Framework Overview

A Framework For Understanding Best Practices in 21st Century Education

Domains

Bloomʼs Taxonomy Knowledge Comprehension

Content Knowledge

Guiding Questions Curriculum How does a 21st Century curriculum balance providing students with the breadth of knowledge that they need to actively participate in the global economy with the depth of knowledge that they need to transfer their learning to new and unique situations?

Instruction

In what ways does classroom instruction provide all learners with an opportunity to connect to essential learnings in a way that is relevant and personally meaningful?

Assessment How are students afforded the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of conceptual and content knowledge through real-life application?

Problem Solving Analysis

Innovation/ Creativity

Collaboration

Synthesis

Evaluation

How does curriculum provide all students regardless of academic ability with an opportunity to find success and feel valued in a heterogeneous learning environment?

In what ways does classroom instruction provide all learners with an opportunity to apply their knowledge to increasingly complex and novel real-life situations that push them to extend their knowledge beyond their comfort level? How do teachers provide students with the opportunity to drive their own education through the creation and evaluation of personal learning goals?

How are students provided with the opportunity to learn and grow through the assessment process? In what ways do teachers shift the focus of the traditional assessment paradigm to center primarily on process not product?

How does curriculum provide students with opportunities to explore beyond core conceptual and content knowledge in an interdisciplinary manner?

How do teachers provide students with learning opportunities that encourage them to combine new learning with prior knowledge to discover innovative and novel solutions to problems?

How are students provided with formative and summative assessments opportunities to demonstrate conceptual understanding and content knowledge through projects that allow students use their own learning style?

How does curriculum work to shift the traditional classroom paradigm of teacher as “the sage on the stage” to a horizontal learning environment in which students are empowered to take an active role in the learning process as researchers, experts, and teachers?

How do teachers create a “culture of learning” in which all students are empowered to actively participate in the learning process, seen as valued contributors to the collective knowledge base of the classroom, and engaged in finding, evaluating, and creating content?

How do teachers create performancebased assessments that require students to utilize their collective knowledge-base (i.e. classmates, community members, collaborative tools, subject experts, etc.) to complete the task?

Life Long Learning

Flexible Thinking

Application