What are 21st Century Skills?
Learning skills in the 21st century are skills required by a present-day learner to master the study content while producing. synthesising and evaluating information from a wide range of subjects. Since there are a vast number of sources to learn from, the learner needs to develop an understanding of and respect for diverse cultures to enhance their learning. Since learning takes place in the digital or virtual space, the learner learns to create, communicate and collate information while being digitally aware of his or her social responsibilities.
The 12 21st Century skills are:
Critical thinking
Creativity
Collaboration
Communication
Information literacy
Media literacy
Technology literacy
Flexibility
Leadership
Initiative
Productivity
Social skills
What are 21st Century Skills? Types of 21st century skills
There are various 21st century skills which are important to succeed in contemporary careers. Therefore, learning the most relevant and universally applicable skills needs to be prioritised. Some such skills have been shown in the figure given below. Their correlation is noteworthy for learners.
1. Critical thinking:
It refers to the ability to analyse facts to form a judgement. A person with critical thinking skills is able to understand the logical connection between ideas and resolve problems systematically. A critical thinker knows how to make use of information to solve problems.
2. Creativity:
It is the ability to discover and create new and original ideas. Most of the time it involves lateral thinking to achieve solutions. To develop creative skills, a person has to set aside any bias he/she might have and look at the problem with an open mind, after organising his/ her thoughts logically .
3.collaboration
It is a skill that enables one to work with others to produce or create something. Giving and receiving feedback, sharing credit, acknowledging others' skills and ideas, expanding on the ideas given by team members and listening to their opinions and concerns are part of collaborative skills.
4. Communication:
It is an exchange of information and ideas with others. To communicate effectively, it is important to choose an appropriate channel of communication so that the scope for misunderstanding can be minimised.
5. Information Literacy:
It refers to nurturing the art of locating, recognising, evaluating and correctly using the needed information.
6.Media Literacy:
It is the ability to identify and understand media and its messages.
7.Flexibility:
Unexpected fircumstances may lead a person towards a state of confusion. Being able to adapt to sudden change in circumstances, a flexible person is able to adjust calmly and quickly to the changed circumstances to work effectively.
8. Leadership.
A leader inspires the team as he/she leads from the front and directs the team towards the direction in which action has to be taken. A leader must possess integrity, ability to delegate responsibility, gratitude and empathy to motivate a group to achieve a common goal.
What are 21st Century Skills? Types of 21st century skills
9.Initiative:
The first step to take charge before others do gives the person an edge over others. A person who takes initiative is proactive and can spot opportunities and take advantage of a situation by acting immediately to resolve the issue.
10. Productivity:
It is the ability to generate, create and enhance services and maximise output. It is about achieving goals and increasing profits within a limited time frame
11. Social Skills:
These are interpersonal skills of dealing and communicating with people in a verbal or non-verbal manner. Social skills go hand-in-hand with communication skills and need to be developed to work well in a team environment.
12. Technology Literacy: The ability to effectively use technology to access, manage, integrate evaluate create and communicate information.
Importance of 21st Century skills
The importance given to develop 21st century skills/cannot be emphasised enough. The world is changing at a rapid pace and the only way to keep up is through constant up gradation of our skill set. Learning to grow and thrive in a changing world has become a consistent requirement in our lives today. A person without skills to use and understand technology or lacking the ability to innovate and change, as well as unable to work in a team is likely to be considered unsuccessful. Rigidity in behaviour and old-fashioned ideas have to give way to flexibility and the ability to listen to others.
Skills such as critical thinking and creativity are needed to resolve problems and make informed decisions, to plan and conduct research.
What are 21st Century Skills? Types of 21st century skills
Collaboration, cooperation and communication deepen academic learning and help us to articulate our thoughts and ideas and work effectively with others. Perspective taking is beneficial for successful interactions and building relationships. It helps us to view the concerns and opinions of others and expanding our worldview. Working well with others is foundational life skill. Taking on the mantle of leadership, taking initiative towards completion of assigned tasks, team cohesion and flexibility to be able to see from others' point of view and the ability to move towards positive change are necessary skills a person must imbibe in order to be successful in the modern world. Research and information literacy to gather, evaluate and use the correct information appropriately is a skill that needs to be practised more to get accurate inputs about the data collected.
Media literacy and technology literacy assist in the sourcing of information and the ability to understand and distribute it responsibly. To practise safe and ethical online behaviour is imperative and of prime concern to any organisation. The understanding of the usage of technology systems safely, effectively and productively helps in understanding behaviour that must be exhibited at all times, by responsible adults.
In this day and age, we interact with people from all over the globe. The ability to connect, co-operate and learn from these interactions can benefit us in more ways than one, provided we are groomed, educated and ready. Learning about different perspectives stimulates creativity and influences our perceptions of the future. The ability and willingness to learn from others who have different viewpoints are beneficial for resolving conflicts. A person would be considered incompetent without these skills. Therefore, it is imperative that adequate attention is paid to it.
Types of 21st Century Skills
There are three types of 21st century skills and they can be categorised as:
1. Learning skills
2. Literacy skills
3. Life skills
1. Learning Skills
Skills that teach about the mental processes required by a person to adapt and improve in a modern work environment are known as learning skills. The 20th century classroom emphasised on compliance and conformity. These two skills were deemed necessary to survive in a corporate environment then. ' Rote learning' and one size fits all' was the norm in a conventional classroom learning environment.
In the 21st century, the process of learning has been evolved to help navigate us to the future. Now there's more focus on the white board than on the textbook. It is about giving skills to the students to help them succeed in the new world. Due to the Internet, learners can avail a world of information. The learner is taught to use the information, share it and use it in smart ways to arrive at creative solutions. This approach joins content to skills as students engage in problem-solving or team-building exercises. A learner who learns to analyse a problem becomes capable of finding a solution for it as he/she is thinking critically to resolve it.
Importance of Learning Skills
In our daily life, learning skills help us to find new ways of thinking and problem solving.
We learn to analyse our options, make decisions and understand why certain choices were made.
We learn to appreciate other viewpoints and develop at greater sense of self-awareness. We learn to recognise the impact of our actions and take responsibility for them.
2. Literacy Skills
In today's world of fast-paced changes, the concept of has also evolved. Learning to read and write is not enough to keep up with the changing times. There is a need to develop proficiency in using the new tools of technology so the these skills teach us to verify the authenticity of information It is the need of the hour to design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes and have the knowledge of how media outlets use technology for disbursing information. A lot of emphasis is laid on identifying trustworthy sources and separating them from misinformation. It is henceforth clear that in today's ever evolving, technologically driven world, developing literacy skills is not an option but a necessity.
Importance of Literacy Skills
Literacy skills inculcate the ability to identify material found on the Internet.
The learners become competent in identifying and critically evaluating information they find from online sources.
The capability of learners to read, sift and synthesise information from multiple multimedia sources is remarkably facilitated and their learning outcomes improve.
3. Life Skills
The trends in education, technology and economy are moving towards automation. Hence, the younger generation needs to be equipped with the proper tools to thrive in the fast paced world.
It is important to take a look at the invisible elements of everyday life and focus on both personal and professional qualities. An individual without life skills will be ill-equipped to handle the rigours of modern life as they are the most challenging qualities to learn. Everybody in contemporary society must have the ability to adapt to change smoothly as life changes without a moment's notice. Everyone needs to know how to act and not to react.
Importance of Life Skills
Learners equipped with life skills experience reduced levels of anxiety and stress as they know how to handle situations and people in their personal as well as professional lives.
They develop an attitude of acceptance for change because the only thing that is consistent from year to year is change.
They are prepared to adapt to all situations and move with the times rather than being stagnant or lagging behind. They also realise that they need to constantly evolve and improve to be successful in life.
Learning Skills (The 4 Cs) (21st Century skills )
Learning skills required in the 21st century are vastly different from earlier times wherein emphasis was only on developing reading and writing skills and learning arithmetic Since life is more complex in the present times and working environments have become vastly different from the earlier ones, we need to focus on skills like critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication. Hence, the most important learning skills of the 21st century, often referred to as the 4 Cs are:
Critical thinking
Creativity
Collaboration
Communication
1. What is Critical Thinking?
The ability to think clearly and rationally as well as to understand the logical connection between ideas is known as Critical Thinking. It is a tool for problem-solving which follows logical steps to arrive at the most optimum solution involving time, effort and resources. It trains one to develop the ability to think rationally. One needs to be an active learner rather than a passive recipient of information to inculcate critical thinking. Those who think critically, question ideas and assumptions, instead of passively accepting them at face value. Critical thinkers always want to deduce the ideas, arguments and findings that constitute the entire picture. They identify. analyse and solve problems systematically and do not go solely by intuition or instinct..
What are 21st Century Skills? Types of 21st century skills
Importance of Critical Thinking
From resolving problems at school level to arriving at solutions in the work place/facing real world problems, critical thinking teaches a variety of skills that can be applied to any situation in life that calls for reflection, analysis and planning. In the fast paced global age of information and technology, changes have to be made quickly and effectively. Hence, various types of information have to be integrated seamlessly. A critical thinker knows how to separate facts from fiction, to make rational interences and to withhold bias or prejudice.
II. What is Creativity?
Creativity involves making connections between unrelated phenomena and identifying hidden patterns between them, Creativity helps in turning new and ingenious ideas into actuality. Creativity is also known as the ability to tap our inner resources of knowledge, insight, information, etc. and combining them to create something new. Creativity is an inherent trait which needs to be nurtured in students, employees and organisations. In essence, it is the application of skilled knowledge in any situation. Importance of Creativity
The skill of creativity enables one to find different solutions to resolve a problem and imparts a vision to observe it from different angles. The solutions of a complex problem may seem unsurmountable to a person with less talent but a creative person will easily solve it. Creativity enhances the brain and gives us the ability to think outside the box. Without creativity, the human race would not have been able to survive. The creative instinct in a person helps him/ her to find solutions to diverse problems and makes them more productive and useful in the workforce.
III. What is Collaboration?
Collaboration skills help a person to effectively work toward a common goal with others. To collaborate beneficially we need to communicate clearly, listen actively, take responsibility for mistakes and respect the diversity of our colleagues.
These skills include understanding an assortment of perspectives, management of others priorities and meeting expectations as a reliable member of a team.
Importance or Collaboration
For a collaboration to be successful a person requires to inculcate a cooperative spird and mutual respect for other members too. For efficient functioning on the modern world, one entity alone should not be responsible for undertaking all responsibilities for a task. Specialisations in terms of skill, resources and locations should not be centralised and collaborative effort should be used for better productivity. Without collaborative effort no team would be able to achieve success. As the adage goes. Together we are stronger.
IV. What is Communication?
A very important life skill to learn is the art of effective communication. The ability to articulate one's thoughts effectively is key to communicate. Whilst the means of communication may have changed as with the evolution of human beings, however, the fundamentals have remained the same. In its basic form, effective communication entails getting one's message across accurately and speedily.
What are 21st Century Skills? Types of 21st century skills
Communication is not to be mistaken for language skills only. Some of the most effective communication has been known to be non-verbal, for example body language is a far better form of communication than words on a number of occasions.
Importance of Communication
To do one's job effectively, one has to discuss problems, request information, interact with others and develop sociable skills as communication drives workplace success. Poor communication skills are detrimental for a person as well as an organisation. Grievous mistakes might arise if decisions/plans are not communicated in a proper manner and through the proper channels. Effective communication builds trust and provides clarity and direction to the team, thus increasing the chances of better engagement, improving productivity and promoting team building. Effective communication plays an important role in preventing potential misinterpretations from arising.
