Appendix: The enGauge 21st Century Skills Continua of Progress Once the enGauge 21st Century Skills were identified, a second wave of research was conducted that drew on a vast body of work dealing with each skill (see References). After analyzing and summarizing that work to date, we sought to characterize what each skill would look like in practice. The goal – to provide teachers with explicit criteria by which to gauge students’ progress – was tackled in three steps. We: 1.
Identified specific behavioral, cognitive, and affective qualities of each 21st century skill
2.
Described levels of progress toward each of these qualities
3.
Considered each skill in the context of today’s Digital Age – updating them when necessary
Early in the process, it became clear that many of the skills identified were not new constructs; existing research was able to substantially inform the qualities that make up those skills. What these sources typically did not address (with some exceptions) was the shape these skills can take, either in 21 st century environments or in the context of the technology tools available today. Thus, the strategy for developing the continua was two-fold: we drew on existing work as much as possible to inform the content of the continua, and we supplemented this content with our own expertise on teaching and learning in digital-age classrooms. A wide range of sources was used in the research part of this process. When possible, empirical studies and theoretical work from psychology and education were used for generating specific facets of the skills. Sometimes, this process itself involved repeated passes through the literature (for example, when they authors began researching self-direction, they found that self-directed learners were likely to make specific attributions for successes and failures; this led to another wave of research on students’ attributions). Publications by organizations specializing in a skill (e.g. the American Library Association’s work on information literacy; the National Academy of Sciences’ work on scientific literacy), as well as publications by experts in a field (e.g. Daniel Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence), were also used to build the profiles and continua. These sources typically represented field-based expertise. Together, these three types of sources represent “best thinking” by researchers, theorists, and organizations about what qualities characterize an individual possessing each of the skills. Not surprisingly, empirical studies that describe degrees of progress on each quality, particularly in a digital-age context, simply do not exist. To develop the progression of each quality contained within the continua, from novice to advanced, and to do so in a way that reflected a “digital-age” view of these skills, the authors drew on their own expertise, including:
Years of experience teaching students in classrooms, and thus “hands-on” experiences with the range of development on these skills;
Years of experience providing professional development to teachers, specifically on enhancing these skills through the use of technology, but also on technology-supported teaching and learning in general;
Fieldwork in classrooms across the nation, observing teachers and students as they work on transforming traditional teaching and learning to digital-age, technology-supported practice.
It is important to note that these continua are in fact, continua – not rubrics. They depict levels of development, but are not specifically targeted to any one task, assignment, content area or grade level. Naturally, the precise form some of these skills will take will depend on these contextual factors. However, the principles of rubric development – outlined by educational expert Bernie Dodge on his website – were also used to guide the development of these continua. Specifically, these:
Focus on measuring a stated objective (performance, behavior, or quality)
Use a range to rate performance
Contain specific performance characteristics arranged in levels indicating the degree to which a standard has been met (Pickett and Dodge, 2001: http://webquest.sdsu.edu/rubrics/weblessons.htm. For more details about rubrics, their purposes, and their development, see this site). Finally, specific sources used to generate each of the student profiles and continua are listed in this document by skill (see References – Selected).
_____________________________________________________________________________________ © 2003 NCREL/Metiri Group
74