Power skills for the 21st century

AMONG educators there is a growing concern that the intensive focus on exams as a way of assessing learning is producing pupils who leave secondary education without important life skills.

It is a common complaint from employers. Many are bewildered by the number of young people who arrive in the workplace unable to communicate to an acceptable level, for example.

The NEU-sponsored commission on secondary assessment, published in 2022, reached the same conclusion. It warned against the dangers of relying solely on exams for a host of reasons that included denying learners the opportunity to develop as critical thinkers.

In 2019, the Aspirations Academies Trust in west London introduced No Limits: a curriculum for success in the world today and in the future. Its aim was to give pupils an education for the 21st century.

Alongside single subjects, pupils in years 7 and 8 undertake six lessons a week in applied transdisciplinary learning (ATL). It is project-based, with students working on six interdisciplinary assignments across the academic year. Assignments are mapped against the national curriculum subjects.

History teacher Prerna Patel is the trust’s ATL lead. She says it is designed to teach children ‘power skills,’ among them communication, collaboration, critical thinking, complex problemsolving and initiative.

“We teach pupils power skills because there is a real need to prepare them for the world beyond school,” explains Prerna. “We want them to be able to apply their knowledge to real-life situations. Our world is changing very quickly, and research shows that young people will have multiple careers in the future so it’s really important we are giving students skills that are transferable.

“We are moving away from teaching to tests and are implementing a multimodal approach to assessment,” she says. “There is a place for examination, and working under pressure, but at the moment in the education system it is the only way children are assessed.”

She adds that ATL allows students to demonstrate their skills in a variety of ways. For example, during an assessment that involved adapting Romeo and Juliet to the Roman era, pupils demonstrated their learning through a performance of adapted scenes.

“Our pupils with special educational needs and disabilities really come out of their shells in ATL lessons because there are different ways they can present their learning beyond writing or a test situation,” Prerna explains. “They are encouraged to understand what working under pressure means because a key part of the project is meeting deadlines.”

Peer assessment, with pupils being coached to give and receive feedback, means they become competent in this critical skill from year 7.

“This is a huge aspect of communication and something they can take on into future employment. There isn’t one job where you don’t need to be able to handle feedback.”

Each project ends with an exhibition, presentation or performance to an audience of parents, peers, leaders from industry or those running local businesses, where children share their learning.

By the end of year 7, the impact of ATL on students is clear. They have developed the confidence to present and explain their work. A local MP visited, as part of a project on democracy, and pupils presented to him, adds Prerna. The children also engage with this learning because it gives them autonomy.

Teachers aim to embed these power skills into the assignments they set. One of the challenges of introducing ATL has been to develop teachers’ understanding of project-based learning.

“It involves a change of mindset for staff. Secondary teachers tend to hold onto their subjects, so the challenge for us is to get across to them that they are really good teachers and they just need to broaden their practice to encompass other disciplines,” says Prerna.

Importantly, the ATL lessons and projects are planned by teachers in teams, to ensure there is subject expertise within each.

Professional development on ATL is delivered annually in July.

“We are able to develop some really creative projects that are relevant to the world we live in, and we are trying to develop the problem-solvers of the future,” says Prerna. “The projects also give pupils time to reflect. A lot of our curriculum is packed with content, but with ATL children are able to think about what they have learned, how it has made them feel and whether they have been successful. We are trying to replicate as much of the world in our classrooms as we can.”