21st century skills

IT Education

What is 21^st century skills?

Definition

21st century skills are the learning skills which is required by students to be competitive in the new millennium. 21st century skills can be attributed to various skills needed in this era. 21st century skills are skills which includes communication skills (Reading, Counting and Writing), science and technology skills, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills and etc. To achieve the nation's desire to develop a generation that has 21st century skills, a teacher needs to master various fields, keep up with the developments about education policies and issues, proficient in pedagogy (teaching and learning), using the latest technology and applying pure values ​​for the purpose of development.

The 21^st century skills are a set of abilities that students need to develop in order to succeed in the information age. 21^st century skills were listed in three types. They are:

1.    Learning skills

·         Critical Thinking- looking at problems in a new way and linking learning across subjects and disciplines.

·         Creative Thinking- trying new approaches to get things done equals innovation & invention.

·         Collaborating – working together to reach a good goal. Putting talent, expertise, and smarts to work.

·         Communicating – sharing thoughts, questions, ideas and solution.

2.    Literacy skills

·         Information Literacy

·         Media literacy

·         Technology literacy

3.    Life skills

·         Flexibility

·         Initiative

·         Social skills

·         Productivity

·         Leadership

Among the features that teachers need to meet the requirements of the National Education Philosophy are as follows;

• Master the subject (curriculum content)

• Advanced and skilled in pedagogy (teaching & learning)

• Understand the development of the students and love them

• Understand the learning psychology

• Have counseling skills

• Use the latest technology

While the characteristics of the 21st century students include various aspects:

• Be able to make connections

• Wisely ask questions

• Be sure to communicate

• Take a risk

• Reaching knowledge

• Want to know

• Generate ideas

• Flexible

• Never giving up

• Hear and reflect

• Critical skills

• Mastering literacy skills

• Dare to try

• Be self-reflecting

• Make an initiative

• Able to work with others

• Make changes

• Integrity

 How to apply them in your context of teaching and learning process

I need to make sure that I had stimulated critical thinking with the integration of thinking skills into my lesson. I also have think about the types of questions which I suppose to ask my students. The questions should be higher level questions which able to response and modulate the educators who had added potential student thought. Rather than that, as an educator, I can only able to handle a lesson more effectively if I am a critical thinking person. So, I have to upgrade myself towards the changes of era.

As an educator, I need to develop myself as innovative thinkers to produce critical students. By this way, my students able to provide answers and feedback which is more creative. My students able to think out of the box. I will use multimedia approach in my teaching and learning core content. A 21st century classroom has a strong foundation in the core subjects. Exploring curriculum topics while authoring media-rich projects helps students develop knowledge that is rich, better connected, and more applicable to subsequent learning and events. Using software tools that combine art tools, with text editing, clip art, and voice recording provides students with tools to communicate ideas and demonstrate understanding.

Promote essential learning and innovation skills is one the way in order for students to be prepared for a more complex life and work environment. A 21st century classroom must promote creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. Technology tools that allow students to create with audio, text, and images provide an opportunity to build higher-order thinking skills.

Authoring multimedia content requires students to:

• employ creativity and innovation as they develop, implement, and communicate ideas and demonstrate originality and inventiveness;
• critical thinking and problem solving as they frame, analyze, and synthesize information to solve problems and answer questions;
• Communication and collaboration as they articulate thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively and share responsibility for collaborative work.

According to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, students must have a "range of functional and critical thinking skills related to information, media and technology" to succeed in a 21st century marketplace. By using a creative technology tool, students learn to manage information as they develop online content, becoming media producers, not just consumers. So as a teacher, I need to be more alert with the changes.

To be successful in the 21st century, students must be able to work without supervision, in diverse groups, and be productive members of society. Project learning with technology increases students’ capacity for self-directed learning, collaboration, and social interaction. Collaborating on technology projects encourages students to become self-directed learners and builds leadership, responsibility, as well as social and cultural-awareness.

Finally, when creating a 21st century classroom, I don't need to "add" a thing. The best way to prepare students for a fulfilling and active life in the 21st century is to change HOW we teach and learn in our classrooms. From classroom management, to project ideas and project-based learning, the Creating a 21st Century Classroom guide will help me to transform my classroom in to a 21st century learning environment.

 Examples

Using Ithink map in a lesson is really interesting and my pupils were really enjoyed the lesson if I use that method. I will divide them into 5 in a group. Will provide a task for them and each group will come out with different types of maps in Ithink. Then they will present it in the class. After all had presented, I will paste them around the classroom for 1 or 2 weeks until I complete the topic.

YouTube educational videos are playing a very important role in my teaching and learning process especially in teaching level 1 pupils (Year 1,2 & 3). My pupils love to go to the computer room. They enjoyed watching the educational videos which was related to the topic. They like to repeat after the video and also sing along. The sound, colour, and the characters attract the pupils’ attention. I able to see the differences when I taught them in the class and in the computer room.

VLE Frog, is one of the way. I used this method for level 2 pupils. Tasks will be uploaded with time limited. Pupils need to complete it within the time. Teacher provides feedback and comments.

Now, after I had taken IT Educational course, I had a few more methods, websites and apps which I can use for my teaching and learning process from next year onwards. I really attracted to Padlet. My Year 5 pupils will enjoy my lesson next year. I also had planned to implement what I had learnt in this course from next year.