The "4 Cs" are undoubtedly a popular and supported theme in the education world. The National Education Association identifies these Cs as critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity. Kathy Gomes, superintendent of Evergreen School District in San Jose, California (2017), argues that the 4 Cs are essential to learning as early as kindergarten. Gomes claims, "The education they get now is critical to their future success". Gomes refers to projects where students apply the 4 Cs as they solve a community problem involving stray animals or create educational videos for preschool students or community members. Gomes is one of many educational leaders defending the 4 Cs as the foundation for exceptional learning.
Against
As I have been diving further into my research, I've searched for authors and educators who oppose the 4 Cs and project-based learning. In his article, "The Reason Why Modern Teaching Methods Don't Work", William Reville, Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry at UCC (2015) argues that newer teaching models do not build on students' long-term memory and devalue the memorization of new knowledge. Reville argues that, without practice and repetition, working memory information is lost. Reville praises traditional, whole-class instruction to develop long-term memory and states, "Minimal guidance methods proceed as though working memory has no relevant limitations when dealing with novel information." Reville refers to a study by Kirchner and others (2006) in Educational Psychologist.
In "Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching", Kirchner, Sweller and Clark (2006), explore the research surrounding both "direct instruction” and “unguided or minimally guided instruction" and conclude, "Not only is unguided instruction normally less effective; there is also evidence that it may have negative results when students acquire misconceptions or incomplete or disorganized knowledge." (p. 84)
I disagree with the connection between inquiry learning and a lack of storage of new knowledge. In my limited experience as a new teacher, I see my students referring to their prior learning every day and connecting recently discovered understandings to new problems. I don't believe they are doing this because I helped them or required them to memorize previous learning. I believe they are doing this because inquiry, experiential or project-based learning demands that students connect to their learning very early in the process. They notice, wonder and then build knowledge through exploration. They hold onto this knowledge because it means something, their learning belongs to them, not because they have been explicitly taught to repeat it and store it in long-term memory. I also disagree that this is completely “unguided”. I imagine that the most effective teachers of project-based learning and the 4 Cs are expert facilitators who guide students throughout the inquiry experience.
References
Gomes, K. (2017, February 15). Four Cs play powerful role in kindergarten schools. Retrieved March 14, 2017, from https://www.districtadministration.com/article/four-cs-play-powerful-role-kindergarten
Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. E. (2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based teaching. Educational Psychologist, 41(2), 75-86
National Education Association. (n.d.). Preparing 21st century students for a global society. Retrieved March 13, 2017, from http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/A-Guide-to-Four-Cs.pdf
Reville, W. (2015, March 02). The reason why modern teaching methods don’t work. Retrieved March 14, 2017, from http://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/the-reason-why-modern-teaching-methods-don-t-work-1.2115219
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