How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century
Date: 2015-10-07; view: 572.
Transition signals are absolutely essential for the coherence of the text (both written and oral). They ease the movement from one paragraph to the next one, making the sequence of ideas smooth and logical. Choose the transition signal from the list provided to fill in each blank. Use each only once.
| Whatever the disputes among the educators are there is (1) a remarkable consensus among educators and business and policy leaders on one key conclusion: we need to bring what we teach and how we teach into the 21st century. Right now we're aiming too low. Competency in reading and math is the meager minimum. Scientific and technical skills are, (2) , utterly necessary but insufficient. Today's economy demands not only a high-level competence in the traditional academic disciplines but also what might be called 21st century skills. Here's what they are: (3) , as kids are global citizens now, they must learn to act that way. Needing workers should be global trade literate, sensitive to foreign cultures, conversant in different languages--not exactly strong points yet. (4) comes the ability to think outside the box. Jobs in the new economy--the ones that won't get outsourced or automated put an enormous premium on creative and innovative skills, seeing patterns where other people see only chaos. Kids must (5) learn to think across disciplines, since that's where most new breakthroughs are made. It's interdisciplinary combinations--design and technology, mathematics and art--that produce YouTube and Google. (6) , in an age of overflowing information and proliferating media, kids need to rapidly process what's coming at them and distinguish between what's reliable and what isn't. It's important that students know how to manage it, interpret it, validate it, and how to act on it. (7) EQ, or emotional intelligence, is as important as IQ for success in today's workplace. Most innovations today involve large teams of people so special emphasis should be placed on communication skills, the ability to work in teams and with people from different cultures. (8) , many analysts believe that to achieve the right balance between core knowledge and what educators call "portable skills"--critical thinking, making connections between ideas and knowing how to keep on learning--any curriculum is subject to revision. Classes should dwell on key concepts that are taught in depth and in careful sequence, (9) a succession of forgettable details necessary to do well in tests. (10) , countries from Germany to Singapore have extremely small textbooks that focus on the most powerful and generative ideas. These might be the key theorems in math, the laws of thermodynamics in science or the relationship between supply and demand in economics. Depth over breadth and the ability to leap across disciplines are exactly what educators should aim for. (11) teachers need not fear that they will be made obsolete. They will, (12) , feel increasing pressure to bring their methods--along with the curriculum--into line with the way the modern world works. That means putting a greater emphasis on teaching kids to collaborate and solve problems in small groups and apply what they've learned in the real world. (13) , research shows that kids learn better that way than with the old chalk-and-talk approach. TIME, By Claudia Wallis Sunday, Dec. 10, 2006 | Firstly Second for example last but not least it rates a mention however also as opposed to besides Iikewise what is more nonetheless needless to say |
21. Read the article and make a summary.
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