By Lance G King
As I am sure you are aware, back in 2012 I designed the 10 Cluster model of ATL skills for the MYP and unfortunately, I have had no opportunity since then to review and revise that structure and the 134 skill practices that go with it. There is nothing wrong with the framework but if I was to redo it today I would eliminate all the duplication, simplify the wording and redraft it all in terms of exactly what we want the student to do. But it looks like I won’t have to! I have recently seen some evidence to suggest that the good people in PYP development may have taken my 10 Cluster model of ATL skills and improved upon it to produce a model of ATL skills that they believe will work well in the PYP.
MYP 10 Cluster Model => Possible PYP ATL Model
- Communication => Exchanging Information and Literacy
- Collaboration => ICT and Interpersonal Relationships, Social/Emotional Intelligence
- Organisation => Organisation
- Affective Skills => States of Mind
- Reflection => Reflection and Metacognition
- Information Literacy => Information Literacy
- Media Literacy => Media Literacy and Ethical Use of Media and Information
- Critical Thinking => Critical Thinking
- Creative Thinking => Creative Thinking
- Transfer => Information Transfer
I am not directly in the loop on PYP development so I cannot confirm this model but my point is that if this PYP framework, or something like it, does go ahead, then because it includes all the skills from my 10 Cluster model we could harmonise the two into one framework and maybe produce one ATL framework to cover two programmes. And then ATL could become the consistent thread that holds both programmes together.
Of course, then we need to think about ATL in the DP.
I think if we are designing ATL for the DP programme we have to assume that that all the basic skills will be taken care of by then and start by focusing on the additional skills that will advantage DP students both in their DP studies and also when they leave school.
Maybe:
- “Western” skills for “Eastern” students
- “Eastern” skills for “Western” students
- The skills of the self-managed learner
- Exam skills if they come from a non-exam background
But maybe more importantly if we are looking at preparing these students for adulthood, further education and employment then maybe our ATL programme needs to contain:
- Entrepreneurial skills
- People management
- Time, task and pressure management
- Leadership skills
- Financial skills
- Computational thinking
- Social media representation and relationship management
- Problem solving in digital environments
And if we were then to amalgamate all three ATL frameworks into one then suddenly we have the possibility of creating one ATL framework which extends from Grade 1 to 12 from which teachers can pick the skills most appropriate for their students.
Imagine that!
My basic point is that we don’t need PYP ATL, MYP ATL, DP ATL and CP ATL. We don’t need more silo mentality, we have enough of that already, what we need is a true continuum, a continuum of ATL skills. One skills framework that all IB schools could design their own complete ATL programme from. And of course, if it was a complete framework then schools that are not IB schools could also use it as a design tool to help them design their own 21st C skills programme.
This is my goal for the next six months – to create a Grade 1–12, 21st C, ATL, skills framework.
Maybe something like this:
- Exchanging Information
- Literacy
- ICT
- Interpersonal Relationships, Social and Emotional Intelligence
- Organisation
- States of Mind
- Information Literacy
- Media Literacy
- Ethical Use of Media/Information
- Critical Thinking
- Creative Thinking
- Information Transfer
- Reflection and Metacognition
- Entrepreneurial
- People management
- Time, task and pressure management
- Leadership
- Financial
- Computational thinking
- Social media representation and relationship management
- Problem solving in digital environments
21 Clusters of 21st C skills, each of which will also be detailed as to all the skill practices it entails – what exactly students need to do to practice every part of each skill.
If it is inclusive and comprehensive enough it will also serve as a framework of thinking and learning skills that any school, anywhere in the world could use as a planning tool no matter what subject curricula they use.
Then any schools 21st C skills programme can become the thread that holds all levels of curricula together and becomes the most consistent aspect of a child’s school experience!
Many thanks again to Lance King for allowing us the use of this article as part of our informational series on Approaches to Learning Skills!
What about broadening skill 9 to ethical skills? Or ethical thinking skills?
What would “ethical (thinking) skills” look like? ‘Ethics’ is the study of the principles underlying, determining and used to judge moral behaviour. If one knows how to think, and knows what ‘ethics’ means, then that ‘skill’ already exists. Crucially, it cannot be decontextualised: when one is trying to assess whether person X is behaving morally or immorally (or even amorally), knowing what ethical principles they subscribe to, and whether these accord with their behaviour, the answer is forthcoming. Similarly, if one knows what set of ethical principles person X subscribes to, the future behaviour is ‘predictable’. It is not a skill which is decontextualisable.
I think it could. It goes to show that any list of specific skills taught in a school must organically change and develop over time the more we reflect upon what is important for students. This would also serve as great preparation for TOK and several DP courses.
My take on this would be that I don’t think there are such things as ethical skills. I don’t think ethics are skills, Ethics are moral principles and are based on an individual’s or a culture’s values and beliefs. My definition of a skill is “a collection of strategies and techniques, unified for a specific purpose that improves with practice.” Skills are all about doing and that doing may involve the application of a certain perspective originating from an individual’s values, beliefs and ethical viewpoint but the skill is in the application of the analysis not in the nature of the ethical perspective. So one critical thinking skill might involve analysing a particular problem or data set from an ethical perspective but the skill is in the critical analysis not in the application of ethics.
Speaking personally as a teacher of more than 30 years, I do not think I have the right to teach anyone morals, ethics, values or beliefs, all I can ever do is to teach students how to analyse data or problems from a range of ethical or moral perspectives in order for them to develop the skill of working out for themselves what they consider to be their own ethical point of view. I also think that any teacher who strays into this area is entering very dangerous waters because everything they will be teaching will be heavily influenced by their own values, beliefs, morals and ethical perspective and rational objectivity is virtually impossible to achieve. For these reasons I have not included any suggestion that ethical, moral, value or belief based reasoning has any place in a framework of 21st C skills.
Thanks for the response… am only now reading it, sorry. But I think I agree with you, perhaps ‘ethical thinking’ has its place under the umbrella or interpersonal skills, critical thinking skills, affective skills.
But … do you think it is possible to teach without being influenced by our own values? Take the Learner Profile for example – Principled, Caring… or developing the Respect … even academic honesty, these are all inherently value laden concepts. I guess, the point I was trying to make is that recognition of the value laden nature of some areas of learning is also important strategy. One which could be improved?