Develop 21st Century Skills Research Articles

Evaluation of English Self-Learning Modules in the Implementation of Modular Distance Learning

In response to the call that education must continue in the midst of the COVID- 19 pandemic, Self-Learning Modules (SLM) became the Department of Education’s primary learning resource in the implementation of a wide-scale Modular Distance Learning. With the educational landscape being confronted with numerous concerns that questions the quality of its SLMs, their evaluation plays an extremely crucial role in pursuit of quality education. The study evaluated English Self-Learning Modules used by Grade 7 students in the First Quarter and propose an enhanced learning material that will be helpful in their modular distance learning experience. The study sought to answer the following questions: (1) What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Self-Learning Modules in terms of: Intellectual Property Rights Compliance, Learning Competencies, Instructional Design and Organization, Instructional Quality, Assessment, and, Readability?; (2) What are the Alternative Interventions suggested to strengthen the identified weaknesses in the Self-Learning Modules?; and, (3) What Enhanced Self-Learning Modules may be proposed based on the strengths and weaknesses of the evaluated materials?
 
 Using a purposive sampling, the Key Informants of the study included a total of eight (8) English teachers coming from three different secondary school locales from Legazpi City Division namely: Legazpi City National High School, Gogon High School and Cabangan High School. The study used a mixed method using a Descriptive –Evaluative Design where Key Informants answered a Survey Questionnaire and underwent Key Informants Interview to record the strengths and weaknesses of the Self-Learning Modules. Thematic analysis and percentage were used in the study to identify salient themes from qualitative and quantitative responses of the participants, respectively. Relevant findings revealed that the strengths of Self-Learning Modules are (1) accuracy in citations, (2) copyright compliance (3) proper acknowledgement of the references, (4) accuracy in content, (5) appropriate presentation of objectives, (6) logical organization of content, (7) integration of valuable traits, (8) development of 21st century skills, (9) alignment of assessments to lesson objectives and (10) appropriateness of content and vocabulary to the learners’ level. On the other hand, Self-Learning Modules displayed weaknesses on the following areas: (1) rotten links, (2) missing bibliographies and references, (3) unpacking of broad competencies (4) outdated content and information, (5) grammatical errors, (6) development of lessons that allow for review, (7) providing answer keys, (8) unclear presentation of instruction and (9) seamless transitions of lessons.
 
 To strengthen the identified weaknesses, the researchers developed a Guide Book that discusses the alternative interventions suggested by the researchers based on their insights together with the recommendations of educators. The Guide Book aims to empower every module user to become involved in creating an improved Modular Learning experience. Moreover, the Enhanced Self-Learning Modules offshoot retained the revealed strengths and carefully applied the alternative interventions to strengthen the weaknesses. Finally, specific recommendations were suggested aimed towards the improvement of learning experiences.

Teachers’ Preparedness in the Use of Information Communication Technology and School’s Licensure Passing Rate

Modern-day teaching entails the development of 21st-century skills, which include information and digital literacy, as well as technological skills. All educators face the challenge of keeping abreast of the ever-changing information communication technology and integrating available ICT facilities and tools in teaching. This study was conducted to find the correlation between the teachers’ preparedness, perception, and types of ICT facilities and tools used for instruction and the school’s licensure passing rate. Descriptive, quantitative, and correlational research designs were adopted with the modified questionnaire of Davis et al. (1989) on teachers’ preparedness and perceptions in using ICT, the Technology Acceptance Model Questionnaire (TAMQ) as the main instrument in gathering the needed data. The reliability coefficient of the instrument was established using Cronbach Alpha and yielded indices of 0.84 and 0.99. The questionnaire was administered through Google Form to the 50 teachers in the College of Education at the University of Morong and Antipolo Campus. The study found that female-dominated teachers in the College of Education in the URS are in their early adulthood stage and have been using ICT in teaching for a decade. Most of the teachers have attended one ICT training per year, and teachers are prepared for the use of ICT. An association exists between the teachers’ assessment of available ICT facilities and tools and their perception of the use of ICT. The URS performed well in the Licensure Examination for Teachers. Other findings showed that the younger the teachers, the better their perception of the use of ICT; the younger the teachers, the higher their performance in Licensure Examination for Teachers. It can also be concluded that the more prepared the teachers are, the better their school’s performance in Licensure Examination for Teachers. Likewise, the more prepared the teachers are, the better their perception of the use of ICT in teaching and vice versa. It can also be concluded that the better the teachers’ perception of the use of ICT, the higher the performance in the Licensure Examination for Teachers. The perception of the use of ICT and the performance in the LET is differentiated by age. With this, teachers and administrators must continually support the ICT professional development to keep abreast with the current updates in technology. Preparedness, availability, and perception of the use of ICT must be considered in the school’s overall plan, which eventually translates to better school performance.

Students’ and Academics' Perception of Flexible Learning Tools in the South Asian Business Schools: A Case Study from Pakistan

Due to globalization and the COVID-19 pandemic, we have witnessed an increase in acceptability and substantial growth in the use of flexible learning and teaching pedagogy. According to the figures released by UNESCO, some 1.3 billion learners around the world were not able to attend school or university. With an astounding 1.53 billion students out of education and 184 country-wide school closures, it's impacted 87.6% of the world’s total registered students. This study seeks to provide insight into the most effective flexible pedagogical tool, especially in the context of South Asia Business Schools. Indeed, the use of resourceful pedagogical tools is vital in developing key 21st-century employability skills among business students. In order to ensure that organizations have the right skills to support and sustain their hard-earned success, and people have a relevant set of skills they need to be both employable and individually fulfilled. Since the global economy has made largely extinct the idea of a ‘job for life’. The new norm is employability for life. Given these facts, a single case study was selected for this study; an online university that provides flexible learning to students in Pakistan and overseas via satellite TV, moderate discussion boards, recorded lectures, and one-to-one with the tutors, was used as the case. The study critically reviewed students (the end users) and academics (the service providers') perspectives on the issue of pedagogical tools. Both data strands agreed that case studies, class debates, lectures, lecture notes, PowerPoint presentations, group projects, reading, homework, multiple-choice questions, essays, and term papers are effective flexible learning tools for the development of 21st-century skills or in gaining employability for life values.

Development of Student Worksheets Oriented to Problem Based Learning Integrated 21st Century Skills

The results of interviews and observations at the MA Pertanian of Madiun City show that the student worksheet used so far has not integrated 21st century skills. The development of 21st century skills of students can be done through student worksheets that integrate 21st century skills and the use of problem-based learning models. Analysis of these problems and potentials became the basis for researchers to carry out research on the development of problem-based learning-oriented worksheets integrated 21st century skills. This study aims to determine the validity, practicality, and effectiveness of problem-based learning-oriented student worksheets integrated 21st century skills. This development research uses the ADDIE model to achieve research purposes. The ADDIE model consists of 5 stages, namely the analysis stage, the design stage, the development stage, the implementation stage, and the evaluation stage. The subjects in this study were 11th grade students of the MA Pertanian of Madiun City in the even semester of the 2021/2022 academic year. The research subjects consisted of 2 types, namely, limited trial subjects and field trial subjects. The research instruments include material expert validation sheets, media expert validation, student response questionnaires, and learning outcomes tests. The results of this study are that the developed student worksheets meet the valid, practical, and effective criteria, so based on the research results it can be concluded that the developed student worksheets are feasible and appropriate to improve students' 21st century skills.

‘Free rein’ to learn about language, culture & technology: a multimodal digital text exchange project between school students in Australia and Japan

As part of an Australia-Japan Foundation project, school students in Australia and Japan created and exchanged multimodal digital texts (MDTs) in order to learn language through authentic communicative practice, raise intercultural capability, and develop 21st century skills and digital literacies. Analysis of teacher and student interview and focus group data using the 4-domain SPeCT (Structures, Practices, Capabilities, and Technologies) model derived from earlier cross-cultural multimodal digital text exchange research revealed that, notwithstanding certain challenges relating to Structures, Capabilities, and Technologies, teachers and students were overwhelmingly positive about the project, whose relatively free nature was seen as fostering learning. The perceived benefits were largely in the domains of Practices and Capabilities: in the former, these related to choice and autonomy, personalisation and inclusivity, and collaboration and peer learning; in the latter, they related to practising language, learning about one’s own and others’ cultures, and developing 21st century skills and digital literacies. This suggests that within the wider field of telecollaboration and COIL (collaborative online international learning), there is merit in young learners being given some ‘free rein’, or autonomy, in creating and exchanging MDTs.

Дидактические и методические функции чат-ботов в обучении студентов нелингвистических направлений подготовке иноязычной грамматике

Importance. Digitalization is penetrating many areas of our lives and providing new opportunities and solutions. At the same time, higher education institutions prepare students to work in a professional sphere that increasingly utilizes advanced technological tools. Consequently, the integration of technology into education is essential in terms of preparing a highly qualified specialist in a particular industry. Materials and Methods. The material of the research is the analysis of scientific literature: theoretical and practical researches of innovative applications in English language teaching. The empirical method is applied in order to identify didactic and methodical functions of chatbots in the framework of differentiated teaching of students of foreign language grammar in technical universities. Result and Discussion. The didactic functions of chatbots in a context of English language teaching are formulated: a) accessibility; b) possibility of personalized learning; c) possibility of adaptive learning; d) possibility of interval learning; e) creation of mentally safe learning environment; f) multifunctionality; g) development of 21st century skills. Methodical functions of chatbot applications are concretized: a) possibility to form language skills of learners’ speech; b) possibility to develop foreign language speech activity skills. Conclusion. Modern technologies can optimize the educational process, making it more accessible, interactive and individualized. In addition, chat systems can be a useful tool to improve the productivity of teaching English grammar within the framework of differentiated learning of non-linguistic students in the conditions of self learning activity.

Charting opportunities and guidelines for augmented reality in makerspaces through prototyping and co-design research

Makerspace environments are becoming popular project-based learning spaces where students interact with physical objects and peer collaboration, while developing 21st century skills and engaging with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) topics. At the same time, augmented reality (AR) technology, which combines physical objects with digital visualizations, is becoming increasingly applicable for makerspace activities and has potential to address challenges for student learning in makerspaces. However, there is a lack of understanding of how to use and integrate AR in real makerspace environments. In this research we use a co-design methodology to address the following questions: (1) How can AR be useful for education in makerspaces? (2) How are students impacted by the process of co-designing AR technology? and (3) What are practical considerations for integrating AR in makerspaces? We engaged in a co-design process in a semester-long makerspace course attended by 18 students in a graduate school of education. Through this process, we generated six prototypes with seven student co-designers, exploring AR use in design, fabrication, programming, electronics, and training. We also identified areas where AR technology can benefit makerspaces, such as teaching STEM skills, facilitating construction activities, enhancing contextualization of learning, and debugging. We observed that students participating in co-design demonstrated improved understanding of technology design, enthusiasm for engaging with makerspaces and AR, and increased critical thinking about AR technology. These results suggest considerations and guidelines for integrating AR technology into makerspace environments.

A Hybrid Collaborative Project- Based Course for Developing 21st Century Skills, Academic Achievement and Attitude towards PBL among Gen Z Junior English Major Student Teachers

A Hybrid Collaborative Project- Based Course for Developing 21st Century Skills, Academic Achievement and Attitude towards PBL among Gen Z Junior English Major Student Teachers

Pedagogical innovation and the development of 21st century skills and sustainable development in the teaching and learning of life and earth sciences in Morocco

The world of education in the 21st century is undergoing transformations that affect teaching methods and learning styles. The Moroccan education system is at the heart of this movement, demonstrating its will and institutional commitment through the pedagogical integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) into the teaching-learning process. However, a number of studies have shown that this integration into learning and assessment activities in life and earth sciences (LES) remains very weak, if not absent, in qualifying secondary and college education. To pedagogically innovate teaching practice in LES, our research comes to help teachers and innovative designers conceive digital resources to develop 21st century skills in LES. To meet the objective of our research, a questionnaire was drawn up and sent to 200 teachers in the various regional education and training academies of the Kingdom of Morocco. Analysis of the results showed that teachers’ awareness of these skills in general, and those specific to LES in particular, was moderate and that in-service and pre-service teacher training, the design of multi-level and multi-type digital resources, and curriculum reform are very important elements in reinforcing 21st century skills in the digital teaching-learning of LES.

VISION OF PANDIT MADAN MOHAN MALAVIYA TOWARDS CHANGING ROLE OF TEACHER IN THE 21ST CENTURY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NEP-2020

Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya has significantly emphasized that the teaching-learning process should be based on a teacher's reflectiveness involving higher cognitive skills. Besides, Pandit Malaviya has stressed that the teaching-learning process should be activity-based at all stages of education. He also emphasized project based learning at university level. The National Educational Policy-2020 acknowledges and designates teachers and faculty as the core of the educational process. Educators must understand and embrace the concepts of integrated and multidisciplinary approaches and the need for development of 21st century skills. The policy aims at overall development of teachers so that they can have knowledge or expertise in a variety of subjects through access to information and communication technology, teacher trainings, and other facilities at the higher education institutions, as well as newly introduced MERUs (Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities) with the dynamics of teaching methodology under the banner of NEP-2020, the focus of the Indian higher education system is shifting from teachers to students, information to knowledge, marks to skills, exams to experiments, learning to research, and choice to competency. At P/3, NEP envisages, by 2040, India must strive to have the best educational system in the world. In the present paper, an attempt has been made by the researchers to study the ideas and concepts of teaching as advocated by Pandit Malaviya. Besides, an attempt has been made to examine and evaluate the changing role of teachers in the light of educational thought of Pandit Malaviya and as per the recommendations of NEP-2020. Finally, the emphasis of reflective teaching as has been equally emphasized by New Education Policy 2020 and Pandit Malaviya has also been an epoch task of this paper.

UTBK-Based Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) Test Instruments on Reaction Rate Topic

One of the efforts that can be support students in developing 21st century skills is to implement learning based on 21st century skills. In addition, another alternative that can be taken is to create, direct, and provide HOTS-based test instruments as an evaluation of learning. This study aims to develop multiple choice test instruments and essays to measure learners' Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) on reaction rate materials. This research uses the Research and Development (R & D) method with the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) development model. The respondents in the study were 150 students of class XII MIPA one of the high schools who had received learning material on reaction rate. The results of the validity of the product contents show that the question instrument is 92.01% valid with an excellent category. The results of empirical validity show that as many as 20 items of multiple-choice questions and 8 items of essay questions are valid and have high reliability with Cronbach Alpha scores of multiple-choice questions of 0.723 and essay questions of 0.736. The difference between the question items from the two types of questions is categorized very well with 20 items of multiple-choice questions categorized as moderate, while in essay questions, 1 question is categorized as easy and 7 questions are categorized as moderate. Furthermore, the question instruments that have been developed can be used to measure the HOTS of students.

Teaching Experiences of E-Authentic Assessment: Lessons Learned in Higher Education

The realities of the 21st century have led professors and lecturers to renew their learning assessment practices so that they are more adapted to and contextualized in the current professional world. Despite advances in teaching and learning, assessment methods may still deviate from practice in authentic contexts. Although some instructors are already familiar with more authentic assessments, most are accustomed to using exams as standard practices to test students’ achievement of course objectives and essays to prepare students for research or written argumentation. Despite their benefits, such typical assessments often lack authenticity and do not develop the full potential of students’ 21st-century learning or literacy skills such as communication, creativity, or working with technologies. Over the past decade, we have been witnessing the beginnings of a broader reflection on teaching, learning, and evaluating with technologies, including more authentic assessments. This reflective essay will present how technologies make it possible to diversify assessment methods, resulting in enhanced authenticity and development of 21st-century learning and literacy skills. Authentic assessment methods with technologies will be illustrated, e.g., recorded video presentations, explanatory interviews with descriptive assessment grids, PechaKucha presentations, blog posts, and social media and e-portfolios, with examples from several disciplines. Authors will also explain how proposing a number of methods to students for the same assessment may help answer their various needs and preferences without increasing instructors’ grading load. Furthermore, authors will discuss how diversifying assessment methods with technologies often results in a transformation of assessment modalities. Beyond assessments as an evaluation of knowledge and/or skills at a fixed schedule, authentic assessments with technologies may become continuous or iterative processes with multiple feedbacks from instructors, thereby combining synchronous interactions and/or discussions with asynchronous reflections to improve students’ involvement and active learning.

The impact of story-inspired programming on preschool children's computational thinking: A multi-group experiment

Computational thinking (CT) has received worldwide attention due to its alignment with developing 21st century skills such as creativity, problem-solving, and digital competence. With the increasing provision of programming tools such as robotic toys and tablet apps in the sector of early childhood education (ECE), many ECE researchers and practitioners tend to link CT to programming. However, children are reluctant to sustain their interests in programming activities, and may be further demotivated by debugging failures. This multi-group quasi-experimental study aimed to evaluate the effects of a story-inspired approach in bridging the gap between programming and CT for preschool children. Building on previous literature suggesting storytelling as a powerful, culturally responsive pedagogy, 5-year-old children (N=108) were involved in nine weeks of CT learning via one of the three conditions: Story-Inspired Robot Programming (SIRP), Story-Inspired Tablet Programming (SITP), and unplugged CT education. Results revealed that children who participated in the SIRP and SITP conditions showed improved CT scores, relative to unplugged CT education, even after controlling for baseline CT scores. No gender or family socioeconomic effects were found to influence the benefits of story-inspired programming interventions. These findings suggest that storytelling as a culturally responsive approach, whether using robots or tablets as a programming tool, can provide young children with more inclusive and sustainable CT learning experiences.

Developing Students' 21st-Century Skills Through A Multidisciplinary Approach

The 21st century is characterized by the rapid development of science, technology, and information. Along with the changes and advances that occur, 21st-century skills have emerged which are new needs to face the increasingly complex challenges of life. Life will not be able to be compartmentalized in one discipline alone, but rather run with a whole experience that uses various disciplines that combine with each other in solving a problem. Seeing these conditions, education has the biggest contribution in preparing a generation that has 21st-century skills that are ready to compete globally. One of the ways is to use a multidisciplinary approach by integrating interdisciplinary learning which is usually still compartmentalized so that they form a connection with the aim of providing a deep understanding along with the development of 21st-century skills of students. This research is a literature study that will describe how learning activities using a multidisciplinary approach can have an influence on developing students' 21st-century skills.

An Evaluation of Middle School Teachers' Thoughts on STEM Education

This study evaluated STEM education from the perspective of science, mathematics, and computer science teachers. The opinions of experienced STEM teachers were obtained and the results were analyzed in three subcategories. Phenomenological design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used for the study. The data for the study were collected from four different public middle schools in Izmir, Turkey, during the 2018-2019 school year. The qualitative data of the study was collected through a semi-structured interview with twelve middle school teachers. The professional experience of the teachers participating in the study ranged from 4 to 37 years. In addition, 6 of the teachers were female. To ensure data diversity in the study, teachers' views on STEM were collected through a 13-item questionnaire. The STEM-TSAS questionnaire used for the study had three sub-factors (teachers, school administrators and students in STEM education). The interviews with teachers revealed that STEM contributes to the development of 21st century skills in both students and teachers. In addition, many teachers indicated that school administrators were unable to provide the materials needed in the implementation of STEM education.

Factors affecting the Acceptance of Video Games as a Tool to improve students’ academic performance in Physical Education

Using commercial videogames as learning objects for the development of 21st century skills in secondary schools has been a relevant topic of study in recent years. But its use in the field of physical education is especially interesting considering its nature. The aim of this article is to explore how elements like technological competence, game-based learning, accessibility, and enjoyment are relevant factors that influence the acceptance of the use of video games as a learning aid in the context of physical education, as well as their influence on academic performance in the subject itself. The study enlisted the participation of 166 secondary school students. A quasi-experimental pre-post design with a non-equivalent control group was used. The intervention consisted of a specific training program entailing nine one-hour sessions once a week. To develop the model, the data was analysed using the optimisation technique of partial least squares (PLS). Our findings show that the factors studied, which are accessibility, enjoyment, technological competence and learning through video games, have an impact on students’ acceptance of video games as an educational tool and how this positive relationship leads to enhanced academic performance in physical education.

Room2Educ8: A Framework for Creating Educational Escape Rooms Based on Design Thinking Principles

By immersing learners in a playful, interactive, and engaging experience, Educational Escape Rooms (EERs) have been found to enhance learners’ motivation, help them to develop 21st century skills, and improve knowledge acquisition. As research into EERs is still in a preliminary phase, no unified framework about how to design them has been established yet. Additionally, existing frameworks rarely validate the quality and efficacy of the frameworks themselves in terms of usability and usefulness. Therefore, the present paper proposes Room2Educ8, a learner-centred framework for EER design that follows Design Thinking principles. It provides detailed heuristics for empathising with learners, defining learning objectives and constraints, adding narrative, designing puzzles, briefing and debriefing participants, prototyping and playtesting, documenting the whole process, and evaluating the EER experience. A mixed-methods internal validation study based on Instructional Design model validation was conducted with 104 postgraduate students between 2018–2022 to assess the framework’s integrity and use. The study findings suggest that Room2Educ8 can be proposed as a valid tool for developing a wide range of EER types that cover a variety of topics. Its well-described and practical steps make it appropriate for educators regardless of a lack of prior experience in EER design.

Development of 21st-century life skills among students: Teacher TPACK as guideline factor

Education is not intended to provide only degrees. It is meant to prepare an individual as a human being as per the need of society and also inculcate skills in them so that they can contribute to the development of society. The 21st century is facing rapid growth in technology, which has impacted every global sector. The emergence of knowledge and information has given major exposure to change in every working sector. To cope with rapid change, we need to adopt new skills, bring necessary change, and upgradation of our knowledge is important. So, the 21st cent skills & competencies inculcation in students is essential to be successful in the 21st-century industry. TPACK is a framework that supports teachers in the planning, implementation, and reflection on their teaching method with appropriate use of their domain of education which is Technology Pedagogy & content knowledge. Life skills talked about the skill which will be the pillar of students' holistic development for their future.

Emergency Remote Teaching Based on Education 4.0: an Experience Report about the Methodology adopted in the Experimental HCI Class

In Education 4.0, the professor is challenged to teach more than curriculum content, prompting the development of 21st-Century competencies and skills. Thus, this paper presents the Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) methodology used in the Experimental Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, based on Education 4.0. This class was taught to final year students of the undergraduate courses in Computer Science and Biomedical Informatics and graduate students in Informatics at a University. The teaching methodology adopted in this discipline sought to develop skills considered relevant for a researcher, such as recognizing research problems and learning new processes. The classes were guided by the Flex learning model, which consisted of synchronous and asynchronous classes. Thus, the schedule of classes needed to be adapted, including collaborative and diversified activities. We collected the student’s opinions about the teaching methodology and the skills developed in the class and analyzed the results qualitatively. The results showed the difficulties and problems faced by students with the resources and materials in ERT, such as students having internet connectivity problems. However, the teacher made the recorded classes available, and this problem was overcome. The results also show that the deficit of skills, such as autonomy, initiative, and independence, hampered students' performance in ERT. The findings can help other teachers to improve the remote teaching of this class and indicate the possibilities of ERT in the Education 4.0.

The impact of esports participation on the development of 21st century skills in youth: A systematic review

Esports have increased in popularity among young people over the past decade. There is evidence that involvement in esports helps young players to develop skills that are needed in 21st century societies and increasingly valued by employers. However, there has been no systematic investigation of what 21st century skills can be developed through esports participation and how these skills are acquired through esports. This paper presents a systematic review of the literature for the purpose of providing a holistic understanding of the impact of esports on the development of 21st century skills in young people. The review focuses on the methodologies employed in esports research, the effects of different types of esports games on the development of various skills, the mechanics embodied in esports through which these skills are acquired and the potential negative effects and trade-offs of esports participation. The findings show that the literature has paid most attention to collaboration and communication skills, with less focus on other life and career skills related to creativity and innovation, information literacy and citizenship. The review also reveals the possibility of transferring acquired skills, such as those in leadership and communication, to the real-world context. Further research is needed on the transferability of a wider range of skills from esports to broader settings, on instruments and designs for examining the value of esports for educational purposes, and other areas that are not well covered in the literature. Identifying the skill development potential of esports has implications for designing specific skill development programmes for students, making pedagogical innovations for teachers’ professional development and empowering educational change at the school level.