Hello Exam Seekers,

Today’s post is about a subject which has already been mentioned here and here but not with further details. Therefore, we decided to enlighten you on what precisely those 21st-Century Skills are and why it is so important to focus on them regarding teaching and learning in general.

To begin with, we are all fully aware that time has passed, learning has evolved, teaching has changed and technology is something that has caused a significant impact on people’s lives. The latest has helped us not only be connected to the whole world but also led to a different way of learning. After all, you can find pretty much all the information you need at one click. There are online courses you can take from all over the world, news you can have access to wherever you are, as well as a number of softwares to make everything – including learning and knowledge – more accessible.

Therefore, with that in mind, it is somehow obvious that the requirements for jobs and even for learning, in general, have changed. The traditional way of teaching and learning does not fit anymore. Literacy and numeracy are no longer enough. That means that more up to date methodologies and approaches should start replacing what is so familiar to pretty much all of us. After all, there is more to learning than sitting in the classroom for an extended period listening to lectures. This format of the class does not work anymore. That is the reason why active learning and every other type of education that puts students in the centre of their learning and focuses on more hands-on activities are getting more and more popular and preferred to the traditional model.

Additionally, more than merely learning the subjects usually taught in school, students should learn about people skills, how to interact and collaborate with others; they need to have digital literacy as well as be flexible to deal with different environments and roles.

So, thinking about the 21st Century Skills, P21 – Partnership for 21st Century Skills – has designed a framework to establish what skills students need to be successful in the future that is changing so rapidly.

There are three groups of skills as follow:

– Learning and innovation skills, also known as the 4Cs, involve
○ Critical thinking and problem solving
○ Communications
○ Collaboration
○ Creativity and innovation

– Digital literacy skills – which involve
○ Information literacy
○ Media literacy
○ Information and communication technologies (ICT) literacy

– Career and life skills – which include
○ Flexibility and adaptability
○ Initiative and self-direction
○ Social and cross-cultural interaction
○ Productivity
○ Accountability

Of course, this framework is not set in stone, and there are still many things we should consider in order to develop students to be more actively engaged into their learning process as well as succeed when growing up. Also, different institutions may work with different patterns, too. Still, these standards somehow shed light into the way education should currently be so as to prepare learners to better adulthood and to make them critical beings as well as creative ones.

How about you? What is your view of this framework? Is there anything you would change? Anything you would add? Please share with us! We would love to know your opinion on the matter!

Have a great weekend,
Eve and Patty