The phrase "21st Century Skills" is widely used in educational institutions, mentioned in their curriculum standards and echoed by the promoters of these institutions (schools, universities, training courses). According to Chris Dede, this term has become an umbrella for all knowledge and sciences, which has led to a loss of its specificity. So, what exactly are these skills? How do they differ from 20th-century skills? And does the educational system truly need to focus on these skills to this extent?
What Are 21st Century Skills?
In 2004, economists Frank Levy and Richard Murnane emphasized the need to distinguish between knowledge and skills in the 21st century. They referred to these skills as "metacognitive skills," as most current jobs consist of routine knowledge tasks that can easily be programmed for computers to perform and manage. On the other hand, the labor market lacks jobs requiring expert thinking in complex or non-routine situations, tasks that computers are unable to handle. For instance, a skilled teacher is an expert in complex situations because, in addition to possessing knowledge, they can improvise answers and facilitate discussions in a chaotic environment with unpredictable outcomes, something a computer cannot be programmed to do. Thus, 21st-century skills distinguish human work from machines that share the labor market.
The Number of 21st Century Skills
This assumption sparked interest among universities, research institutes, and educational experts, who searched, worked, and strived to identify these skills. Numerous classifications emerged, including:
· The first and most important classification came from the P21 organization, which is the most well-known. It identified four skills, all beginning with the letter "C" in English, referred to as the "4Cs": Critical Thinking, Creativity, Communication, and Collaboration.
· The second classification, proposed by Trilling, identified seven skills, all starting with "C", and was referred to as the "7Cs": Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Creativity and Innovation, Communication, Collaboration and Leadership, Cultural Understanding and Exchange, Computer and Information Technology Literacy, and Self-Directed Learning and Professional Development.
· The third classification was issued by Oracle Education, which adopted the second classification and added three skills that are core to both old and new knowledge. These three skills, all starting with the letter "R," are Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. Therefore, Oracle's 21st-century skills are "7Cs + 3Rs."
The research efforts to expand the scope of skills have caused some confusion around the term, and blurred its boundaries for those exploring it. You can visit the "21st Century Skills" page on Wikipedia to find studies from some universities and institutes that list skills that might surprise some, such as "play, healthy eating, optimism, and kindness."
Are These Skills Really New?
This leads to a question: Are critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration truly new skills that require urgent attention today? These skills have always been valued in workplaces across centuries, but their importance is increasingly growing in knowledge-based economies. For instance, the skill of collaboration in the new century involves more advanced principles. In addition to face-to-face collaboration with a team or colleagues in conference rooms, people in the 21st century are increasingly collaborating through virtual interactions and meetings with peers around the world, who they may never meet face-to-face. In traditional education, learners acquire skills to solve routine problems, whereas in 21st-century education, they acquire skills to extract data from experiences in complex environments to develop their ability to solve complex problems. Communication skills have also evolved in the new century to involve engaging in rich, organized interactions that present unfamiliar viewpoints to audiences. As a result, one skill in traditional education branches out into sub-skills in the new educational model. For instance, Facione (Peter) outlines six principles and cognitive skills for critical thinking: (1) Interpretation, (2) Analysis, (3) Evaluation, (4) Inference, (5) Explanation, and (6) Self-Regulation.
Dear reader, we all possess 21st-century skills, but do we possess them in their updated form?
