21st Century Skills

I think that critical thinking is the 21st Century Skill that will be most important to students' success and well-being in life.  This skill requires students to evaluate information and determine how it can be used to make decisions and solve problems.  In the classroom, teachers can require students to use critical thinking by allowing them to select a topic they want to learn about and then determine what information they need to find out about it and which sources they should use to find that information.  They then must evaluate the quality of the information and decide how they should represent their new learning for other audiences.  This involves selecting appropriate technology tools for the task.  Giving students the opportunity to make decisions at every step of the process calls upon their higher-level thinking skills and requires critical thinking.  A good way to assess students' critical thinking is through reflection.  Reflection requires students to engage in metacognition to record which decisions they were faced with and why they made the choices that they did.  They can also reflect on whether they think they made the best choice and whether they would make the same decision next time.  This allows both the student and the teacher to be better aware of the student's thinking and decision-making process throughout the project.