Cultivating the Competencies: An Examination of Learning Skills in Elementary Education

Abstract

The learning skills cover numerous abilities toward learning, understanding, and applying knowledge. These skills generally include critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, collaboration, communication, information literacy, and adaptability. This study was designed to determine the extent to which learning skills have been integrated into the Single National Curriculum (SNC) for elementary education and to collect qualitative data about how workable this integration is. A qualitative document analysis approach and interviews of Elementary School Teachers were used to collect data. The findings indicated that learning skills are being integrated into the SNC but, students do not apply them to their daily lives. The reasons for this problem are several: untrained teachers, insufficiency of resources, heavy pressure of society on grades, outworn methods of teaching, less use of technology, community, and parental support, and most importantly, a vast difference between the curriculum design and its actual implementation.