Key Skills for the 21st Century PDF

KEY SKILLS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: AN EVIDENCE-BASED REVIEW 1. Introduction Major changes have taken place in the Australian been part of educational thinking for some time, economy over recent decades with deregulation and including in Australia. In 1973, the Karmel report the rise in global eco...

KEY SKILLS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: AN EVIDENCE-BASED REVIEW 1. Introduction Major changes have taken place in the Australian been part of educational thinking for some time, economy over recent decades with deregulation and including in Australia. In 1973, the Karmel report the rise in global economic trade and competition. pushed for consideration of general competencies Fast-paced technological change has had a in Australian curricula, based on a concern with significant impact on the structure of the workforce, how ‘curricula and teaching methods tend to be altering, and in some cases replacing, demand for unresponsive to differences between pupils and human labour, affecting blue- and white-collar to address themselves to the development of a workers alike. Many are predicting that automation, range of attributes which is narrow in relation to the artificial intelligence and digital disruption will possibilities of life in a complex technological society’ continue to displace workers and create new types (Interim Committee for the Australian Schools of work and occupations at an unprecedented rate, Commission, 1973, p. 139). and that these will require different sets of skills and knowledge (McKinsey Global Institute, 2017). In 1985, the Quality of Education in Australia report, taking up Karmel’s earlier concern, proposed Many school systems are considering how best that education needed to emphasise general to ‘future-proof’ the next generation in light of competencies for students, including skills in these profound predicted changes. A number of acquiring information, conveying information, public commentators, including politicians and applying logical processes, practical tasks and group business leaders, are calling for education systems tasks (Quality of Education Review Committee, 1985, to respond to this growing demand for ‘21st century pp. 70-71). Several years on, a review of participation skills’ as a national economic imperative. Frey and in post-compulsory education and training Osborne (2017) predict that the future workforce described how young people needed to develop of advanced economies will increasingly demand ‘key competencies’ in preparation for employment, roles that involve perception and manipulation, including cultural understanding, problem solving creative intelligence and social intelligence. Other and personal and interpersonal characteristics reports suggest that young people now require skills (Australian Education Council Review Committee, transferrable between jobs, such as problem solving, 1991). Later again, in 1997, a key recommendation of communication skills, digital literacy, teamwork, the McGaw review of the Higher School Certificate presentation skills, critical thinking, creativity and (HSC) in New South Wales was for the curriculum financial literacy (as opposed to technical skills, structures supporting the HSC to be more conducive considered to be specific to a particular task, role or to student learning in the management of their own industry) (FYA, 2016). As a consequence, critique is learning and the development of their capacity to often levelled that school systems focus too much work with others (McGaw, 1997). All these reports on teaching content and knowledge as though acknowledge that traditional learning outcomes, this comes at the price of other desirable learning including knowledge and mastery of subject content, outcomes such as good skills in communication continue to be important, but that young people also and collaboration, critical thinking and problem- need additional skills, including in how to apply this solving abilities, conscientiousness, and concepts like knowledge, in order to successfully make the most of citizenship and global awareness. what they have learned. Discussions on the key skills students will need More recently, the Melbourne Declaration on in the future workforce are valuable. However, it Educational Goals for Young Australians, the overall does not mean that the supposedly ‘new’ skills strategic direction document for all state and territory periodically identified by commentators have not education systems, declared that the acquisition of Education: Future Frontiers | Analytical Report 8 KEY SKILLS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: AN EVIDENCE-BASED REVIEW key skills should be one of the outcomes of schooling in Australia: This report The purpose of this report is to provide a review of Literacy and numeracy and knowledge of key the most up-to-date research, policies and thinking disciplines remain the cornerstone of schooling for related to the topic of key skills for schooling in the young Australians. Schooling should also support 21st century. It takes a critical look at evidence and the development of skills in areas such as social- action around these skills, drawing on published and interaction, cross-disciplinary thinking and the peer-reviewed research, as well as ‘grey’ literature use of digital media, which are essential in all 21st such as policy, think-tank and government reports. century occupations. As well as knowledge and It offers a state-of-the-art overview of research and skills, a school’s legacy to young people should implementation of key skills and addresses related include national values of democracy, equity and issues across three chapters. The first chapter justice, and personal values and attributes such as identifies the skills considered as essential for success honesty, resilience and respect for others. in the 21st century in five prominent frameworks and (MCEETYA, 2008, p. 5) discusses the relevant skills individually. The second These statements echo previous national statements concerning the purposes of schooling, such as the chapter then outlines the approaches taken by different jurisdictions in adopting and incorporating key skills into their school system, including in 1999 Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for policy documents, curricula, teacher standards, and Schooling in the Twenty-First Century and the 1989 teaching and learning practices. Finally, the third Hobart Declaration on Schooling. chapter examines the different approaches to the While there may be little that is ‘new’ about most assessment of these key skills. 21st century skills, many school systems are now Chapter two provides an overview of the skills placing a stronger and more deliberate focus on teaching related capabilities and skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, given their predicted many frameworks consider vital for young people in the 21st century. The chapter first presents some landmarks in the development of the debate on importance for future careers and living (see OECD, 2015, reporting that the inclusion of 21st century skills within education policy statements is a common trend across many OECD jurisdictions). Though many education systems, including Australia, increasingly key skills for school systems to adopt. After this brief historical account, the chapter presents five valuable frameworks developed to conceptualise and organise the various skills students are expected to need to be successful in the future. It then goes on to examine recognise that skills required for the 21st century are each relevant skill on a case-by-case basis, before broader than what traditional cognitive measures providing a summary of some lessons to be learned capture and mandate their value within curriculum from the analysis of key skills. frameworks, very little is formalised beyond that in terms of teaching, learning, and assessment Chapter three looks at how aspirations for the (Care & Luo, 2016). Successfully providing all young inclusion of skills into school system are translated Australians with equal opportunity to acquire a into policies and practices in different jurisdictions. skillset deemed essential for the 21st century calls Although little evidence exists for best practices in for a sustained research and policy effort. This report teaching and learning for the development of these provides an opportunity to consider what we know skills, it is possible to examine how different systems and don’t know about key skills, enabling us to step have approached the inclusion of broader skills into back and critically consider educational reform and their schools, programs and teaching and learning. direction in relation to these skills. In this chapter, seven case studies of school systems Education: Future Frontiers | Analytical Report 9 KEY SKILLS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: AN EVIDENCE-BASED REVIEW are presented to showcase the various approaches taken and to emphasise each system’s mode of engagement with the skills, as well as its strengths and weaknesses. An additional case study is included, not of a school system but of a curriculum framework, one that has been at the forefront of the inclusion of key skills into its design and content: the International Baccalaureate. Chapter four turns to the purposes and modes of assessment of key skills. It outlines the three main forms of assessment currently used, which are student self-reporting, direct assessment and teacher judgement. The report argues that there is no single best method for assessing various key skills, since each one of the three common methods has distinct methodological limitations. To circumvent this, an effective and well-rounded assessment infrastructure uses a range of modes of assessment. Linking with the previous chapter and supporting the analysis of assessment of key skills, this chapter also brings in case studies of how different assessment approaches have been applied by select jurisdictions. The report concludes with an overview of some of the key messages included in the three core chapters and argues for considering them as part of a broader discussion on the role of schooling in the 21st century. Education: Future Frontiers | Analytical Report 10 KEY SKILLS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: AN EVIDENCE-BASED REVIEW 2. The skills needed for the 21st Century What are the skills future generations will need? This is a critical question which this chapter takes up, but it does so recognising that while there is a lot of discussion around the topic, there is little agreement about what these skills actually are. The reflections What are key skills? Reflections on the knowledge and skills students must acquire in education for future success and wellbeing are not new. More than 100 years ago in France, Émile Durkheim was already delivering provided in this chapter, therefore, partly depend lectures to future French teachers on the knowledge on a particular conception of ‘key skills’ (detailed and skills that they would need to ‘turn our pupils below) and need to be viewed as adding to the into men [and women] of their times’ (Durkheim, ongoing discussion around the skills our schools 1938). Such reflections constitute an essential part of need to consider in building courses and curricula educational discussions and proposals for improving, for better preparing young people for their future lives. The chapter offers an overview of the evidence available on the types of skills being discussed as enhancing, or reforming what is to be learned in school. vital for young people today. But before discussing More recently, the question of the skills and each of the skills that have been prominent in knowledge students should learn in school has been recent thinking, the chapter sketches the terrain shaped in various and sometimes conflicting ways, by discussing the way skills are defined and some including from academic research in education, promising frameworks for organising them. In the psychology and economics. Drawing on all these subsequent chapters, the report will look at how successive developments, the term ‘21st century’ schools and school systems have been working to skills has been progressively used since the end of include such skills in their programs, teaching and the twentieth century to describe and amalgamate assessment. the broad range of skills that students would need to It should be noted that the concept of ‘21st century’ or ‘key’ skills is wide-ranging, rather vague and not master in order to succeed in life. But knowing where ‘key skills’ start and end remains a matter of debate. easy to define. While the term has come to be used Even a brief search of the terms ‘21st century’ or fairly widely in education, it is not always clear what ‘key’ skills shows that their potential scope is far- it covers or means. Highlighting this, a number of reaching. The issue is not only that there are dozens terms—social and emotional learning skills, broader of skills deemed as vital for students to acquire from skills, soft skills, transferable skills, transversal skills, their education for future success; it is also the case traits, characteristics, non-cognitive skills, among that discussions on the skills suffer from the ‘jangle others—are also commonly used to refer to the same fallacy’ (Coleman & Cureton, 1954), where different general competencies and capabilities. While the terms are used to refer to often overlapping ideas different terms may not be strictly synonymous and concepts. In this context, it comes as no surprise and they may have different meanings in certain that there is little consensus on what the key skills technical contexts, the diverse sets of skills are being actually are, or which skills will be vital for young treated here in the same way. people to succeed in the future. For this report, the term ‘key skills’ is used to refer to the skills identified in current thinking and policy as important for students to acquire in their schooling if they are to be successful. This success is not only in school but more importantly beyond Education: Future Frontiers | Analytical Report 11 KEY SKILLS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: AN EVIDENCE-BASED REVIEW school – in being able to build their careers, live which their development can be induced in a school fulfilling lives and participate effectively as citizens context is variable. in their communities. This definition allows for a The second is that it is useful to think of skills as broad conception of skills, where acquiring a skill context-based forms (or aspects) of expertise rather is synonymous with developing a form of expertise than as general and stand-alone skills, at least when cognitively, behaviourally or emotionally which can it comes to schooling. One of the reasons for this be applied in key areas of activity. Skills are not only epistemological position is that learning in schools is technical; they can be fairly generic and represent organised in curriculum areas (or areas of knowledge) complex forms of expertise. This comprehensive and subjects, making it necessary to articulate definition of skills makes it possible to consider the subject-based learning and transversal skills. The range of dispositions, knowledge and capabilities a student needs to possess in order to demonstrate a given form of expertise. question of the generality and transferability of skills will be returned to throughout the report, but the demonstration of expertise tends to be context It would be unrealistic to explore all the skills that specific. Generally speaking, if the transfer of expertise interest educators, psychologists and economists as is possible, it is likely to be limited to situations forms of valuable expertise for students to develop. and contexts with comparable properties. In short, Therefore, for the purpose of this review, the focus skills may be transferable, but they rely on specific is specifically on the most commonly discussed knowledge in a given domain of activity or practice. competencies that primarily link to academic to learn for promoting success in their future lives. Conceptual and organising frameworks for skills This includes skills that are perceived as ‘cognitive’ A key implication of the conceptual nature of 21st as well as broader skills that relate to a person’s century skills is that there is not a single, unified and emotional, psychological, and social attributes, universal framework for organising them. A number such as attitudes, habits and competencies have been proposed over time. This section presents (sometimes referred to as ‘non-cognitive’ skills). It five frameworks that offer a starting point for thinking is important to recognise that conceiving of the about key skills for schooling. The first two frameworks skills needed by students to succeed in school that are introduced are the Partnership for 21st and beyond as ‘cognitive’ versus ‘non-cognitive’ Century Skills and the Assessment and Teaching can prove unproductive, since it undermines the of 21st Century Learning which are two of the most complexity of student learning. Skills all entail some commonly cited and used skill frameworks. They give cognitive processes while also relying on important primacy to technology (ICT) skills as key ingredients dispositions, so that so-called cognitive and non- in what young people need for success in a world cognitive forms of expertise are mutually connected in which digital technologies are prominent and (Farrington et al., 2012, p. 2). have rapidly developed. Following this are three achievement and are seen as important for students frameworks that take a broader perspective on The conception of skills in this report is grounded the skills and dispositions viewed as important to in two definitional principles. The first is the conception of skills as a form of developing expertise (Sternberg, 1998). Just as intellectual ability (what succeeding in school as well as in later life, attempting to conceptualise the relationships between constructs and their influence. is generally referred to as ‘intelligence’) is a form of developing expertise, the range of key skills explored The five frameworks are neither the only available in this review are best conceptualised as forms of frameworks nor necessarily the definitive ones, but developing expertise. In other words, these skills can they are selected for their logical and coherent be learned and developed, although the extent to articulation of different categories of key skills. Education: Future Frontiers | Analytical Report 12 KEY SKILLS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: AN EVIDENCE-BASED REVIEW The selection of the first two was based on their most widely known and adopted framework for key influence in recent debates about 21st century skills. skills (Dede, 2010). It is included in most reviews of The following three were selected for their relatively existing frameworks (e.g. Dede, 2010; Voogt & Roblin, systematic articulation of different types of skills 2012) and has received widespread coverage since and their clear focus on academic performance the foundation of P21 in 2002. P21 is an organisation and learning. Together, the frameworks provide a dedicated to positioning ‘21st century readiness at schematic overview of the skills most commonly the centre of US K-12 education’ (Partnership for seen as shaping student success in school and after. 21st Century Learning, 2017). Within the framework, from kindergarten to Year 12, students are A previous review of 21st century skill frameworks expected to master nine key subjects, learn about found that most include skills such as critical five interdisciplinary themes, and develop three thinking, creativity, problem solving, ICT literacy, as well as interpersonal and intrapersonal skills such as communication and collaboration (Voogt & Roblin, categories of skills (Partnership for 21st Century Learning, 2015). 2012). The frameworks presented here are those The framework places ‘life and career’ and which incorporate most of these types of skills. ‘information, media and technology’ skills on par with ‘learning and innovation’ skills. In other words, Framework 1: Partnership for 21st Century the framework considers technological and media Learning skills as essential for students to acquire in school, The US Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21) and it also emphasises the occupational function of framework, outlined in Figure 2-1, is perhaps the education under the ‘life and career’ category. Finally, Figure 2-1 Partnership for 21st Century Learning Framework Source: derived from Dede, 2010 Education: Future Frontiers | Analytical Report 13 KEY SKILLS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: AN EVIDENCE-BASED REVIEW the ‘learning and innovation’ category groups both et al., 2012, p. 18). The principles and processes behind individual skills (problem solving, critical thinking the construction of this framework remain unclear; and creativity) and social skills (collaboration and however, its authors hold that the skills contained in communication) but only refers to a limited range of the framework are only an example to be adapted to individual skills (e.g. metacognition is absent). different contexts. Framework 2: Assessment and Teaching of 21st The ATC21S framework has similarities and Century Skills differences with the P21 framework. As with the P21 framework, it places ICT-related skills (information The second common framework was developed and ICT literacy) in a stand-alone ‘tools for thinking’ by the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century category, on the same level as ‘ways of thinking’ and Skills (ATC21S) group. The group was formed for research purposes by three technology companies— Cisco, Intel and Microsoft—for better integration ‘ways of working’. It thus considers that technologyrelated skills play a crucial role for work and life success. On the other hand, the interpersonal and of ICT and educational assessment. It focused on developing instruments and strategies for assessing key skills using ICT. The Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills Framework contains four broad intrapersonal skills subsumed under the ‘learning and innovation’ category in the P21 framework are separated into ‘ways of thinking’ (problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, and metacognition) and categories of skills as portrayed in Figure 2-2. ‘ways of working’ (collaboration and communication). The framework was based on 12 previously existing The influence of the P21 framework on the ATC21S frameworks from the international literature (Binkley framework is apparent. At the same time, the Figure 2-2 Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills Framework Source: derived from Binkley et al., 2012 Education: Future Frontiers | Analytical Report 14 KEY SKILLS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: AN EVIDENCE-BASED REVIEW latter includes a broader range of thinking skills (i.e. edited by Pellegrino and Hilton (2012, p. 4), metacognition and learning to learn). skills for the 21st century are grouped into three categories: (1) cognitive, (2) intrapersonal, and (3) As with the P21 framework, the ATC21S framework encourages school systems to help students acquire skills that will prepare them for the world of work, careers and modern living. It sees student acquisition of work skills and ICT-related skills as vital learning interpersonal. The skills viewed as vital for young people to acquire in school are those that the committee saw as contributing to or empowering young people to become ‘deeper learners’, skills which could be transferable to different contexts goals for schools. It represents an example of skill or domains of learning. ‘Deeper learning’ is frameworks that make ICT skills primary. Other defined as learning leading to the acquisition of frameworks and models, with examples presented transferable competencies, which the committee below, adopt a different strategy by focusing on identified through an investigation of economic a range of skills separate from ICT-related skills and psychological research on the skills found to be (Ananiadou & Claro, 2009). associated with adult outcomes. Framework 3: US National Research Council The framework is a useful visualisation of the range The most authoritative framework for making of skills that are expected to shape student learning sense of key skills is the one established by the US and achievement. The division into three categories Committee on Defining Deeper Learning and of skills offers a simple way of grasping the various 21st Century Skills from the National Research types of skills students would need to do well in Council, presented in Figure 2-3. In the publication, school and more broadly. The authors provide Figure 2-3 US Committee on Defining Deeper Learning and 21st Century Skills Framework Source: Derived from Pellegrino and Hilton, 2012 Education: Future Frontiers | Analytical Report 15 KEY SKILLS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: AN EVIDENCE-BASED REVIEW a detailed analysis of skills generally classified in Framework 4: University of Chicago School the intrapersonal and interpersonal domains and Consortium critically assess evidence for the transferability The fourth framework was generated by the of these skills when acquired in educational University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School contexts. The Research Council publication is a Research and is presented in Figure 2-4. reference point for evidence-based analysis of the transfer of skills. Some of its strengths include its The Chicago consortium offers a framework for simplicity, broad coverage, and relationship with the thinking about the skills students need grounded on objective of transferable learning. The authors also a view of what it takes to be successful in today’s and analyse each construct extensively. However, the tomorrow’s world (Nagaoka et al., 2015). Their paper, classification of skills into three domains remains Foundations for Young Adult Success, suggests based on an a priori conceptualisation of cognitive that while economic wellbeing and doing well in versus ‘other’ skills. Further, despite its logical the workforce is one of the elements of success for coherence, it is elaborated based on a review of young people, it is far from the only goal. Success also existing frameworks and only partially captures the means that “young people can fulfil individual goals complex sets of skills needed by students for success and have the agency and competencies to influence in school and beyond. the world around them” (Nagaoka et al., 2015, p. 1). Figure 2-4 University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research’s 21st Century Skills Framework Source: Derived from Farrington et al., 2012 Education: Future Frontiers | Analytical Report 16 KEY SKILLS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: AN EVIDENCE-BASED REVIEW Their framework of skills was derived with a view on in classes, but that may not be reflected in their the sorts of skills they thought would help young scores on cognitive tests” (Farrington et al., 2012, p. 2). people achieve this. As a conceptual framework, it has yet to be tested empirically in various contexts. Rather than dividing the dispositions and abilities needed by students into ‘cognitive’ versus Framework 5: International Study of City Youth ‘non-cognitive’ components, Farrington et al. The final framework presented in this section has presented sets of factors identified from other been developed by Lamb et al. (2015) for research work as foundational to success in work as well purposes (Figure 2-5). Presented in a technical paper as in promoting individual goals and agency and for the International Study of City Youth project contributing effectively to the world around them. The factors are classified into five categories ranging from academically beneficial dispositions (i.e. and inspired by the previous framework, it aims at capturing the broad sets of skills that potentially shape student progress and integration into ‘academic mindsets’) to actual student behaviours work and community life as they ascend school (‘academic behaviours’), mediated by learning and transition to post-school study, careers and strategies, perseverance and social skills. family life. Designed as a ‘conceptual framework’ The framework captures the range of skills and to be explored and refined with empirical studies related dispositions that directly and indirectly in different countries, it organises skills in five influence student learning. Social skills and categories (Lamb et al., 2015, p. 15): ‘academic perseverance’ skills are viewed as In this model, student engagement mediates indirectly affecting academic performance (via the influence of dispositions and inter- and intra- academic behaviours), while learning strategies personal skills on student outcomes, while cognitive represent a different category of skills that shape academic performance both directly and indirectly. A strength of this framework is its clear focus on skills act as both direct and indirect influences. The analytical coherence of this framework and the extent to which various kinds of skills shape identifying the individual skills that students need student success is currently being researched. to do well in schools. The framework provides a One of the main strengths of this framework is its holistic conception of learning and achievement and provides an outline of the key dispositions, skills, strategies and behaviours. More importantly, it is one of the rare approaches available that does not elude the question of the articulation of different skills with one another, as well as the fact that the skills are only effective once expressed in activities or behaviours. explicit focus on educationally-relevant skills and its comprehensive integration of traditional academic skills (i.e. literacy and numeracy) and non-traditional skills (including social skills). Moreover, it is one of the only frameworks in which the grouping of constructs into broader categories was grounded in an empirical analysis (using principal component On the other hand, although Farrington and her analysis with international data) rather than a colleagues find the term non-cognitive to be priori. Unlike the P21 and ATC21S frameworks, ‘unfortunate’ (Farrington et al., 2012, p. 2), they ICT-related skills are included in the ‘cognitive analytically separate skills in this category from skills’ category. On the other hand, the distinction ‘cognitive factors’ defined as academic skills (problem between cognitive and ‘other’ skills remains. The solving, academic writing) and content knowledge. analytical separation between intra-personal skills, Non-cognitive skills are thus defined as distinctly such as conscientiousness and perseverance, and separate as “sets of behaviours, skills, attitudes, and student engagement may also be difficult to sustain strategies that are crucial to academic performance since student skills and dispositions are generally Education: Future Frontiers | Analytical Report 17