Life and Career Skills

Flexibility and Adaptability

Provide students with different roles and responsibilities in a variety of contexts to practice being able to adapt to change and be flexible. These can be directly included in the curriculum, but also embedded into the systems and procedures of the classroom. Ensure that students are given practice working effectively in a variety of roles and even some that might be ambiguous or contain fluctuating priorities.

Social and Cross-Cultural Skills

Similarly to the skill of collaboration, students require direct instructions and practice interacting effectively with others. Facilitate activities that allow students to work with others and provide clear success criteria and opportunity for reflection and self-assessment of their success. Additionally, make sure that students have the chance to work effectively in diverse teams. It can be tempting to allow students to segregate themselves, but intentionally creating opportunities for students to learn to respect cultural differences and practice being open-minded in the face of different ideas and values is a key component of functioning in the adult world.

Productivity and Accountability

Productivity and accountability is likely already integrated into your curriculum through your systems and procedures and classroom management plan. As a 21st century skill, intentionally teaching students the components of managing projects includes guiding students to set and meet goals, as well as to prioritize, plan, and manage their work.

Leadership and Responsibility

Part of the rationale for integrating 21st century skills into curriculum is to support the development of well-rounded members of society, capable of exercising leadership and responsibility for themselves and others. Address this by providing opportunities for students to guide and lead others through the use of interpersonal and problem-solving skills, inspiring and leveraging the strengths of others, and demonstrating integrity. Students should also have chances to be responsible to others. This means providing situations in which students have to act with the interests of the community. For this and all Life and Career Skills, students should also be given the opportunity and the support to reflect on their success and set intentions and goals for the future.