems to avoid crisis

• Thinking outside of the box

Team D

• Anticipation of implications

• Creating problem solving processes

• Evaluate decisions

• Evaluate validity of data

• Identify problems and possible solutions

• Identify strengths and weaknesses

• Prioritizing options

• Solving problems that are new to our generation, example; limited resources, health literacy

What might this capability look like in higher education?

Team C

• A safe environment to practice solving real life problems utilizing acquired skills

• Need to have these skills when they get to college

• The goal of higher ed is to create (employable) critical thinkers

• To question and how to reconstruct

Team D

• Apply previous learning to novel situations

• Courage to question

• Creating problem solving processes

• Demonstrating understanding

• Evaluate validity of data

• Prioritizing options

• To question

What might this capability look like in the community or life experience?

Team C

• Avoiding the unexamined life

• Decision making; family, community, politics, and personally

• Having a larger view to be able to think more creatively

• Successfully budgeting

Team D

• Assuring equity of resources

• Evaluating history and acting on it. Knowing what went wrong and think of how to make sure it doesn’t happen again

• Financial decisions

• Making good choices

• This is the common sense Dr. Ridder was referring to

SPS Learning Model - Development Flowchart

At the April 1 meeting, we reviewed the flowchart outlining the development of the SPS Learning Model. You can download that document here (PDF format).

If you have questions, comments, etc. feel free to post them in the comments or send us an email.

SPS Learning Model - Parking Lot

Are we talking about global vs linear thinking (process) or multicultural/global thinking?

Response: It seems from the team input on April 1, many participants may be initially leaning toward the later; however, we would encourage Advisory Team members to weigh in on this question via the blog.

How do you implement 21st Century skills in light of MAP/NCLB?

Response: Great question! This issue is reflected in “Learn” phase (box 1) of our Process Flowchart—we will ask Ken Kay to address the question.


Under 4: Activate – Make necessary system changes, should we add “deliver” to the first bullet?

Response: Done.

Revise 2nd homework question--Implications of not explicitly (curriculum, assessment, instruction) focusing on this capability vs. status quo?

Response: Done.

21st Century Capabilities: Global Thinking

As noted at our meeting last week, the plan is to address one capability per week for the next five weeks. This week we're starting with Global Thinking.

Below you'll find the definition of global thinking as determined by the two teams from the April 1 meeting along with ideas about how that capability might translate to the workplace, higher education and community life.

After taking a moment to review the definitions, respond to the following questions:

• How important might this capability be for SPS students?
• What might be the implications if we don’t explicitly address the capability through curriculum, instruction, and assessment, i.e., if we maintain the status quo?

TEAM A, Definition/Description: Ability to comprehend how actions, ideas, and choices affect the world around us, either positively or negatively.

TEAM B, Definition/Description:

• Actions or inactions affect others
• Big Picture
• Cultural understanding
• Global interactions
• Historical reflective perspective
• Resource minded
• Respect
• Understanding the needs of others

Business/Workplace
• Awareness, respect of other cultures
• Collaboration
• Consciousness
• Fair trade
• Flexibility
• Flexible work schedules
• Innovation
• Interdependence
• Market demand
• Processes
• Product development
• See/seize opportunity
• Social responsibility
• Sustainability
• Workplace
• Workday
• Workforce development
• Being resource-minded
• Communicating with other cultures for business; language, social norms.
• Cultural influence on business
• Evaluating cause and effect of decisions/actions
• Financial impact without multicultural acceptance
• Global consciousness-business impact on the world
• Helping students develop global thinking skills
• Identify new markets and audiences
• Maintain and expand existing markets and audiences
• Promoting positive images, ideas of difference
• Seeking solutions across the globe not just nationally

Higher Ed
• New majors
• Workforce requirements
• On-line learning
• Study abroad
• Increased marketability
• More opportunities
• Global companies-such as car dealers, Pampers, or McDonalds-have to relate to each culture
• Broader cultural understanding and sensitivity
• Career preparation
• Come into higher education experience with a big picture perspective
• Study of languages-study abroad and before they get there

Community/Life Experience
• Better work/life balance
• Collaboration
• Equity
• Acceptance of other cultures
• Empathy
• Experience provides relevance
• Open-mindedness
• Less prejudice, more tolerance
• Being mindful of others
• Being reflective on own experience as it relates to others
• Bridging cultural gaps
• Promoting knowledge to decrease prejudice and increase understanding and acceptance
• Think “green” global awareness - pollution
• Using digital/technology to give students diverse experiences will give a global/big picture perspective