The Student as Innovative Designer

The standard “the student as Innovative Designer” relates to the 21st century skills in many ways. All of these sections relate to the 21st century skill of creativity because that is one of the core skills a designer needs to possess. The first point, 4a, connects with both the creativity and collaboration sections of the 21st century skills. The design process that is needed in order for students to create and solve problems involves thinking through the process and problem solving in ways that can be described as critical thinking. The other points relate to the skills because they deal with critical thinking as well. A teacher could relate these points to other skills through different activities and group work.
In order to help students achieve this standard, teachers must also have the attributes of a designer. Teachers must be able to create lessons and atmospheres that foster creativity and learning. To do this, they must be able to accomodate for each student’s individual needs, and that takes a lot of creative thinking and problem solving abilities!

For example, I had a teacher this last year who showed this skill almost every class period. He created an environment that challenged us to work hard and think deeply, while catering to each of our different learning styles. He anticipated what we would need from him as a teach in order for us to learn as much as we could as well as we could.