C21 Canada’s Shifting Minds – A Canadian Context for Global Competencies

C21 Canada’s was pleased to partner in the recent International Symposium on Global Competencies, hosted by CoSN, in the company of leading educators, researchers and policy-makers from around the world. _1.  It was a day of confirmation for the advocacy and influence of C21 Canada’s Shifting Minds: A 21^st Century Vision of Public Education for Canada.   The 7Cs proposed in 2013 provide a comprehensive foundation for the current world-view of global competencies highlighted by the symposium’s celebrated leaders. _2. 

C21 Canada’s 7Cs: 

1. Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
2. Critical Thinking – denotes visual, spatial, computational, and temporal
3. Collaboration – beyond group work
4. Communication – multi-media, muti-modal
5. Character – Self-Regulation and Social Emotional Learning competencies
6. Culture and Ethical Citizenship – Equity and Inclusion, Global perspectives
7. Computer and Digital Technologies

C21 Canada’s 7Cs celebrate Canadian culture and learning priorities.  They far surpass a list of digital skills in complexity, inclusivity and empathy.  A developmental continuum of 7Cs serves as a yardstick for global competency at school, work or play. 
Leading System Culture – A Co-Requisite for Global Competency

Despite growing shared perspectives and inspiring innovations in learning and technology, leaders consistently lamented the need to overcome common obstacles  to progress created by system culture misalignment.  C21 Canada in its work with school district leaders embarking on 21^st Century Learning and Innovation, uncovered 6 common system drivers required to align school and district culture to clear the way and enable grassroots progress in learning and innovation. _3. 

C21 Canada’s 6 System Drivers: 

Through professional network engagement, the CEO Academy determined a continuum of system criteria required to establish coherent innovative systems.  Key drivers include: Pedagogy, Assessment, Curriculum, Learning Environments, Governance and Stakeholder Engagement.

Shifting Minds: Redefining the Learning Landscape in Canada _4. highlights the crucial role that leaders play in driving curiosity, change and innovation throughout school systems and schools.  A developmental continuum offers scaffolding for leaders to begin, engage and sustain evolving learning cultures. 

Spiral Playbook:  A New Metric for Connecting the Dots

The “shiny new tools” of the 21^st Century, like 3D printers, coding, maker spaces, personalized learning, blended learning, BYOD, require vastly different learner/teacher inquiry and engagement.  The intentional use of research-based tools is required to generate critical feedback and accurate evidence of learning in continuous collaborative environments.   

The Spiral of Playbook: Leading Inquiring Mindsets for School Systems and Schools points the way forward with an evidence-based model of professional inquiry that transforms how educators learn and lead across school networks.  This dynamic and recursive model helps teachers and students to re-focus and re-structure their action to capture relevant evidence. A disciplined approach guides leaders to connect stakeholders horizontally and vertically across systems to converge a steady focus on student learning in a world of technological change.

FOOTNOTES:

1. Partners included UNESCO, Partnership for 21^st Century Learning , the Global Education Conference Network with perspectives shared by presenters from Singapore, Bangladesh, Qatar, Denmark, UK
2. In 2012, C21 Canada conducted research to seek out definitions of 21^st Century Learning competencies across three areas:
3. an international scan of countries with national curriculum frameworks defining 21^st Century Learning and Innovation,
4. a national scan of Canadian curricula and their articulation of 21^st Century Learning and Innovation

• leading research on 21^st Century Learning and Innovation.

3. The CEO Academy is a professional inquiry network of CEOs/school superintendents that represents more than a million students in over 2000 schools in school districts across 10 provinces and the Northwest Territories. Leadership perspectives and needs of this network drive C21 Canada’s product development.   
4. Shifting Minds: Redefining the Learning Landscape in Canada, May 2015, www.C21Canada.org
5. The Spiral Playbook Leading an Inquiring Mindset for School Systems and Schools, January 2017, www.C21Canada.org/Playbook