21st Century Skills Required for Students

Dr. Mrinalini Mri

I have been working in School Education for the last 22 years and I can see the era changing from paper to paperless education. From offline to online classes. From blackboards to smart board classes. Change is the only permanent thing in this world.

Being in the education field I have seen that, If you are not upgrading yourself with the needs of the current generation then you will not be able to be a successful educationist. The requirements of the world keep changing and to survive successfully in the 21st century there are a few basic very important skills required. I am going to discuss those important skills in my paper.

Why 21st-century skills are essential for today’s students?

What are 21st-century skills?

Between Zoom, WhatsApp, Slack, and more – the opportunities to communicate with others around the world are changing rapidly. And the skills our students will need to navigate these new tools, build relationships, and be successful in work and life are constantly evolving, as well. We often hear about the importance of “21st-century skills” – but what are they exactly? More than a fancy buzzword, 21st-century skills are, simply put, the skills our students will need to be successful in an increasingly interconnected and complex world. They may be defined in a multitude of ways, but 21st-century skills typically include both the academic and life skills that will support students in school and in their careers.

Four crucial skills that help students learn how to build strong relationships, especially with people from different backgrounds and cultures: perspective taking, critical thinking, respectful communication, and cooperation.

Perspective taking – The ability to understand another person’s perspective and see the world through another person’s eyes is beneficial for all forms of social interactions and relationships. As students start to ask themselves “What is life like for that person?” and “How can I relate to their experience to understand how they feel?” they will begin to expand their worldview and ability to solve complex problems.

Critical thinking – Critical thinking skills can deepen students’ academic learning and are also beneficial for successful interactions and relationships. Critical thinking helps students assess whether they have all the parts of a story and how to explore the difference between assumptions, perspectives, and facts with an open and curious mind.

Respectful communication – The ability to actively listen and communicate respectfully with others (even – and especially – when disagreeing) can help students build stronger relationships as well as deepen learning during discussions. It is a critical skill for operating in multilingual and multicultural environments both in the classroom and in daily life.

Cooperation – Working well with others is a foundational life skill for students to develop as they learn to navigate relationships in the classroom, at home, and eventually, in the workplace. When students cooperate, they must consider each other’s perspectives and experiences as they take on unique roles to achieve shared goals.

These skills are ultimately the building blocks for fostering a greater sense of empathy in your classroom.

Translating 21st-century learning to life and career skills

So why are these skills so important? Without a doubt, today’s youth will interact with many types of people when they are older, and the ability to interact, cooperate, and learn with others who are different will benefit them in many ways.

Learning about different perspectives also stimulates creativity and innovation by offering new ways of thinking, which can enhance group problem-solving. The ability and willingness to learn from others who have different viewpoints can also be beneficial for communicating complex ideas and resolving conflicts. Supporting this, studies show that children with diverse friends are more likely to be prosocial and have higher levels of social satisfaction and leadership potential than those without.

Having early positive experiences with diverse types of people can influence how children develop perceptions of others in the future. As students develop skills such as critical thinking and perspective-taking, they will be more flexible and adaptable in our constantly changing workforce, increase their ability to work cross-culturally, and be able to take on positions of leadership.

While each framework has a slightly different list of critical 21st-century skills, all agree on four critical areas for development:

● Collaboration and teamwork

● Creativity and imagination

● Critical thinking

● Problem-solving

More than technological expertise, 21st-century skills refer to content knowledge, literacies, and proficiencies that prepare individuals to meet the challenges and opportunities of today’s world.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of the most commonly cited 21st-century skills.

● Critical thinking

● Communication skills

● Creativity

● Problem-solving

● Perseverance

● Collaboration

● Information literacy

● Technology skills and digital literacy

● Media literacy

● Global Awareness

● Self-direction

● Social skills

● Literacy skills

● Civic literacy

● Social responsibility

● Innovation skills

● Thinking skills

While the bar used to be high school graduation, the bar for today's students is now college, career, and real-world success. Let’s take a look at why 21st-century skills matter.

● Higher education and business leaders cite soft skills as being the most important driver of success in higher-level courses and the workplace.

● In today’s world, our schools are preparing students for jobs that might not yet exist. Career readiness means equipping students with a nuanced set of skills that can prepare them for the unknown.

● Social media has changed human interaction and created new challenges in navigating social situations.

● The age of the Internet has dramatically increased access to knowledge. Students need to learn how to process and analyze large amounts of information.

● Content knowledge from core subjects can only go so far; students need to be taught how to apply facts and ideas to complex problems.

Frameworks for 21st Century Skills

The skills, knowledge, and expertise students must master to succeed in work and life, the framework combines content knowledge, specific skills, expertise, and literacies. The "base" of 21st-century learning is the acquisition of key academic subject knowledge, and schools must build on that base with additional skills including Learning Skills, Life Skills, and Literacy Skills.

● Learning Skills: Also known as the "four Cs" of 21st-century learning, these include critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.

● Life Skills: Flexibility, initiative, social skills, productivity, leadership

● Literacy Skills: Information literacy, media literacy, technology literacy

World Health Organization

The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies fundamental life skills as decision-making and problem-solving, creative thinking and critical thinking, communication and interpersonal skills, self-awareness and empathy, and coping with emotions and stress. The WHO focuses on broad psychosocial skills that can be improved over time with conscious effort.

Being Life Ready

Being life-ready means students leave high school with the grit and perseverance to tackle and achieve their goals by demonstrating personal actualization skills of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, responsible decision-making, and relationship skills. Life-ready students possess the growth mindset that empowers them to approach their future with confidence, to dream big, and to achieve big."

Before we jump into defining critical thinking skills, let’s run a quick experiment.

We’ll try to find out if drinking coffee is good for you.

First, google “reasons not to drink coffee.”

Wow! Decreased anxiety, healthier teeth, weight loss, and a healthier heart!

Oh God! I’ll never touch a cup of coffee again!

How about “reasons to drink coffee?”

Lower rates of depression, memory boost, longevity, and, wait for it, a healthier heart.

Oh well. I’ll never trust the Internet again.

The twist? These are not some random unsupported online claims. There’s legit, peer-reviewed research that backs up EVERY single one of the above findings.

So how do you reconcile these contradictory claims?

By thinking critically.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is the ability to think in an organized and rational manner to understand connections between ideas and/or facts. It helps you decide what to believe in. In other words, it’s “thinking about thinking”—identifying, analyzing, and then fixing flaws in the way we think.

How to be a Critical Thinker?

To become one takes time, practice, and patience. But something you can start doing today to improve your critical thinking skills is apply the 7 steps of critical thinking to every problem you tackle—either at work or in your everyday life.

Plus, there are some critical thinking questions to help you out at each of the steps.

Steps Critical Thinking

1. Identify the problem or question.

Be as precise as possible: the narrower the issue, the easier it is to find solutions or answers.

2. Gather data, opinions, and arguments.

Try to find several sources that present different ideas and points of view.

3. Analyze and evaluate the data.

Are the sources reliable? Are their conclusions data-backed or just argumentative? Is there enough information or data to support the given hypotheses?

4. Identify assumptions.

Are you sure the sources you found are unbiased? Are you sure you weren’t biased in your search for answers?

5. Establish significance.

What piece of information is most important? Is the sample size sufficient? Are all opinions and arguments even relevant to the problem you’re trying to solve?

6. Make a decision/conclusion.

Identify various conclusions that are possible and decide which (if any) of them are sufficiently supported. Weigh the strengths and limitations of all possible options.

7. Present or communicate.

Once you’ve concluded, present it to all stakeholders.

Let’s go back to our coffee example and examine it critically, point-by-point.

1. The problem in question was: “Is drinking coffee good for you?”

This approach is way too broad.

First of all, what does “good” even mean?

Secondly, we don’t know if we’re talking about the long- or short-term effects of drinking coffee. It’s also possible that drinking coffee might benefit some aspects of your health while being detrimental to others.

So, let’s narrow down the problem to: “Is drinking coffee good for your heart?”

2. Listed above, there are only two pieces of research on the impact of drinking coffee on your heart.

The first one suggests that drinking coffee “could account for premature deaths in the region of 14% for coronary heart disease and 20% for stroke.”

According to the second one, “moderate coffee consumption was associated with a lower prevalence of the Coronary Artery Disease.”

We’ve made two other major mistakes in reasoning: first of all, two sources only are not enough.

Secondly, we haven’t taken into account that the heart is a very complex organ: just like it is the case with the rest of our body, coffee might be good for some of its functions while bad for others.

3. Both articles cited have appeared in prestigious, peer-reviewed journals.

But

The first one has been based on a literature review only; with no original studies.

The second one, although conducted in a large (25.000 participants) sample of men and women, includes only the Korean population—people whose hearts can be affected by other factors such as diet or climate.

4. While the two sources don’t appear biased, we were.

We based our initial Google searches on assumptions: “reasons not to drink coffee” (assuming: coffee is bad for our health) and “reasons to drink coffee” (assuming: coffee is worth drinking).

Google’s search algorithms made sure we found articles in line with our assumptions.

So...

5. Considering all of the above, we can positively state that the information we gathered was not significant for solving the initially stated problem.

6. The only conclusion that can be reached is: according to the data we gathered, drinking coffee might or might not be good for our hearts, depending on many factors and variables we failed to take into account.

7. Even if the conclusion is “the question cannot be answered at this point,” it’s still worth presenting and communicating.

It’s good to know what the limitations of our knowledge on a given topic are.

The point is—

It’s really hard to be sure of something.

And critical thinking skills are necessary for us to accept the flaws in our reasoning and gaps in our knowledge, and take advantage of them!

Why Are Critical Thinking Skills Important?

When you think critically, you’ll constantly challenge what seems given. Say, in your job, even if something appears to be functioning properly, critical thinking will help you try and identify new, better solutions.

Critical thinking skills are the cornerstone of self-development and improvement. That’s why they’re so critical to have in today’s job market.

Just think about this—

A recent report by the AACU revealed that 93% of employers value critical thinking over the candidate’s undergraduate degree. So—

Let’s go through how you can showcase your critical thinking skills to boost your chances of landing a better job!

Why is digital literacy important?

With the advancement in technology over the years, we now live in a world that is both enriched and burdened by computers and gadgets. The domination of technology in our everyday lives highlights the importance of digital literacy not just for adults but also for children.

The digital world offers enormous benefits and advantages to everyone, however, without proper use and understanding of technology, the digital world can be overwhelming, and even dangerous.

So what about the importance of digital literacy? Teaching kids digital literacy skills is very important. Kids need to be able to understand the technology that they use so they can use it safely and effectively. Digital literacy is not just about knowing how to take a selfie or update Facebook. Digital literacy means understanding technology and using it.

So what is digital literacy and why is it important?

We all know what traditional literacy means. Literacy is the ability to read and write. But in today’s digital world, being literate isn’t enough anymore. Children need to become digitally literate as well.

Digital literacy means being able to understand and use technology. It relates to the ability to find, use, and create information online in a beneficial way. Digital literacy also means knowing the limitations of technology and understanding the dangers and precautions that the use of technology requires.

It is different from being computer literate. Sure, being able to use a computer is a part of it. However digital literacy goes more in-depth than the simple use of a computer.

Digital Literacy Examples

Digital literacy can be simple or complex. In the simplest terms, Digital literacy means things such as the ability to navigate a website, send an email, or use social media. However, digital literacy also refers to a deeper understanding of the technology that surrounds us. It can also refer to practical software skills such as creating a blog, learning to code, or building an app.

Several important topics within digital literacy include understanding:

● Internet Safety

● Digital Footprints

● Cyberbullying

● Ethics of using online resources (avoiding plagiarism)

The benefits of digital literacy for kids

Children are at a great advantage with an understanding of digital literacy. In a world that is so connected, kids learn digital skills from an early age. Many of these tech skills are essential in the classroom and the workforce. Almost any industry children move into when they start their careers will require some form of digital literacy.

And with most schools now requiring projects and assignments to be submitted online, children are expected to have basic skills such as being able to type up a document, research using a search engine, and send an email as well as being able to use the internet safely.

Now more than ever, a digital literacy curriculum is imperative. Where we run into trouble is with the use of technology without a clear understanding of its purpose.

The 4 Principles of Digital Literacy

The 4 main principles of digital literacy are important to understand. These are:

● Comprehension: The first principle is comprehension and refers to the ability of readers of digital media to be able to understand its content.

● Interdependence: Today, the world exists in an interconnected state. Digital media consumption is now a part of our everyday lives. The term digital interdependence reflects how one media form connects with another. The proliferation of digital devices has made it easier to consume content from different mediums.

● Social Factors: In the world of social media, there are a variety of social factors that can affect how messages are perceived in the digital world. Understanding these social factors is key to understanding the success of certain types of media.

● Curation: Anyone who has saved a pin to a Pinterest board understands the concept of digital curation. Curation refers to finding, organizing, and saving digital media in a way that makes it easier to access and use this information in the future

Quick Tips to encourage digital literacy in the classroom and at home

Talking about what digital literacy means, and why it is important will give kids a simple understanding of the digital world. We can start by talking about how things were in the past, and how our future is heading. We live in a digital world, and being able to navigate technology these days is a vital part of it.

Start by asking students how they use technology in the classroom or for learning. Ask them to give examples of how they learn with technology. Whether it be using specific apps, online notebooks, YouTube tutorials, or others, we learn more and more using technology.

However, it is equally important that children know that technology doesn’t replace learning, it simply enhances it. Children need to know that they can learn without technology.

Children need to be taught how the internet works and how to use it properly to their advantage. They should know the basics about navigating the internet and also evaluating the information they find online.

It is also important they know that not everything they find online is correct. Fake news and information are everywhere so when using the information found on the internet it needs to be evaluated to be assured that it is real.

Google has an awesome curriculum developed for kids entitled, Be Internet Awesome

In Google’s curriculum, they address 5 areas that are important for internet users, especially kids:

● Share with Care (Be Internet Smart)

● Don’t Fall for Fake (Be Internet Alert)

● Secure Your Secrets (Be Internet Strong)

● It’s Cool to Be Kind (Be Internet Kind)

● When in Doubt, Talk It Out (Be Internet Brave)

By

Dr. Mrinalini Mri