Organizations
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)
Australia’s central independent source on Australian curriculum and assessment. It provides the curriculum framework for education. Its curriculum includes a focus on general capabilities that include 21st century skills.
An organization in the United States that supports school districts and communities in their work to teach 21st century skills to students. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) which released the foundational Framework for 21st Century Learning, joined Battelle for Kids in 2018. Battelle for Kids offers a variety of networks and professional development for educators working on establishing/improving their organizations focus on and delivery of 21st century skills to students.
Created as a coalition similar to the Partnership for 21st Century skills in the United States, Canadians for 21st Century Learning and Innovation (C21 Canada) advocates for teaching 21st century skills in public education.
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
CASEL is a nonprofit organization in the United States that serves as the nation’s leading organization on social emotional learning. Started in 1994 as a result of a multi-disciplinary collaboration, CASEL offers The CASEL Framework for SEL education, curates research in the field, helps to inform legislation, and offers opportunities for collaboration as well as a guide on available SEL programs to help educators meet the needs of their students.
Ecological Approaches to Social Emotional Learning (EASEL) Laboratory
Harvard’s Graduate School of Education’s EASEL Lab researches the effects of SEL education. Their site offers a wealth of information regarding the impact of SEL programs as well as access to their Explore SEL site that provides easy access to a wide range of SEL frameworks as well as the ability to compare their content.
International Society for Technological Education (ISTE)
ISTE, based in the United States, is a global network that promotes the use of technology for teaching and learning. It has its own set of standards that incorporate 21st century skills, particularly the 4Cs. It offers a wide range of resources as well as an ISTE certification process for educators.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
OECD is a collaboration of democracies around the world with the goal of supporting economic growth. As part of its work, OECD works to support education in order to improve global access to better jobs and better lives. Specifically, they have conducted research on creativity and critical thinking, the importance of being a lifelong learner, and the skills needed for future success.
An international organization in Switzerland focused on exploring issues that impact the global economy. In their “Future of Work” section, they examine the skills and learning needed for the future workforce.
Resources to Support Program and Lesson Design
Framework for 21st Century Learning
Created by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (now part of Battelle for Kids), this framework is the result of a collaboration between teachers, education experts, and business leaders. It outlines the skills and knowledge students need to be successful in work and life.
The CASEL Framework provides a foundation for programs and educators working to create SEL curriculum and supports. The Interactive CASEL Wheel focuses on five competencies (The CASEL 5) and offers examples of each. Meant to be used as a framework from which stakeholders can design their own curriculum and programs, this resource does not outline a progression of skills.
Microsoft Learn – 21st Century Learning Design
This free course by Microsoft Learn offers rubrics to help guide educators in designing units of study that embed opportunities for students to practice and develop their skills in the 4Cs. The rubrics are NOT for assessing student work but, rather, for guiding educators in their creation of lessons.
ACARA provides learning continuums for creative and critical thinking, as well as personal and social capabilities.
The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) offers educators these free open educational resource rubrics to help educators think about the different levels of complexity required by students when demonstrating a broad range of learning skills. The rubrics, which include the 4Cs, are applicable across disciplines. The rubrics are not intended to be used to directly assess student performance. Instead, they are intended to help groups of educators discuss the learning taking place and to provide a basic framework which can then be more specifically tailored to different programs/courses.
C21 Canada – Rubrics from The Shifting Minds Index
This section of C21’s Shifting Minds: A Vision for 21st Century Learning in Canada offers rubrics to help educational organizations assess how their program design supports and encourages growth in regards to the 4Cs and other 21st century skills.
As part of OECD’s publication Fostering Students’ Creativity and Critical Thinking: What it Means in School, OECD offers open educational resources on creativity and critical thinking across disciplines. A wide range of rubrics and lessons are available for use.
ISTE offers standards that focus on the 4Cs and technology for students and educators. All levels of standards offer insight as to how to design lessons/programs that help build 21st century skills. The student standards also offer links to videos of sample lessons/units that demonstrate the standards.