Lesson 2 - 21st Century Skills

21st Century Skills Defined

The Glossary of Education Reform defines 21st Century Skills as:

“The term 21st century skills refers to a broad set of knowledge, skills, work
habits, and character traits that are believed by educators, school
reformers, college professors, employers, and others to be critically
important to success in today’s world.”

In simple terms, 21st Century Skills refers to the set of skills and abilities that
students need in order to succeed in their careers in the digital age. These skills are
intended to help students keep up with the lightning-pace of today’s modern markets
(Stauffer, B., 2020).

Components of the 21st Century Skills

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (p21.org cited in CBSE 21 st Century Skills
Handbook, 2020; Stauffer, B.. 2020; Thoughtful Learning) lists three main skill sets or 3
Ls - namely, Learning Skills, Life Skills and Literacy Skills.

• Learning Skills (4Cs): skills required for the acquisition of new knowledge.
These skills help students learn, and so they are vital to success in school and
beyond. Teaches students about the mental processes required to adapt and
improve upon a modern work environment.

• Literacy Skills (IMT): skills help students gain knowledge through reading as
well as using media and technology. These skills also help students create
knowledge through writing as well as developing media and technology. Focuses
on how students can discern facts, publishing outlets, and the technology behind
them. There’s a strong focus on determining trustworthy sources and factual
information to separate it from the misinformation that floods the Internet.

• Life Skills (FLIPS): skills required for successfully leading everyday life. Focus
on both personal and professional qualities.

Prepared by: JOSE F. IBARRIENTOS III, MIS, LPT

 Figure 1.1 - 21st Century Skills Classification

• 4Cs: Critical Thinking, Creativity & Innovation, Collaboration, Communication

• IMT: Information Literacy, Media Literacy, Technology Literacy
• FLIPS: Flexibility and Adaptability, Leadership and Responsibility, Initiative and
Self-Direction, Social and Cross-Cultural Interaction, Productivity and
Accountability

Definitions

Prepared by: JOSE F. IBARRIENTOS III, MIS, LPT

Learning Skills

Critical Thinking and Applying higher order thinking to new problems and issues,
Problem Solving using appropriate reasoning as they effectively analyze the
problem and make decisions about the most effective ways to
solve the problem.
Creativity and Using knowledge and understanding to create new ways of
Innovative Skills thinking in order to find solutions to new problems and to
create new products and services.
Collaboration Working with others respectfully and effectively to create, use
and share knowledge, solutions and innovations.
Communication Communicating effectively in a wide variety of forms and
contexts for a wide range of purposes and using multiple
media and technologies.

Literacy Skills

Information Literacy Accessing, analyzing, synthesizing, creating and sharing

information from multiple sources.
Media Literacy Media literacy involves understanding the many ways that
information is produced and distributed. It is the practice of
identifying publishing methods, outlets, and sources while
distinguishing between the ones that are credible and the
ones that aren’t.
Technology Literacy Creating the capacity to identify and use technology
efficiently, effectively and ethically as a tool to access,
organize, evaluate and share information

Life Skills

Flexibility and Flexibility and Adaptability refer to a person’s ability to

Adaptability change his actions and steps taken by him according to a
new situation, and efficiently facing an unprecedented
situation, without compromising on ethics and values.

Adaptability can be defined as creating modifications or

changes in oneself to suit the new environment. For students,
these can be understood as the skills required to be flexible
and adaptive to the situations around them and find the best
possible solution to go forward despite adverse conditions.

Prepared by: JOSE F. IBARRIENTOS III, MIS, LPT

Leadership and Leadership is the ability to lead a team and be capable of
Responsibility effective team management in relation to real world
challenges. These skills teach a child how to support the
development of key personal qualities such as perseverance,
being committed and responsible, resilience and
selfconfidence and how to foster a commitment to life-long
learning.

Being Responsible means being a good and effective/

sensitive citizen. Be aware of the important social and
national issues that may have an impact on our daily lives
both as a human-being and as a student, be aware of the
important social and national issues that may have an impact
on lives in future both as a human -being and as a student, be
aware of our fundamental duties and rights and embed the
core democratic values of India and strive to live by them.
Initiative and Self Initiation skill involves the ability to begin a task
Direction independently. It helps the child to build his/her own path of
development.

Self-direction is a skill to work with integrity on self-

motivation and taking initiatives.
Productivity and Productivity in the student can be understood as fulfilment
of Accountability any task within a given time period.

Accountability can be understood as feeling responsible for

any task done. Developing these skills in a student helps
him/her to work effectively and also make him/her reliable for
other peers by being accountable for his/her actions.
Social and Cross- Developing cultural competence in working with others by
Cultural Interaction recognizing and respecting cultural differences and work with
Skills others from a wide range of cultural and social backgrounds.
Table 1.1 - 21st Century Skills Definition (CBSE 21st Century Handbook 2020, Beers, S. (n.d.), Stauffer, B. 2020,
Thoughtful Learning)

Why Do We Need 21st Century Skills?

The p21 paper on “21st Century Skills, Education & Competitiveness A Resource
and Policy Guide” suggested the need of 21st Century Skills are as follows:

• Reason 1: Fundamental Changes in the Economy, Jobs and Businesses.

o Over the last several decades, the industrial economy based on
manufacturing has shifted to a service economy driven by information,
knowledge and innovation.

Prepared by: JOSE F. IBARRIENTOS III, MIS, LPT

• Reason 2: New, Different Skill Demands o Advanced economies, innovative
industries and firms, and high-growth jobs require more educated workers with
the ability to respond flexibly to complex problems, communicate effectively,
manage information, work in teams and produce new knowledge.
• Reason 3: Two Achievement Gaps o For the past decade, the academe has
focused nationally on closing achievement gaps between the lowest- and
highest-performing students— a legitimate and useful agenda, but one that skirts
the competitive demand for advanced skills.

Prepared by: JOSE F. IBARRIENTOS III, MIS, LPT