The Effect of 21st Century Skills Training on Foreign Language Teachers’ Perceptions Regarding Their Educational Technology and Materials Development Competencies

Abstract

This study aims to show whether 21st Century Skills Material Design Teacher Training and Professional Development Program enhance foreign language teachers’ perceptions regarding their educational technology and material development competencies. It is worthy of recommendation that teachers should learn what 21st century skills are and how to bring these skills into classroom by creating their own foreign language teaching materials through digital technologies. To that end, an 8-week teacher-training program was held at Istanbul University. Thirty-three English teachers participated in the study. Application-based Educational Technology and Material Development Competencies Scale was conducted as pre-test and post-test before and after 8-week training in order to measure changes of the teachers’ perceptions. In addition, teachers' opinions have been obtained through structured interview technique to deepen the parts that are not acquired from quantitative data. Results of the study indicate that this type of strategy training was found useful for developing teachers’ perceptions regarding their educational technology and material development competencies on 21st century skills.