21st century skills comprise skills, abilities, and learning dispositions identified as requirements for success in 21st century society and workplaces by educators, business leaders, academics, and governmental agencies. This is part of an international movement focusing on the skills required for students to prepare for workplace success in a rapidly changing, digital society. Many of these skills are associated with deeper learning, which is based on mastering skills such as analytic reasoning, complex problem solving, and teamwork, which differ from traditional academic skills as these are not content knowledge-based.Chris Dede, Comparing Frameworks for 21st Century Skills, Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2009. Retrieved 2016-03-09Stedman Graham, Preparing for the 21st Century: Soft Skills Matter, Huffington Post, April 26, 2015. Retrieved 2016-03-16Larry Cuban, Content vs. skills in high schools – 21st century arguments echo 19th century conflicts, November 3, 2015. Retrieved 2016-03-12
During the latter decades of the 20th century and into the 21st century, society evolved through technology advancements at an accelerated pace, impacting economy and the workplace, which impacted the educational system preparing students for the workforce. Beginning in the 1980s, government, educators, and major employers issued a series of reports identifying key skills and implementation strategies to steer students and workers towards meeting these changing societal and workplace demands.
Western economies transformed from industrial-based to service-based, with trades and vocations having smaller roles.Futurework – Trends and Challenges for work in the 21st century, US Department of Labor report, Chapter 4 . Retrieved 2016-03-12 However, specific hard skills and mastery of particular skill sets, with a focus on digital literacy, are in increasingly high demand. People skills that involve interaction, collaboration, and managing others are increasingly important. Skills that enable flexibility and adaptability in different roles and fields, those that involve processing information and managing people more than manipulating equipment—in an office or a factory—are in greater demand.21st-century-workplaces Attitudinal Skills for 21st century workplaces, Arbora . Retrieved 2016-03-12 These are also referred to as "applied skills" or "soft skills","Soft Skills" in Big Demand, Education Week, March 8, 2016. Retrieved 2016-03-09 including personal, interpersonal, or learning-based skills, such as life skills (problem-solving behaviors), people skills, and social skills. The skills have been grouped into three main areas:Trilling, Bernie and Fadel, Charles: 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times, Jossey-Bass (publisher), 2009. . Retrieved 2016-03-13 Learning and innovation skills: critical thinking and problem solving, communications and collaboration, creativity and innovation Digital literacy skills: information literacy, media literacy, Information and communication technologies (ICT) literacy Career and life skills: flexibility and adaptability, initiative and self-direction, social and cross-cultural interaction, productivity and accountability
Many of these skills are also identified as key qualities of progressive education, a pedagogical movement that began in the late nineteenth century and continues in various forms to the present.
Background Since the early 1980s, a variety of governmental, academic, non-profit, and corporate entities have conducted considerable research to identify key personal and academic skills and competencies needed for the current and next generation. Though identification and implementation of 21st century skills into education and workplaces began in the United States, it has spread to Canada,C21 – A Parent's Guide to 21st century learning. Retrieved 2016-03-13Canadians for 21st century learning and innovation. Retrieved 2016-03-13 the United Kingdom,21st Century Learning Alliance. Retrieved 2016-03-13 New Zealand,New Zealand Council for Educational Research. Retrieved 2016-03-13 and through national and international organizations such as APECAPEC Human Resources Development Working Group . Retrieved 2016-03-13 and the OECD.What should students learn in the 21st century? Charles Fadel, Education and Skills Today, May 18, 2012. Retrieved 2016-03-12
In 1981, the US Secretary of Education created the National Commission on Excellence in Education to examine the quality of education in the United States.Nation at Risk, introduction Retrieved 2016-03-09 The commission issued its report A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform in 1983. A key finding was that "educational reform should focus on the goal of creating a Learning Society."Nation at Risk. Retrieved 2016-03-09 The report's recommendations included instructional content and skills:
Five New Basics: English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Computer Science Other Curriculum Matters: Develop proficiency, rigor, and skills in Foreign Languages, Performing Arts, Fine Arts, Vocational Studies, and the pursuit of higher-level education. Skills and abilities (consolidated):Nation at Risk, recommendations. Retrieved 2016-03-09 enthusiasm for learning deep understanding application of learning examination, inquiry, critical thinking and reasoning communication – write well, listen effectively, discuss intelligently, be proficient in a foreign language, cultural, social, and environmental – understanding and implications technology – understand the computer as an information, computation, and communication device, and the world of computers, electronics, and related technologies diverse learning across a broad range – fine arts, performing arts, and vocational
Until the dawn of the 21st century, education systems across the world focused on preparing students to accumulate content and knowledge. As a result, schools focused on providing literacy and numeracy skills students, as these were perceived as necessary. However, developments in technology and telecommunication have made information and knowledge easily accessible. Therefore, while skills such as literacy and numeracy remain relevant and necessary, they no longer sufficiently prepare students for 21st century workplace success. In response to technological, demographic and socio-economic changes, education systems began shifting toward curricula and instruction that integrated a range of skills involving, not only on cognition, but interdependencies of cognitive, social, and emotional characteristics.Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies (W. W. Norton & Company, 2014)
Notable efforts were conducted by the US Secretary of Labor's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS), a national coalition called the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21), the international Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the American Association of college and Universities, researchers at MIT and other institutions of higher learning, and private organizations.
Additional research has found that the top skills demanded by U.S. Fortune 500 companies by the year 2000 had shifted from traditional reading, writing and arithmetic to teamwork, problem solving, and interpersonal skills. A 2006 Conference Board survey of some 400 employers revealed that the most important skills for new workforce entrants included oral and written communications and critical thinking/problem solving, ahead of basic knowledge and skills, such as the reading comprehension and mathematics. While the 'three Rs' were still considered foundational to new workforce entrants' abilities, employers emphasized that applied skills like collaboration/teamwork and critical thinking were 'very important' to success at work."
A 2006 report from MIT researchers countered the suggestion that students acquire critical skills and competencies independently by interacting with popular culture, noting three continuing trends that "suggest the need for policy and pedagogical interventions:"Jenkins. Retrieved 2016-03-07 The Participation Gap – the unequal access to the opportunities, experiences, skills, and knowledge that will prepare youth for full participation in the world of tomorrow. The Transparency Problem – The challenges young people face in learning to see the ways media shape perceptions of the world. The Ethics Challenge – The breakdown of traditional forms of professional training and socialization that might prepare young people for their increasingly public roles as media makers and community participants."
According to labor economists at MIT and Harvard's Graduate School of Education, the economic changes brought about over the past four decades by emerging technology and globalization, employers' demands for people with competencies like complex thinking and communications skills has increased greatly. They argue that the success of the U.S. economy will rely on the nation's ability to give students the "foundational skills in problem-solving and communications that computers don't have."
In 2010, the Common Core State Standards Initiative, an effort sponsored by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), issued the Common Core Standards, calling for the integration of 21st century skills into K-12 curricula across the United States. Teachers and general citizens also played a critical role in its development along with the NGA and CCSSO by commenting during two public forums which helped shape the curriculum and standards. States also convened teams of teachers to assist and provide feedback looking towards the National Education Association (NEA) and many other education organizations to provide constructive feedback. As of December 2018, 45 states have entirely adopted the common core standards, one state has adopted half by only adopting the literacy section (Minnesota), and only four states remain who have not adopted into the common core standards of education (Alaska, Nebraska, Texas, and Virginia).
Skills The skills and competencies considered "21st century skills" share common themes, based on the premise that effective learning, or deeper learning, requires a set of student educational outcomes that include acquisition of robust core academic content, higher-order thinking skills, and learning dispositions. This pedagogy involves creating, working with others, analyzing, and presenting and sharing both the learning experience and the learned knowledge or wisdom with peers, mentors, and teachers. Additionally, these skills foster engagement; seeking, forging, and facilitating connections to knowledge, ideas, peers, instructors, and wider audiences; creating/producing; and presenting/publishing. The classification or grouping has been undertaken to encourage and promote pedagogies that facilitate deeper learning through both traditional instruction as well as active learning, project-based learning, problem based learning, and others. A 2012 survey conducted by the American Management Association (AMA) identified three top skills necessary for their employees: critical thinking, communication and collaboration. Below are some of the more readily identifiable lists of 21st century skills.
Common Core The Common Core Standards issued in 2010 intended to support the "application of knowledge through higher-order thinking skills." The initiative's stated goals promote the skills and concepts required for college and career readiness in multiple disciplines and life in the global economy. Skills identified for success in the areas of literacy and mathematics:Common Core Initiative – Read the Standards . Retrieved 2016-03-09Common Core Initiative – Literacy Standards . Retrieved 2016-03-09 cogent reasoning evidence collection