a RTÍCULOS 30 e DUCADORES = Octubre - Diciembre 2017 21st century 31 SKILLS in 20th century classrooms ESTHER CARE AND HELYN KIM The Brookings Institution, Washington DC, USA CLAIRE SCOULAR University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia u e DUCADORES = Octubre - Diciembre 2017 a u ver the last five years the focus on 21st and why things happen, and want to engage in fulfi- century skills has shifted from the ques- lling relationships. There is therefore nothing unna- Otion of why we should be teaching the tural about our valuing of social and cognitive skills. skills to how we can do so. Many schools or sys- For students, this education shift allows them to tems are adopting an agenda for teaching 21st follow their natural curiosity and their engagement century skills but encountering difficulties when it with others. The skills shift in education now provi- comes to identifying resources to do so. With di- des students with the opportunity to develop cog- fferent perspectives and little concrete evidence, nitively and socially within the formal learning envi- educators are understandably uncertain about how ronment, and within the curricular studies that each to adopt a new learning and teaching paradigm. country believes are important for their citizens’ Unfortunately, we are in a ‘chicken and egg’ hol- futures. In the classroom, students can be scaffol- ding pattern. Schools may not be in a position to ded into what is expected of them and explicitly take a risk in adopting one approach over another taught behaviours that demonstrate varying levels without evidence of its effectiveness, and resear- of proficiency in the skills. In particular, having stu- chers cannot provide evidence of effective approa- dents engage in meta-cognitive behaviours, in re- ches until schools opt in to trials. Many teachers flection about their learning, empowers them in the 32 recognise the value of teaching 21st century skills education process. It can enable them to monitor and are open and enthusiastic, but have found that their own progress. However, students do need to they have not been adequately prepared to do so. have a clear understanding of what is expected of Just as teachers are trained to teach subject con- them and what the long term goal is. This requires tent, they will also require training and support to a clear departure from a model in which students teach skills. enter a year of study centred only on subject-based curriculum, embodied in textbooks, to work throu- The consequences of the nature gh. They need to understand the vision of this 21st of the skills century education shift and see its empirical conse- quences in their education experience. The skills needed for the 21st century are complex, cross-disciplinary, important for many The nature of the skills has consequences for different aspects in school and life, and are much each part of the education delivery system – for cu- more demanding to teach and learn than rote me- rriculum, for pedagogy, and for assessment. Above morization-based skills (Saavedra & Opfer, 2012). and beyond these however, it has consequences for Human nature shows us that we are intuitively cu- education delivery structure. 21st century learning rious and social. People want to understand how activities are often open-ended. The dynamic cha- e DUCADORES = Octubre - Diciembre 2017 tent knowledge is made available to students to be learned. The content itself can be specified, and learning can be assessed through tests that identify whether the content has been memorized. Demons- tration of learning of skills is less easy to capture in a standardised way. The skills may be developed through many different types and styles of learning experiences, and they will similarly be demonstra- ted in a multiplicity of ways. This implies that there is no likely single teaching technique that will be most effective. The best strategy for integration of a skills focus into curricular goals will likely depend on use of a variety of techniques. These may include expli- cit teaching, modelling of the skills, presenting cu- rricular materials in a way that will naturally elicit the skills and thereby develop them, and varying the 33 structural dynamics in the classroom both between students and teachers, and among students. racter of such activities may make it difficult to pro- vide clear explanations for how to undertake tasks, Focus on the teacher and teaching practices or how long they may take to complete. This makes is secondary to decisions by the education systems, classroom planning and management difficult. The which identify how they intend to implement a skills classroom itself is situated in a traditional structure education agenda through the curriculum. Therefore, and organisation. This means that systems of edu- a first decision to be made by the system concerns cation need to consider how to establish structures how skills teaching is to take place (Nieveen & Plomp, that are amenable to more active and dynamic tea- 2017). Will it be seen as a stand-alone subject? Will ching and learning and assessment paradigms. it be integrated across all subjects? Will there be a trans-disciplinary subject that can act as a teaching The nature of 21st century skills is that they medium for the skills? Will the skills be attended are non-routine. Things that are not routine are very to through extra-curricular activities? The decision difficult to define, and even more difficult to assess. about this implementation structure determines the Most schools in the past have been dedicated to curricular approach, the pedagogical approach, transmission forms of teaching, ensuring that con- and the assessment approach. If a system decides, u e DUCADORES = Octubre - Diciembre 2017 a u for example, to integrate the skills throughout ty, and recognise the common challenges across the all subject areas, then it must ensure that this areas. To enable transfer of skills, teaching across integration occurs in a reasonably similar way in all subject areas appears to provide the most aligned subject areas if the goals of skills development are approach. It has the promise of delivering three to be fulfilled. The primary goal of developing skills things. It provides opportunity for the developing is to ensure that individuals can draw upon these skills to contribute to student performance in their in very different situations, or in environments that disciplinary studies; it demonstrates to students the might previously have been unfamiliar. In order to transferability of skills; and, it provides a consensus facilitate this development, the school experience model for teachers to follow in their approaches to needs to provide an authentic environment in which teaching. For example, teachers would benefit from transfer of skills can be employed by students. collaborating with teachers from other subjects, not just in their teaching of the skills but in their obser- Embedding and transferring skills vations and assessment of them. Sharing collected and recorded evidence, and justification of the in- Students need to experience the learning of terpretation of that evidence, will provide teachers skills and their sub-processes in different subject with guidance concerning whether the students are 34 areas, so that they can understand the transferabili- developing skills as envisaged in revised curricula. e DUCADORES = Octubre - Diciembre 2017 Such an approach requires the system to re- has taken place in academia, and been associa- cognize the degree to which different subjects will ted more with psychology than with education; lend themselves to the teaching of particular skills. more recently, however, the non-government or- For example, physical education is easily seen as ganization sector has been implementing life skills an area in which collaborative skills might be en- programs particularly with disadvantaged popula- hanced; mathematics and science are areas in tions, some of which are strongly linked with the which problem solving can be seen to be immedia- 21st century skills mainstream education shift. It is tely relevant; language and history are areas which imperative that the education sector, in association provide opportunities for critical thinking activities. with the research sector, gives high priority to edu- Although these examples will be immediately re- cational research around understanding the nature cognizable to many teachers, less well-known and of the skills, reviewing curricula, re-addressing 21st understood skills can equally be applied to a range century notions of pedagogy, and taking innovative of subjects. An approach to identification of tea- approaches to assessment to ensure this is aligned ching and learning opportunities is through curricu- with the shift. lum audit at system level, and to lesson plan audit at the classroom level. With a deep understanding The bigger picture 35 of the skills themselves, of how they develop, and how they manifest, educators can analyse curricu- The imperatives triggered by the Sustainable lum in order to match the teaching opportunities Development Goals (SDGs; OECD, 2015) for edu- with pedagogical strategies aligned with the na- cation have two direct connections with the skills ture of the skills. Educators can demonstrate the shift. That the SDGs are aspired to for all is the first approach with a subject, a topic, or a lesson plan, connection. And that the SDGs specify achieve- in order to provide examples for teachers who can ment in areas beyond