California's P21 Initiative

The 4C's

Collaboration

  • Demonstrate ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams
  • Exercise flexibility and willingness to be helpful in making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal
  • Assume shared responsibility for collaborative work, and value the individual contributions made by each team member

Communication

  • Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written, and nonverbal communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts
  • Use communication for a range of purposes (e.g. to inform, instruct, motivate, and persuade)
  • Use multiple media and technologies
  • Communicate effectively in diverse environments (including multilingual and multicultural)

Creativity

  • Think Creatively
  • Use a wide range of idea creation techniques (such as brainstorming)
  • Create new and worthwhile ideas (both incremental and radical concepts)
  • Elaborate, refine, analyze, and evaluate original ideas to improve and maximize

Critical Thinking

  • Use inductive and deductive reasoning
  • Analyze and evaluate major alternative points of view
  • Synthesize and make connections between information and arguments
  • Interpret information and draw conclusions
  • Solve different kinds of unfamiliar problems in both innovative ways
  • Identify and ask significant questions that clarify various points of view and lead to better solutions