Educators in the Knoxville School District recognize that society is changing, and their approach to educating students has to change as well; so a work session involving dozens of people connected to the school district sought to come up with an idea of how to prepare students for a 21st Century environment.
The Portrait of a Panther workshop brought together dozens of students, teachers, staff members, parents and other interested community leaders to think about how they want education to adapt, and create students better versed in skills beyond academics.
Cassi Pearson is Knoxville’s school superintendent; she tells KNIA/KRLS News the thinking now among teachers is helping to develop students who are better prepared for changes in their professional lives, and go beyond school books to learn about interacting with others.
“It’s not just about learning how to read, or how to compute math problems, or learning about science experiments. It really goes a lot deeper than that,” Pearson says.
“In the past we’ve always worked on those social skilled areas. However, we haven’t done probably the same depth of measuring those or reporting out on those or giving kids feedback on those; and so that’s what we’re really getting serious about at this time.”
Around 30 different types of skills were initially identified, but the discussion boiled them down to five — communication, critical thinking, personal responsibility, adaptability and social skills.
Pearson says the participants believe these five concepts will help students prepare themselves for the workplace, and should be used as a guide in future coursework.
