Bringing Learning out of the 20th Century and into the 21st Century

By:
Dr. Mimi Yang
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No Child Left Behind (NCLB) personifies a perfect 20th century mind in education, that stresses reading and math as most essential skills to teach in our educational system. However, the 21st century proves it to be a meager minimum, as labor mobility, replacement of man power with computer-programmed systems, frequency of job shifting, cyber communication and global business require not only competence in the traditional academic disciplines but also 21st century literacy and proficiency. This presentation aims to delineate a 21st mental horizon in learning and outline a set of 21st century skills necessary to the survival and success in a globally “flattened” and interconnected world. In doing so, I revisit and redefine the notion of IQ in relation with cultural and emotional intelligence. I highlight that 21st century education places emphasis more on the ability to acquire skills than on the skills themselves, more on life-long learning than schooling.


Keywords: Global Education, GLobal Educators, Global Citizens, 21st Century Literacy, Life-Long Learning, IQ, Emotional Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence
Stream: Adult, Vocational, Tertiary and Professional Learning
Presentation Type: 30 minute Paper Presentation in English
Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Dr. Mimi Yang

Associate Professor, Divsion of the Humanities
The Clausen Center for World Business, Carthage College
Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA

Mimi Yang (Ph.D.) is an associate professor of Modern Languages and the Clausen Center for World Business at Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA. She is multilingual in Chinese, English, Spanish, and Portuguese. A native of China, she majored in Spanish language and literature, earning a B.A. from Beijing University, and a M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. Before coming to Carthage in 1996, she was a visiting assistant professor of Spanish at Illinois Wesleyan University. She also has held teaching posts at the University of Arizona, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, and Dartmouth College. A recipient of numerous scholarships and awards and a frequent speaker of national and international conferences, she is the author of a dozen of articles on literature, painting and pedagogy published in national and international journals. She won 2004 Wisconsin Global Educator Award.

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