How to Help Your Child Excel in the 21st Century – Part II
Educating your child beyond core curriculum – Mastery of 21st Century Themes
In part 2 of our series, we will discuss how parents can help your child develop important life skills as you help complement the core academic foundations, that is well tackled by our current education system. While the Ministry of Education in Singapore has long realized the importance of “Life Skills” and has been actively redesigning the curriculum to incorporate the inculcation of such skills into our children’s education, parents can play a much bigger role in developing these skills outside of mastery of core subjects.
As we have discussed during our previous post, there is an urgent need to weave multi-disciplinary themes in the 21st century into your child’s learning. These include a broader global awareness (critical in an increasingly global and connected world), financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy and civic mindedness. Today, we will share some practical tips on how parents can help develop your child into a confident person and make him/her a self-directed learner, a concerned citizen and an active contributor.
Global/cultural awareness
One of the key themes in the 21st century is globalisation. As the economy become more global and employment become more mobile geographically, the workplace will likely become more multi-cultural than it is today. It is important to instill a strong global awareness and cultural sensitivity to help your child integrate well into their workplace and contribute effectively, both as a team leader and a team player. How then can you help your child develop such skills? Here are some practical tips that can be both fun and educating for your child:
a) Newspapers: One good and economic way of inculcating global awareness would be through newspapers. By inculcating a strong reading habit, your child will be able to pick up not only general knowledge, but also becoming more aware of the happenings around Singapore and the world. For younger children, you can let your young child look at the colourful pictures in the papers and let them describe the picture. Read the captions aloud with him/her to familiarise him/her with newspaper reading. For older children, you can ask them to go on a scavenger hunt and look for certain news items or sections for specific coverage (example a newspaper report on Thailand), do further research on the web or in the library and then share the findings with the whole family.
b) Museum visits: Heritage and Cultural Museums often come with unparallel richness around unique cultures and heritage. Bringing your child early on to a museum could expose him/her to different cultures at a young age and develop his/her natural curiosity in other cultures. You may want to find an interesting fact about a certain culture and artifact before hand and challenge your child to find it during your visit. For instance in the Singapore Asian Civilisations Museum at Empress Place, you might want to challenge your child to find out which culture actually sold their members to other tribes in exchange for gold to make jewellery (Hint: The answer is in the Mary and Philbert Chin Gallery). You can then discuss with him/her the differences between our culture and the particular culture as well as how the culture has evolved over time.
c) Research prior to and after family trips: Another good way of developing a global or cultural awareness is to leverage your family trips to other countries. By asking your child to conduct specific research around the places of interests using the internet or libraries, you will allow him/her more involvement in the trip. (For older children, encourage them to plan specific portions of the trip). Your child can also look at the places of interests that you are visiting and investigate why they are popular as well as the significance of the particular monument to the local. Before the trip, allow him/her to do a presentation to the family to share his/her findings with their “travel mates”. After the trip, you can ask your child to develop a scrap book combining photos taken from the sights, his/her research and his/her thoughts about the places you visited.
d) Research projects during school holidays: If you are not going for an overseas trip, you can still get your child to do simple research on different countries during the school holidays. For instance, you can challenge your child to map out the various voyages of Magellan and research on the different countries along the way. Ask him/her to design a quiz based on the information and plan a family night where your child could be the host of your unique history/geography game show. Other interesting family projects may include planning for a “China Day” or “France Day”. All activities for the day will surround the country that the family has chosen; i.e: food, costume, language, music, places of interest, crafts, etc.
Economic, financial and business literacy
Economic, financial and business literacy is another of the core multi-disciplinary themes in educating a 21st Century professional. While it may seem complex at the onset, it offers significant opportunity for your child to learn about Mathematics, English and even History.
a) Budgeting on grocery trips: By involving your child during your trips to the supermarket, you can help your child develop both numeric skills and basic financial sense. This will be most relevant for younger children. First, let your child know how much you will want to spend during this shopping trip and go through with him/her your shopping list. When you are at the supermarket, let your child calculate the amount of money left after picking up each item. You can encourage him/her to warn you when you are over-budget. When checking out, allow your child to make payment and accept change back from the cashier.
b) Budgeting during oveseas vacations: Another way to instill responsibility and money sense into your child is to encourage him/her to budget for what he/she wants to spend on a family trip. For instance, if he/she wants to budget $50 for the trip to buy things, ask them to set aside a small sum of his/her pocket money every month. Nearer the trip you can encourage your child to calculate the exchange rate and how much in local currency one can exchange into. During the trip, let him/her calculate the amount of money left in his/her kitty after each time he/she bought something.
c) Setting up a flea market store during school holidays or weekends: Another interesting (but not certainly conventional) way of teaching business sense to your child would be to set up a store at a flea market. You can discuss with your child the concept of a flea market store and allow your child to provide ideas around what your store should be selling. Jointly procure or scavenge whatever products you might want to sell and rent a store at the flea market at Far East Square for a weekend. Encourage him/her to be actively involved in the selling and help him/her with the accounts at the end of the day. You can discuss and review how well you have done and what worked well and areas of improvement. Remember, it is the process that counts and making money from the store is only icing on top of the cake.
d) Picking stocks and comparing returns: Another low cost idea that can help your child develop better financial sense is starting a stock picking game at home. Organise a competition at home that tallies the monthly results of each of your picks. You and your spouse can encourage your child to flip through the papers and pick some companies from the share price page in the Money section together with him/her. At the end of the year, compare the results and you may choose to give a gift to the winner. (For older children, you may want to allow them to switch their holdings every month).
e) Research projects during school holidays: Similar to the research project on different countries, you may also want to plan a project for your child surrounding the finance and economic areas. For instance, you can ask your child about how he/she might resolve the developmental challenges that Singapore was facing in the 1960s. For this project, you can leverage resources in the National Museum of Singapore - bring your child to the museum to understand the challenges and problems in Singapore. Ask him/her to conduct research in the gallery and on the web and role-play as a World Bank economist advising Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Dr Goh Keng Swee during the early days of Singapore.
Civic-mindedness
To develop your child into a well-rounded 21st century citizen, it is also critical to inculcate in him/her the importance of civil-mindedness. It will be a very enriching process for your child to participate, together with you, in volunteer work to help the more unfortunate during the school holidays. Discuss with your child what causes he/she would like to support and work closely with him/her during the process. At the end of the volunteer project, be sure to encourage him/her to develop a journal to document what he/she has learnt and his/her feelings from contributing to the cause.
Conclusion
There are many opportunities for you, as a concerned and enlightened parent, to help your child develop key skills outside of the core curriculum. It is also a process where you can help develop your child’s sense of responsibility, teamwork, and a broader understanding of the world. While this will require significant work for parents as well, there are many fun ways to involve the entire family and make it an enjoyable, mutual learning process. Key things to remember - your guidance will be critical in maintaining their interests and be encouraging and generous with your praise. This will help build his/her confidence and eventually training them to be curious, self-directed learners who can navigate the complex challenges and dilemmas facing 21st Century Professionals. In our next posting, we will share some tips on how to help your child develop another set of critical life skills - strong learning, thinking and communicating skills.
By Ms. Angeline Tong and Ms. Brenda Yeow
Showing posts with label 21st Century Skills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 21st Century Skills. Show all posts
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
How to Help Your Child Excel in the 21st Century?
The world our children will face as they enter the workforce will be dramatically different from the ones we faced today. The increasingly connected, innovative environment is accelerating the pace of change, making an already uncertain world even more complex and ambiguous. The need to adapt rapidly to these changes will no doubt intimidate most, but with a prescient understanding of the skills necessary for success for the 21st century, you can give your child a critical head start from his/her peers.
Numerous researches had been done to pinpoint the core skills that can help a child reach his/her learning potential and be successful in the future. Leveraging and adapting the latest insights available on the topic and our experience as educators in both the US and Singapore, we have developed a set of practical tips and advice on how you can help your child develop the core skills required for success in the 21st century.
However, basic competency in the “new core” is insufficient. There is an urgent need to weave multi-disciplinary themes in the 21st century into your child’s learning. These include a broader global awareness (critical in an increasingly global and connected world), financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy and civic mindedness. Our education system, while increasingly open and broad-based, may not be able to spend too much resources outside the core, as an enlightened parent, you can play an active role to shape your child’s education outside the classroom and help your child learn at a higher level.
Learning, Thinking and Innovating Skills
The global knowledge economy in the 21st century presents increasingly complex, ambiguous life and work environments and has heightened the importance of creativity and independent thinking. Success is thus dependant on the ability to question established norms and commonly accepted knowledge, thinking critically at a deeper level and creating new found knowledge and concepts beyond the obvious. A focus on creative, critical thinking, communications and collaboration is essential to prepare your child for the future. Despite best efforts by school systems and governments around the world, this remains a significant challenge in the lecture-style classroom environment. It is important to find ways to help your child master these critical skills to make him/her a 21st century problem solver and innovator.
Life and Social Skills
Having first-class academic achievements and an inquisitive and inventive mind may not make your child exceptionally well-placed to overcome challenges in the 21st century. The 21st Century society is not merely about acing exams, getting a degree and obtaining a stable job. The ability to navigate complex life and work environments in a globally competitive information age is critical. Firstly, he/she must learn to be flexible and adaptable to work effectively in an ambiguous climate of changing priorities and varied roles. Your child must also be motivated, self-directed and be willing to take initiative at work. In a multicultural, diverse and global workplace, one must learn to be culturally aware and sensitive to earn the respect of a multinational team. He/she must also set and meet high standards and goals in delivery quality work on time. More importantly, he/she must take up responsibilities, acquire leadership skills and build his/her self-confidence. This requires him/her to pay rigorous attention and significant guidance from you and other mentors to master these life and social skills.
Technology and Information Management Aptitude
We live in a technology driven and media saturated environment, where there is an overflow of information and rapid changes in technology platforms. The pervasiveness of internet has also empowered individual contribution on an unprecedented level in today’s knowledge-based economy. One can only imagine how rapid technological innovations would impact the working environment of our children. As Daniel Burns aptly pointed out in his book ‘24 technologies That Will revolutionize Our Lives’, “The future belongs to those who are capable of being retained again and again.” To be effective 21st century leaders, managers and professionals, your child must learn to adapt to the rapidly changing technology landscape and be competent in accessing, evaluating and applying information effectively. He/she must also be able to interpret and decipher messages from various media sources and actively use digital and information technology to manage, create, integrate and communicate new found knowledge and concepts.
While this seems a gargantuan task, there is room for schools and parents to work closely together to impart and reinforce these skills. There is also room for parents to shape their children’s learning environment and allow them to acquire these critical foundation skills and learn more effectively at a higher level.
In the second part of our series, we will explore how you can help strengthen your child’s core academic abilities and help him/her connect the dots between the different disciplines. We will also share some practical tips on how you can weave in some global awareness and financial literacy into his/her daily learning.
Numerous researches had been done to pinpoint the core skills that can help a child reach his/her learning potential and be successful in the future. Leveraging and adapting the latest insights available on the topic and our experience as educators in both the US and Singapore, we have developed a set of practical tips and advice on how you can help your child develop the core skills required for success in the 21st century.
Excellence in the 21st century environment requires not only a strong appreciation of Core Academic Concepts and Foundation, there are also 3 other prerequisites – Learning, Thinking and Innovation skills, Life and Social skills, and Technology and Information Management aptitude.
Core Academic Foundation, with 21st Century Themes
A mastery of core subjects and 21st century themes is essential for children today. This extends beyond the typical Science, English and Mathematics that were the core focus during our school days. There is an urgent need to build up an appreciation of humanities and social sciences, such as history, geography and arts. Humanities do not typically demand a right answer and often allow students to think from multiple perspectives, debate the various possibilities, before coming to a meaningful and well thought through set of responses. This trains students not to accept the one “right” answer, but also to question and probe deeper – skills critical for the knowledge based economy.
Core Academic Foundation, with 21st Century Themes
A mastery of core subjects and 21st century themes is essential for children today. This extends beyond the typical Science, English and Mathematics that were the core focus during our school days. There is an urgent need to build up an appreciation of humanities and social sciences, such as history, geography and arts. Humanities do not typically demand a right answer and often allow students to think from multiple perspectives, debate the various possibilities, before coming to a meaningful and well thought through set of responses. This trains students not to accept the one “right” answer, but also to question and probe deeper – skills critical for the knowledge based economy.
However, basic competency in the “new core” is insufficient. There is an urgent need to weave multi-disciplinary themes in the 21st century into your child’s learning. These include a broader global awareness (critical in an increasingly global and connected world), financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy and civic mindedness. Our education system, while increasingly open and broad-based, may not be able to spend too much resources outside the core, as an enlightened parent, you can play an active role to shape your child’s education outside the classroom and help your child learn at a higher level.
Learning, Thinking and Innovating Skills
The global knowledge economy in the 21st century presents increasingly complex, ambiguous life and work environments and has heightened the importance of creativity and independent thinking. Success is thus dependant on the ability to question established norms and commonly accepted knowledge, thinking critically at a deeper level and creating new found knowledge and concepts beyond the obvious. A focus on creative, critical thinking, communications and collaboration is essential to prepare your child for the future. Despite best efforts by school systems and governments around the world, this remains a significant challenge in the lecture-style classroom environment. It is important to find ways to help your child master these critical skills to make him/her a 21st century problem solver and innovator.
Life and Social Skills
Having first-class academic achievements and an inquisitive and inventive mind may not make your child exceptionally well-placed to overcome challenges in the 21st century. The 21st Century society is not merely about acing exams, getting a degree and obtaining a stable job. The ability to navigate complex life and work environments in a globally competitive information age is critical. Firstly, he/she must learn to be flexible and adaptable to work effectively in an ambiguous climate of changing priorities and varied roles. Your child must also be motivated, self-directed and be willing to take initiative at work. In a multicultural, diverse and global workplace, one must learn to be culturally aware and sensitive to earn the respect of a multinational team. He/she must also set and meet high standards and goals in delivery quality work on time. More importantly, he/she must take up responsibilities, acquire leadership skills and build his/her self-confidence. This requires him/her to pay rigorous attention and significant guidance from you and other mentors to master these life and social skills.
Technology and Information Management Aptitude
We live in a technology driven and media saturated environment, where there is an overflow of information and rapid changes in technology platforms. The pervasiveness of internet has also empowered individual contribution on an unprecedented level in today’s knowledge-based economy. One can only imagine how rapid technological innovations would impact the working environment of our children. As Daniel Burns aptly pointed out in his book ‘24 technologies That Will revolutionize Our Lives’, “The future belongs to those who are capable of being retained again and again.” To be effective 21st century leaders, managers and professionals, your child must learn to adapt to the rapidly changing technology landscape and be competent in accessing, evaluating and applying information effectively. He/she must also be able to interpret and decipher messages from various media sources and actively use digital and information technology to manage, create, integrate and communicate new found knowledge and concepts.
While this seems a gargantuan task, there is room for schools and parents to work closely together to impart and reinforce these skills. There is also room for parents to shape their children’s learning environment and allow them to acquire these critical foundation skills and learn more effectively at a higher level.
In the second part of our series, we will explore how you can help strengthen your child’s core academic abilities and help him/her connect the dots between the different disciplines. We will also share some practical tips on how you can weave in some global awareness and financial literacy into his/her daily learning.
By Miss Brenda Yeow and Ms Angeline Tong
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