What Qualities Matter?

When students graduate from high school, what does "competent" look like? In their new book, Teaching and Learning for the Twenty-First Century, published in May by Harvard Education Press, Professor Fernando Reimers, Ed.M.'84, Ed.D.'88, and Connie Chung, Ed.M.'99, Ed.M.'07, Ed.D.'13, explore how priorities — including those coming from parents — often influence what nations emphasize in their teaching.

The book, Reimers says, is a product of the Harvard Global Education Innovation Initiative, which includes research collaborations with colleagues in six countries, listed in the chart below. His hope is that the book will not only help readers figure out what the most important competencies are for students in the 21st century, "but it will also help us understand what kind of policy and programmatic initiatives can help teachers lead an education which is relevant to the most pressing needs of our times." This table of percentages based on data from the 2015 World Values Study, shows how the six countries vary in terms of what adults think are important qualities to cultivate in children.