Students nowadays are experiencing an education system which rapidly changes

from time to time through implementation of many educational technologies.

Learning strategies, teaching processes and roles of teachers, students, parents and
administrators. have been upgrading continually in accordance with the demands of
21st century education. 21st century education doesnt just require good grades, it
helps students to become independent learners. It also has a set of skills which we
can call as, 21st century skills.

Lets have a glance at the list of 21st century skills:

1) Creativity
2) Critical thinking
3) Cultural Awareness
4) Problem solving
5) Innovation
6) Civic engagement
7) Communication
8) Productivity
9) Collaboration
10)Accountability
11) Exploration
12)Initiative
13)Responsibility
14)Leadership

In addition to the above mentioned skills, there are many more skills that 21st
century students are required to have. Its difficult to cover the information about all
the 21st century skills in one guide so Im writing this guide with focus more on two
important 21st century skills, Critical thinking and Problem solving. As we know 21st
century students will have the jobs that dont even exist yet, students must have
problem solving and critical thinking skills. Lets learn about them.

Critical thinking:
Critical thinking is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, partially true, or false.
21st century educations main objective is to help students think critically and not just
take in things like a parrot. Critical thinking leads to skills that can be learned,
mastered and used. It is the rational examination of ideas, inferences, assumptions,
principles, arguments, conclusions, issues, statements, beliefs & actions.

Problem solving:

Problem solving, the term itself indicates that its an approach of solving problems or
finding solutions to problems. From students to professionals, everyone experiences
problems from time to time. Some problems are complicated while many others are
easily solved. For every task or work we perform, there are many challenges and
issues that make it difficult to complete. 21st century education involves teaching
approaches that help students become capable to solve problems that arise in their
job, education or life.

Similarity between Critical thinking & Problem solving:

Critical thinking is defined as meaningful, unbiased decisions or judgments based on
the use of interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inferences, and explanations of
information as it relates to the evidence applied to a specific discipline. Critical
thinking differs from student to student as they have different interpretations.
Problem solving is the ability to find solutions to problems, overcome challenges,
completing difficult tasks through techniques, etc.
Both critical thinking and problem solving are similar as their design is to approach
and tackle different challenges. Both critical thinking and problem solving (creative
problem solving) involves the following procedure:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

Identify an objective
Conduct research
Generate ideas
Develop solutions
Check whether or not the solutions are appropriate.

Why 21st century students need Critical thinking and Problem solving skills and how
educators can improve these skills:

Critical thinking:
Many students have access to technology as well as technological devices and most
of them know how to blog, micro blog, connect and collaborate with others through
social media, explore and exchange knowledge about any concept, etc. Despite
having many educational technologies, students still find it difficult to reach higher
learning standards. This is because theyre not being selective in thetechnologies
they use. Students nowadays still lack the ability to critically decipher through the
hits they find on a Google search, and many do not understand the concept of a
digital foot-print. Jules, an English teacher, has shared a practice that is being

implemented in her school to improve creative thinking of students. Lets learn about
it.

Many students do not think critically about the sources they select from online sites.
We designed and implemented a four year research strategy at my high school that
includes Boolean logic, searching for sources, determining the sources credibility,
how to differentiate primary and secondary sources, checking how often the material
is updated (if ever), etc. I teach mostly seniors and find that most do question the
validity of blogs versus articles citing expert opinion, but that does not translate
necessarily to them choosing better sources or seeking to find answers that arent
already provided for them in some way. Thanks for posting. The need and ability of
youth to critically think about the media in which they daily engage is increasingly
necessary. says Jules.

Why can make students think critically:

According to me, the word or the question Why is a great sign of Critical thinking.
Most of the students just follow what theyve learnt from teachers, books, or any
digital sources. But few students try to learn about what it is and ask why it is being
followed. This enthusiastic nature makes them special from the rest of the world.
In Math, critical thinking usually comes when students ask why, rather than taking
what we learn at face value, says Graham Johnson , Math Department Head
-Okanagan Mission Secondary & Instructional Designer - Thinkable Institute
Learning stops at an answer - thinking happens during questioning. Why is
always a great question - Gary Strickland , HS physics and IPC teacher.

#MysterySkype improves Critical thinking & Collaboration skills among students:

Many educators find MysterySkype as a great tool to promote collaboration among
students and improve critical thinking skills.
Mystery Skype is an educational game, invented by teachers, played by two
classrooms on Skype. The aim of the game is to guess the location of the other
classroom by asking each other questions. It's suitable for all age groups and can be
used to teach subjects like geography, history, languages, mathematics and science.

Id like to provide you with a link on which Paul Solarz has shared his experience of
using #MysterySkype.

Solarz has written the whole procedure of the Mystery Skype, his ways of finding
partners to play the game, the questioning model, and etc. Read this blog post to
know more about it.
In addition, there are many more important things to know about Critical thinking and
also numerous teaching practices to implement it. Wed like to have your views on
this. Please share with us in the comment box.

Problem solving:
Einstein's problem-solving formula:
Jeffrey Phillips, an author and an innovation consultant, once shared When asked
how he would spend his time if he was given an hour to solve a thorny problem,
(Einstein) said he'd spend 55 minutes defining the problem and alternatives and 5
minutes solving it. Which is exactly opposite of what the vast majority of executives
today would do.
Educational institutions must realize the fact that thinking of different alternatives
helps student improves his problem solving skills rather than teaching him a unique
procedure to tackle a problem.
Asking Why 5 times can find the root of any problem:
When students learn at higher pace, theyll experience many challenges and they
need to tackle different situations. Let me explain the basic model of this approach:

Students:

For example, if you failed to answer a Math problem, ask these questions.

Why didnt I answer the question? ( Because I didnt get sufficient time )
Why it took longer time? (Because the concept was very difficult for me)
Why it was difficult only for me? (Because I got stuck at a certain step)
Why I got stuck particularly at that step? (Because I didnt practice it)
Why didnt I practice it? ( Because I thought I could do it easily without practice)
Teaching them How to Code improves problem solving skills:

Bill Gates once said, Everybody in this country should learn how to program a
computer, because it teaches how to think. The main reason why young students
should be encouraged to learn coding is because its a basic computer literacy which
helps them understand the logic and challenges behind this digital world.
LeighMarburyNichols , a Math educator, suggests other educators to encourage
students to ask questions, answer each and every query of them clearly with
patience. Students should get all their questions clarified; this is the best way to
improve their problem solving and critical thinking skills.

ACTIVITY FOR CRITICAL THINKING

PAPER AERO PLANES
Overview :
This is a quick fun activity that is often used to prompt participants to think creatively
and come up with out of the box ideas to accomplish this simple fun task in a
competitive exciting simple activity.

Time / 20 Minutes

Tools/Items required:

Colored sheets of A4 paper , Masking tape

Directions and Set up :

Split participants into equal groups of 4 or 5 per group, give each group 10 sheets of
A4 papers (Each group gets a different color of A4 paper sheets), Use the masking
tape to create a start line where all groups will need to stand behind and a finish line
(Distance between the start and finish lines is 1.5 to 2 Meters)
Rules :
The winning team will get the most paper airplanes across the taped line
Each team has a different color paper

 You will have 3 minutes to strategize without your paper

You will have 5 minutes to build your airplanes and get them across the taped line
What's the point from this activity ? :
The main point of this activity is to focus on the fact that we tend to stick too much to
the rules even though there were too few rules in this activity and how making too
many assumptions greatly hinders our ability to think creatively and come up with
new, out of the box solutions to solve problems
Discussion & Debrief :
When running this activity, most groups do not use the 3 minutes to build a good
strategy and brainstorm possible ways to make the largest number of aero planes
out of their 10 sheets of paper and make sure they can fly the short distance from
the start to the finish line , instead they rush to get to the construction phase and
most of the groups spend the 5 minutes they get for construction to create as many
paper aero planes (aero planes with wings and tail ) and the result is usually that
most of the aero plains do not make it to the finish line because the designs are
usually not very aerodynamic.

There are 8 famous blocks that prevent us from thinking creatively , the 8 blocks are:

1. Believing you arent creative

2. Making assumptions
3. Following the rules too strictly
4. Being serious
5. Avoiding risks or being wrong is bad
6. Always staying with your routines/habits
7. Thinking there is only one solution
8. Making judgments too quickly

If we apply the 8 blocks to what happened , ask the groups what assumptions did
they make and what rules did they stick to that caused them to design the aero
planes the way they did ?

Despite having very few rules in this activity , most groups will stick very strictly
(Literally) to them , they will mostly assume that an aero plan must have wings and
tail to qualify as an aero plane , while they can be more creative and simply just
crumple each sheet of paper into a ball that becomes heavier and call that a new
design or a futuristic aero plan and then each "Aero plane " will be heavier in weight
and it will be very easy for them to fly or throw them over the finish line.

What other creative groups have done in the past is that they simply created their
Aero planes and put them together in one stack with a rubber band so that the
combined weight of all the paper aero planes will ensure they will pass the finish
line.

Other groups simply put all their planes on one of the office chairs with wheels and
they simply pushed the chair from the start to the finish line ensuring all their planes
passed the finish line safely.
These were some examples of what other groups did who decided to think differently
and challenge the 8 blocks to creative thinking .