Thursday, January 30 2025 10:33

The 4Cs … Plus One More

Written by Edwin Malet

The challenge of teaching in the 21st century

It’s been 25 years since the end of the 20th century. Since then, we’ve had five presidents, fought in several wars, watched our computers shrink but become more powerful, survived a pandemic or two, and worried as polar ice grew thinner and summers grew hotter.

But what has happened in our schools? What lessons are our kids learning? Twenty-five years ago, a number of articles appeared, mostly aimed at educators and policymakers, asking what the 21st-century classroom should look like. We checked in at local schools to learn more.

The Death of Rote Learning

We discovered that much of what our kids experience in school hasn’t changed too much. In the lower grades, the emphasis remains on the “3Rs” — reading, ’riting, ’rithmetic. These skills had been reinforced though memorization and rote learning.

In the 21st century, however, our schools have shifted their emphasis to what are called the “4Cs”: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity.

Many 21st-century classes take a hands-on approach to learning

For example, Jonathan Huxtable and Eddie Gallagher, co-interim Heads of School at Wilmington Friends School, observed that much of 21st-century education is “simply the distilling of excellent teaching and learning practices that have been signatures of a Friends education for nearly 300 years.” This includes “independent thinking, a collaborative and creative approach to problem solving that involves both active listening and leadership, a strong knowledge basis, individual growth and development in the context of community, and an awareness of one’s role and responsibility in service to the greater good.”

Similarly, the Westtown School believes 21st-century education is not uniquely different and has roots in its core mission. Chris Wills, Head of School for Program and Community, said, “We teach our students about relationships — the relationships and connections between ideas and academic concepts, the relationships a student has with themselves, with others and the larger world, both human and natural. Education is grounded in teaching lifelong, transferable skills that provide students with the tools needed to thrive in a changing world.”

Wills continued, “Our program is rooted in our Quaker mission and values, partnering academic excellence with essential skills such as collaboration, empathy, negotiation and resilience, [creating] learning experiences that center exploration and action, fostering curiosity and problem-solving, to help our students develop innovative solutions to the challenges they will encounter in school and the rest of their lives.”

Adopting the 4Cs

Schools foster collaboration through group projects

Other schools have adopted the 4Cs more explicitly and wholeheartedly. Reach Cyber Charter School, according to Brandie Karpew, Director of Outreach, incorporates strategies to promote the 4Cs. “Collaboration is fostered through group projects, project-based learning, STEM camps, clubs and career experiences. Communication skills are enhanced through presentations, discussions and digital communication tools … Critical thinking is developed by engaging students in problem-solving tasks … Creative thinking is nurtured by allowing students to explore innovative solutions and express their ideas through various mediums.”

Likewise, with a focus on language-based learning differences, Center School finds the 4Cs are “central to its educational mission,” said Heidi Mozzillo, Director of Marketing and Communications. Among the tools used are interactive smartboards, talk-to-text, tablets, digital classrooms and collaborative projects.

As for students, they are encouraged to ask questions, think critically and apply their knowledge to real-world challenges. Students also participate in group projects, present to assemblies and cross-graded activities, and are challenged to analyze and solve real-world problems. Using multi-modal approaches, integrating visual, auditory and hands-on methods, creativity is highly encouraged as part of the 4C focus.

Elevating the 4Cs

Students work together to complete tasks and solve problems

At the Agnes Irwin School, Julie Diana, Director of Learning Innovation and Libraries, saw the 4Cs as a continuation of the school’s learn-by-doing philosophy. According to Diana, “students should learn how to participate in the world, so group work and collaboration are key.”

“When many of us … reflect on the group projects we did in school, we might think of a dysfunctional group of students where one person does all the work. That’s because no one taught us how to work together!” To teach this, she might have students spend a class period solving a complex, novel task where they have to work together with little guidance. “Students can reflect on how they navigated the task, showed up for the group, and how they might work together more effectively when they start their group project the following day,” she said.

Kelly Edwards, Academic Dean of Episcopal Academy, said that the 4Cs have always “been at the heart of what we value and how we educate.” It is “our intentionality and approach in cultivating these skills” that resonates. “Getting our students to recognize that these skills can be applied to situations they are not yet cognizant of is the ultimate goal.” She cited Episcopal Academy’s experiential learning opportunities that allow for service learning, community engagement and project-based learning as means to advance these skills.

Students develop communication skills through presentations

CFS, the Church Farm School, sees 21st-century education as “student-centered, organic and nimble,” according to Stefanie Claypoole, Director of Marketing and Communications. She called the 4Cs an “inherent part” of its curriculum.

Among other methods, CFS uses “Harkness discussions,” with the teacher acting as more of a moderator than leader, for its students to delve deeply into a text or historical event, generate new ideas, add evidence and generate a collective theory or answer. The school also uses escape rooms, technology quizzes and design challenges to develop collaboration — for example, building a bridge using toothpicks or solving a water crisis in a desert community.

Beyond the 4Cs

If the 4Cs are education’s beating heart, they still don’t capture the scope of education’s burgeoning 21st-century mission. Digital awareness, globalization, community, a focus on personal and social-emotional skills, and character also have emerged as central to a modern education.

Integrating new technologies is a key component of 21st-century learning

Digital citizenry skills “allow students to navigate online settings and ‘remote’ and ‘virtual’ relationships in ways that maximize the efficiencies and opportunities those spaces provide, but also minimize the potential for depersonalization and anonymous acting that such environments can breed,” said Huxtable and Gallagher at Wilmington Friends.

Globalization is another broad theme, pursued notably at Academy of Notre Dame de Namur’s Center for Global Leadership. “The school recognizes that education is not limited to just four walls or on campus, but that the world is truly our 21st-century classroom,” said Tyler Gaspich, Director of Information Resources and Technologies.

Outside the classroom, students learn life skills such as cultural competency and self-awareness. The school has used “design thinking” to help solve a problem for a character in a story they are reading, providing a deeper understanding of the character’s motives, the story’s context, and extrapolating information often found with higher-level thinking.

Character Formation

Sister Regina, Head of School at Villa Maria Academy High School, also placed great importance on “digital awareness and cultural competence or global awareness.” But, to these, she added character to the 4Cs. “Because information is ever evolving and exponentially increasing … the skills and ability to seek truth and differentiate it from all of the competing distortions.” She placed “a good bit of importance into character formation and integrity.”

Others schools have also taken up the challenge of framing 21st-century learning within a student’s character and personality. Lifelong skills such as self-awareness, building healthy relationships and responsible decision making are emphasized at Reach Cyber Charter School. Academy of Notre Dame has embarked on a program to teach empathy, character, emotional resilience, executive functioning and navigating social media. And CFS has committed to building its students into lifelong learners and global citizens committed to ethical, positive change.

“Independent, ethical and adaptable leaders who think critically, collaborate meaningfully and embrace innovation” are what Episcopal Academy seeks. “Grounded in holistic thinking, our students master content by actively producing, evaluating and synthesizing information. They are prepared to navigate a rapidly changing world, thoughtfully integrating new technologies and creating solutions for challenges and opportunities that don’t yet exist.”

 

We learned our schools have taken on a great and ever-changing task: preparing our children to be the citizens and leaders of this new century. Innovation, computerization, globalization and exploding information only begin to outline the challenges of the 21st century. The 4Cs — critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity — form the basis of many schools’ approach. However, the fifth C — character — will be the measure of their educational success.