Southeast Center for Education in the Arts

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   21st CENTURY

18th century	19th century	20th century	21st century
Agrarian Age	Industrial Age	Information Age	Conceptual Age
farmers	factory workers	knowledge workers	creators & empathizers

The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind – computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind – creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers. These people – artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers – will reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.

We are moving from an economy and a society built on the logical, linear, computer-like capabilities of the Information Age to an economy and a society built on the inventive, empathetic, big-picture capabilities of what’s rising in its place, the Conceptual Age.

Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Riverhead Books, 2006

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We don’t need any more 19th Century approaches to 21st Century learning. We are officially in a movement, and we are it. 21st Century learning work is not about adding to the curriculum, but transforming it according to a more complete picture of the world and the purpose of education.

Heidi Hayes Jacobs, ASCD 2009 Conference on Teaching and Learning

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This is a world in which a very high level of preparation in reading, writing, speaking, mathematics, science, literature, history and the arts will be an indispensable foundation for everything that comes after for most members of the workforce. It is a world in which comfort with ideas and abstractions is the passport to a good job, in which creativity and innovation are the key to the good life, in which high levels of education – a very different kind of education than most of us have had – are going to be the only security there is.

Strong skills in English, mathematics, technology, and science, as well as literature, history, and the arts will be essential for many. Beyond this, candidates will have to be comfortable with ideas and abstractions, good at both analysis and synthesis, creative and innovative, self-disciplined and well organized, able to learn very quickly and work well as a member of a team and have the flexibility to adapt quickly to frequent changes in the labor market as the shifts in the economy become ever faster and more dramatic.

Employers want people who have the kind of knowledge and skill that underlay many kinds of jobs, and they want people who are very good at learning new things quickly. This requires paying much more attention to identification not only of the core knowledge required but also of the key ideas and conceptual frameworks needed to really master the new core curriculum, the frameworks that people can hang new material on when they need to learn it.

The core problem is that our education and training systems were built for another era. We can get where we must go only by changing the system itself. In addition to re-visioning curricula, there needs to be a profound reconsideration of the whole approach to testing and assessment, as well as a reconsideration of the place of the arts in the curriculum, and even the role of play.

National Center on Education and the Economy, Tough Choices or Tough Times: The Report of the
New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, Revised and Expanded
Jossey-Bass, 2008

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From YouTube and TeacherTube to research studies, books and the media, there is no shortage of support for education’s transition from 19th and 20th century teaching and learning practices to those deemed necessary to prepare our students for the 21st century and beyond. The dilemma is how to best make that transition.

The authors of Tough Choices or Tough Times: The Report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce suggest that comfort with ideas and abstractions, creativity and innovation are the keys to a good life. They contend that employers the world over will be looking for the most competent, creative, and innovative people – and will be willing to pay well for their talents.

In the age of globalization and the global economy, questions about what it means to teach and learn abound and take increasingly novel forms. With the rise of the global economy and shifting patterns of world competition and cooperation, the goals of education are changing at a rapid pace. In what may be a paradox of contemporary life, colleges and universities are preparing students for careers that do not yet exist. How can we meet the challenges of assisting our students to position themselves in societies that are changing faster than has ever been the case in human history? How do we meet the challenges of reinventing ourselves to function in a changing world? With the rise of the Internet, learning technologies and online learning, modes of teaching and learning are being transformed. How are teaching and learning practices changing as a product of technological and social change?

Michael F. Mascolo, Christina Hardway, & Deborah Margolis
"Editorial: On Pedagogy and the Human Sciences"
Pedagogy and the Human Sciences, 1, No. 1, 2009

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The College Board believes that the shortcomings of the educational system cannot be fixed by tweaking or patching, but rather they require a systemic change. The current system, which segregates subjects and types of learning, splinters the effectiveness of learning by divorcing content from context and purpose. Exclusion of the arts experience in schools means that students miss out on valuable cultural learning experiences as well as chances to develop their innovative thinking skills. With the high school dropout rate growing higher each year, we cannot afford to deny students the opportunity for increased academic engagement through arts learning. In sharp contrast to our current system, we propose a new curricular model with the arts at the core, integrating many subjects and types of learning in order to give them context and meaning. The arts help students develop skills in group interaction, self-esteem, reflection, decision-making and innovative thinking. With the arts at its core, this new paradigm could provide a more effective learning environment that would induce the creative thinking needed for the 21st-century global society, and reinvigorate our youth and our teachers.

In a recent letter to school and education community leaders, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stressed “the importance of the arts as a core academic subject and part of a complete education for all students,” and he noted how “the arts play a significant role in children’s development and learning process. The arts can help students become tenacious, team-oriented problem solvers who are confident and able to think creatively. These qualities can be especially important in improving learning among students from economically disadvantaged circumstances.” Secretary Duncan went on to emphasize that the federal government’s role is intended to bring about a sea change in the ways students are exposed to the arts in the nation’s schools.

Some states are beginning to study and implement new 21st-century learning goals that span many subject areas in order to prepare students for success in the future. The Arts Education Partnership has identified 21 states with 21st-century learning initiatives. These initiatives generally focus on the need for greater emphasis on creativity, innovation, communication, collaboration and technology for a thorough education.

Rigorous study of the arts promotes creativity and innovative thinking, helps develop character, and promotes responsibility and leadership – all are qualities that will be needed to meet the demands of a 21st-century education. Learning through the arts can provide an alternative for talented students who underperform in learning environments that emphasize verbal and math skills. Research shows that participation in the arts can improve attendance and reduce dropout rates by engaging students in activities that promote community interaction.

National Task Force on the Arts in Education, Arts at the Core: Recommendations for Advancing the State of Arts Education in the 21st Century, Report presented to The Board of Trustees
The College Board, Fall 2009

As education adapts learning methods to meet the demands of the 21st century, schools, districts, states, provinces, education departments, and ministries all over the world are shifting their practices toward a new balance, leaning more to the right of the range of each of the learning practices listed below.

A New Balance

The two terms in each practice are not yes-no, either-or educational choices. Each line represents a both-and spectrum – a continuum of learning practices blending both approaches. The two must work hand in hand, in the right balance for each learner.

Bernie Trilling & Charles Fadel, 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times. Jossey-Bass, 2009