21st century skills

What are 21st century skills?

21st century skills are skills, abilities, and learning dispositions that have been identified as being required for success in 21st century society. This is how we focus on the skills required for students to master in preparation for success in a rapidly changing, digital society and cultivate them to become global citizens. Many of these skills are about mastering skills such as, analytic reasoning, complex problem solving, and teamwork. These skills differ from traditional academic skills in that they are not primarily content knowledge-based.

4C: Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity

3R: reading, writing, and arithmetic

21 century skills video

What are 21st century competencies?

According to the Ministry of Education, the core value of 21st century competencies are as follows:

  • Respect: Our students demonstrate respect when they believe in their own self-worth and the intrinsic worth of people.
  • Responsibility: Our students are responsible when they recognize they have a duty to themselves, their families, community, nation, and the world, and fulfill their responsibilities with love and commitment.
  • Resilience: Our students are resilient when they demonstrate emotional strength and persevere in the face of challenges. They show courage, optimism, adaptability, and resourcefulness.
  • Integrity: Our students demonstrate integrity when they uphold ethical principles and have the moral courage to stand up for what is right.
  • Care: Our students are caring when they act with kindness and compassion and contribute to the betterment of the community and the world.
  • Harmony: Our students uphold harmony when they promote social cohesion and appreciate the unity and diversity of a multicultural society.

To sum up, the key 13 twenty-first century skills are:

  • Collaboration and teamwork
  • Creativity and imagination
  • Critical thinking
  • Problem-solving
  • Flexibility and adaptability
  • Global and cultural awareness
  • Information literacy
  • Leadership
  • Civic literacy and citizenship
  • Oral and written communication skills
  • Social responsibility and ethics
  • Technology literacy
  • Initiative

Another key concept: Learning how to learn ( ATL skills)

Have you ever worried about lack of time to cover all the content? learning to learn strategies of course are important because teachers can’t teach children everything. They can’t hold their hands during every task, and they can’t be there once the children have left the classrooms. So every learner needs to try and learn useful strategies for themselves. Different learners will be at different levels, and so how can I do this when I’ve got a very large class. I think a very powerful argument that learning how to learn (ATL) is even more important in large classes because physically you can’t get to everybody.  they are extremely important and the key is that they don’t require a new syllabus or a new approach, it just means that as you go along every day you think about these aspects of your teaching and you gradually build these up as much as possible.

The information-age mindset

  • We need to teach students how to evaluate the information they find on the internet.
  • We need to allow students to produce Word documents for homework and exams, as well as writing.
  • Computers are not ‘technology’ but a given. Students make devices work without a manual, and without instructions. We don’t need to teach our students how to use technology. It’s natural.
  • Doing is more important than learning facts.We need to plan more hands-on, learning-by-doing activities in our lessons.
  • Finding out how something works is best done by a trial and error approach over logic. How they play computer games symbolizes this way of solving problems. We need to encourage discovery learning, but also logical, critical thinking.

References:

  1. Envision World Strides Education, Travel & Experiences. (n.d.). 13 Essential 21st Century Skills for Todays Students. 13 Essential 21st Century Skills for Today’s Students. Retrieved July 13, 2021, from https://www.envisionexperience.com/blog/13-essential-21st-century-skills-for-todays-students
  2. Ministry of Education Singapore. (2021, June 7). 21st-century-competencies. 21st-Century-Competencies. https://www.moe.gov.sg/education-in-sg/21st-century-competencies
  3. Thoughtful Learning. (2016, October 3). What are 21st century skills? K-12 Thoughtful Learning. https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/FAQ/what-are-21st-century-skills
  4. Oxford TESOL Online Program