The 6 C's of a classroom
Six competencies a lesson can practice, from Fullan's deep learning work.
The six names
Searches for the 6 C's in education usually mean the competencies Michael Fullan and the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning project describe: character, citizenship, collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. They are a checklist for lesson design, not a poster of synonyms for 'skills'. A lesson does not have to hit all six. A lesson that claims all six usually hits none of them on purpose.
- Character: the student meets a commitment they set, such as a revision deadline.
- Citizenship: the work affects someone outside the pair, and the student can say how.
- Collaboration: a product that one person cannot finish alone, with roles.
- Communication: an audience and a form, such as a two-minute explanation.
- Creativity: more than one acceptable approach, and time to try one.
- Critical thinking: a claim, evidence, and a reason the evidence is enough.
One lesson, two C's
A plot-diagram lesson can aim at communication and critical thinking: each student explains where the climax sits and points at the sentence that makes it the turn. Adding a group poster for 'collaboration' without a role split does not add collaboration. It adds a crowded marker. Pick two. The plot diagram page is the content. The 6 C's are the design check.
Questions
- What are the 6 C's of education?
- In Fullan's deep learning framework they are character, citizenship, collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking.
- Does every lesson need all six?
- No. Choosing two and building the task around them is more honest than labeling a worksheet with all six.
- Are the 6 C's the same as the 4 C's?
- The 4 C's usually name communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. The 6 C's add character and citizenship.