Responsable: Director(a) de Tecnología de la Información

The views of the Government (previous and current), the student voice, and the views of academics and theorists, have been synthesised in Table 4 below. This information has been used to develop a conceptual framework of the perceived key elements of a 21st century education (Table 5 on p. 58).

55 Previous Government (publications between 2003 – 2010 which have been referenced) Current Coalition Government (HM Government, 2010a, and Cameron and Clegg, 2010a)

Wishes of the children and young people aged between the ages of 5 and 18 (Burke and Grosvenor, 2003) and The Children‟s Manifesto (Birkett, 2001)

Important skills and learning attributes to be able to address key challenges in the 21st Century (Arora and Williamson, 2010)

Academic views (Claxton and Wells, 2002) Academic views (Hargreaves and Shirley, 2009) Correlation of ideas… Vision:

to make England the best country in the world for children and young people to grow up

Vision:

to make opportunity more equal for all children

Vision:

Education is not about the transmission of specific bodies of knowledge and skills … [but] the development of a mind to learn (pp. 1-2) Vision: moving education towards a “more inclusive, inspiring and sustainable future” (p. xi) “prosperity, opportunity, and creativity in a world of greater inclusiveness, security and humanity” (p. 71)

Inclusivity and opportunity.

guarantees would be in place for parents and children of what they could expect from all services

parents and children to have more freedom in choosing a good school

A clear understanding of the role of a school, available opportunities, and available services.

a highly-skilled and professional workforce would be in place across all services

high quality teaching in schools

enabling everyone to work together and achieve

A highly skilled and

professional workforce would enable all children to achieve.

partnerships would be embedded between organisations to ensure early intervention as appropriate

partnerships between schools so that the strong support the weak to drive improvement across the board

bringing together government policy, professional involvement, and public engagement

Supportive partnerships and understanding.

56

each young person would have sufficient knowledge, skills (knowing how to learn, thinking skills, team working skills, creativity skills), confidence and qualifications to be able to embrace their future

having personalised curriculums where they would have choices, & allowing learning to be all encompassing embracing the world in with they live (and not simply being in a classroom), & allowing their voice to be heard, & being well resourced (including technology).

skills such as ICT skills, communication skills including understanding and being able to communicate in different languages, leadership skills, problem solving skills, teamwork skills, organisational skills, empathetic skills,

evaluative skills, analytical skills, mentoring and coaching skills, social skills were all identified as being necessary.

development of skills including problem solving skills, creativity skills, team working skills, communication skills, organisational skills, interpretive skills, thinking skills, decision making skills, and meaning making skills are necessary to be able to work with others.

The concept of knowledge includes how to use tools, resources and materials to enable the world to progress and develop.

creativity, innovation, intellectual agility, teamwork, problem solving, flexibility, and adaptability

Being able to make decisions, and developing skills to succeed in the world. Being able to voice opinions which will be listened to. Education being sufficiently resourced to allow learning for the future to take place.

each young person would have a sense of

responsibility for themselves, and the world in which they live

opportunities more equal for all children

having an inviting, inspirational, comfortable and safe place to learn where they would be treated as individuals, and allowing learning to be all encompassing embracing the world in which they live (and not simply being in a classroom)

being creative and confident, understanding and accepting the culture of other people, commitment, responsibility, sensitivity.

values: young people would have a willingness to attempt to understand the perspectives of others

courage, compassion, service, sacrifice, long- term commitment and perseverance

The young person having and taking responsibility to be treated as an individual, and learning about the world in which they live.

high standards of discipline in schools

Table 4: A comparison between the previous and current Government‟s vision and ambitions with regards to education, student voice (Birkett, 2001; Arora and Williamson, 2010), and the work by Claxton and Wells (2002), and Hargreaves and Shirley (2009)

57 2.22 Conclusion

This exploration into views on 21st century education has been interesting as the texts correlated to a certain extent albeit using different terminology. It was intriguing to paraphrase and summarise the results, yet difficult to create a conceptual framework of perceived key elements of a 21st century education.

To summarise, a 21st century education needs to provide opportunities for all students to experience, think and learn. Learners need to be empowered to develop skills to be able to experience, think, reflect and learn. Facilitators need to understand how to provide the opportunities to empower learners to be able to experience, think, and learn, and to understand their role within this process. A 21st century education needs to be able to evolve as the world develops. This includes technological advances. Places where learning takes place, need to be inspiring and well resourced.

The perceived key elements for a school to deliver a successful 21st education are included in the conceptual framework below (Table 5):

58 Over-riding Values The „Learning‟ Space/Place Teacher prerequisites The Learner: Development of skills The Learner: Learner attributes The Future Respect Inclusivity Opportunity Understanding the world in which we live

Access for All Inspirational Inviting Comfortable Safe Highly trained Ongoing opportunities for professional development Flexibility Being creative Having commitment Taking responsibility Having sensitivity Treating the learner as an individual Developing supportive partnerships Creativity skills ICT skills Communication skills Leadership skills Problem solving skills Thinking skills Teamwork skills Organisational skills Empathetic skills Evaluative skills Interpretive skills Analytical skills Mentoring and coaching skills Social skills Decision making skills Meaning making skills Being creative Being confident Understanding and accepting the culture of other people Having commitment Taking responsibility Having sensitivity Being resilient Having compassion Persevering “rapid social, economic and political change” (Claxton and Wells, 2002, p. 1) “fast, flexible and vulnerable” (Hargreaves and Shirley, 2009, p. x)

Table 5: Perceived key elementsfor a school to deliver a successful 21st century education