| Word | Description |
| 21st Century Curriculum | The 21st Century Curriculum is a curriculum model that ensures that while students are learning facts in order to pass the tests that allow them to succeed educationally and advance to the next stage, they are also learning the skills they will need to succeed in life long into the future. |
| 21st Century Teacher | An educator who develops knowledge-able learners based on timeless thinking skills. Understands that knowledge is constructed and that facts change over time. Teaches content as a means for infusion of thinking skills. Understands that thinking skills include many different forms of thinking. See 21st Century Thinking Skills |
| 21st Century Thinking Skills | The 21st Century knowledge age requires people: to be adept thinkers and learners; to use and build knowledge; to differentiate and combine, compare and contrast, and construct and deconstruct ideas. In short, in the knowledge age people will need to be knowledge-able. Our heritage as builders serves us well for the task, if only we can make the transition from building better things to building better ideas. What are 21st Century Thinking(TM) skills? The demands of the 21st Century point to the need for a kind of “amphibious” thinker. Someone who is: as cognitive as they are emotionally capable, as analytical as they are creative, and as disciplined as they are interdisciplinary. 21st Century Thinking(TM) skills involves six types of thinking, each of which is different from but complimentary of the others: * Critical Thinking: the ability to analyze, deconstruct, and evaluate * Creative Thinking: the ability to construct new lines of thought * Systems Thinking: the ability to understand complex patterns in context * Scientific Thinking: the ability to observe, validate, and evidence * Interdisciplinary Thinking: the ability to unify, transfer, synthesize, and integrate * Prosocial Thinking: the ability to build rapport through compassion and concern Conceptual Learning lies at the Core of 21st Century Thinking(TM) skills. Underlying the ability to master the six types of thinking above requires a deep understanding of the inner workings of concepts (ideas) and how concepts lead to knowledge. In the same way that everything in the universe is made up of atoms and that our understanding of the atomic theory leads us to a better understanding of our universe, a deep understanding of how concepts work will open new awareness of the vast expanse of concepts we call knowledge. To become knowledge-able, one must develop an ability with concepts—the most basic unit of analysis. |