In a recent issue of Educational Leadership (April, 2010), Ed Coughlin at times sounds as if he’s describing IEE’s Power2 programming in his article, “High Schools at a Crossroads.” In the article Mr. Coughlin addresses a variety of issues regarding the educational needs of diverse high school students in the 21st century.
In a section titled, “A Better Future: A Metacurriculum of 21st Century Learning,” Mr. Coughlin suggests that schools must see traditional academic programs as only one part of a student’s educational experience, describing another essential piece as being a 21st century metacurriculum:
“Whereas the academic curriculum focuses on the knowledge that students must master within the content areas, the metacurriculum focuses on the learning skills, habits of mind, and life and workplace skills students need to be successful in a competitive, shrinking world.”
The author then identifies four beliefs that support this approach:
1) “Important 21st century skills, such as critical thinking, innovative thinking, and self-directed behavior, can be explicitly taught, applied, and assessed.”
2) “21st century skills are not “soft skills” but important qualities that may contribute more directly to student success in future education, life, and careers than many academic skills do.”
3) “Students can most effectively develop 21st century skills in the context of rich, authentic academic learning opportunities that closely mirror the type of work done by professionals.
4) “Schools and parents share joint responsibility for helping all students attain these skills.”
Mr. Coughlin’s description of a metacurriculum becomes more powerful when it is united with the concept of intentional and intense character development programming.
As we work to continue developing Power2Achieve programs, we continue to align with the student outcomes identified by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (1), lay the groundwork for experiences that apply to students’ lives both in and out of the classroom (2), develop student competencies through authentic experiential activities (3), and find new and innovative ways to strengthen the educational partnership between schools and families (4).
Mr. Coughlin closes his article with the following challenge:
“The schools that will be successful will transform themselves from transmitters of knowledge and information to orchestrators of a complex program of learning facilitation and cognitive development. Will yours be one of them?”
More than any other program available today, Power2Achieve allows schools to answer “YES.”
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Reference: Coughlin, E. (2010, April). High schools at crossroads. Educational Leadership, 67(7), 48-53.
