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Module 3: 21st Century Skills

Week 1: What are 21st Century Skills?

This week the ECT focused on identifying what 21st Century Skills are, and why these are important to be teaching within our schools and developing with our students.

Time this week is focused on evidence and research and reflection and discussion as the ECT will be applying this to practice across week 3-5.

Reflection and Discussion

This week the ECT started with some reflection.

Invite them to share their reflections with you in response to the following questions:

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  • What might we mean when we talk about 21st Century Skills?

  • What might these skills be?

  • Without having explored 21st Century Skills, and therefore going with your gut instinct, do you believe that these are explicitly taught within the National Curriculum?  or do you teach them within your own classroom?

Where has their learning/thinking come from?

Evidence and Research:

The ECT explored what 21st Century Skills are and why they are important.  Invite them to share their developing knowledge with you.

The following questions may help frame your discussion:

  • Why is it important to teach 21st Century Skills?

  • What do you understand 21st Century Skills to be?

  • How many 21st Century Skills are there?

  • How are these categorised?

The image below will support you (if you click on this you can print off/save this poster)

Reflection and Discussion

Work with the ECT, using the Diamond 9 cards, to create a Diamond 9 in relation to the 12 21st Century Skills.

The ECT will be able to explain how to approach this activity. (There are instructions below - click on the document to access this)

It is important that you arrive at a Diamond 9 you are both in agreement with.

The ECT has already undertaken this activity on their own - invite them to share the photo they took of this activity outcome.

Discuss the differences with the ECT inviting them to critically think about these and how they have compromised or developed their thinking through working with someone else.

The following questions may support this discussion:

  • What do you notice as being different between the two Diamond 9s?

  • What might have driven these differences?

  • What 21st Century Skills did you apply in the first activity?  What 21st Century Skills did you use to complete the second activity?

  • If you were to now do a third Diamond 9 independently, what might this look like?

Week 2: Exploring the 12 21st Century Skills

This week the ECT focused on exploring each of the 12 21st Century Skills learning what these relate to and and how these can be introduced into their classroom practice.

The ECT was also introduced to the concept of the zones of comfort, stretch and panic (Rohnke, n.d).

Time this week is focused on evidence and research and reflection and discussion as you will be applying this to practice across week 3-5.

Evidence and Research:

Invite the ECT to share with you their learning from this week, asking them what they have learnt about each of the 21st Century Skills.

The following questions may support this discussion:

  • What have your learnt about each of the 21st Century Skills

  • What skill/s do you think are the most challenging to teach and develop in students?

  • Have you learn anything new?

  • What skills do you feel you would be/are most confident in teaching?

  • Where might you need support and/or development?

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The ECT was introduce to the idea of comfort, stretch and panic zones (see image below).  Ask them to share their learning from this.  The following questions may frame this discussion:

  • Explain to me the zones of comfort, stretch and panic.

  • What learning have you taken from this idea that can be applied to your own development?

  • What ideas have you taken from this that you can apply to your teaching and classroom practice?

  • How might you use this with students?

  • What challenges and barriers to you foresee in relation to 21st Century Skills and the stretch zone in relation to our specific pupils?

Reflection and Discussion

The ECT was asked to reflect upon how they already explicitly, or implicitly teach 21st Century Skills.

Invite the ECT to share their reflections with you by asking the following:

  • Do you explicitly teach 21st Century Skills to your students?

  • Do you include any 21st Century Skills as distinct learning objectives?

  • Do you implicitly teach these skills without them being made explicit?  If so which skills do you feel you already teach?

  • Which skills do you feel you do not explicitly or implicitly teach?

Next week the ECT will embark upon applying this learning to their practice.  Initially they will be working to identify the curriculum areas that best align with the teaching of each of the 21st Century Skills and establishing a bank of learning objectives that can be adapted to use to explicitly include 21st Century Skills in lessons.  If you have time, it will be worth working alongside the ECT to do this - perhaps in two sessions.

Week 3: 21st Century Skills within the Curriculum

This week the ECT will commence three weeks of applying their learning and new knowledge of 21st Century Skills to practice.  But, before they applied this knowledge to their classroom, they considered where 21st Century Skills may naturally sit within the curriculum and how learning objectives can be developed to support pupils in developing these skills, making these a core part of teaching and learning across the curriculum.

Application and Exploration of Practice and Setting:

Using the implementation cycle that the ECT is now becoming familiar they will spend the next 3 weeks working their way through this cycle.  

This week they will focus on the stimulus: To embed 21st Century Skills in their Teaching and to come up with ideas and actions by developing a 21st Century Skills Curriculum Matrix and then some relevant learning objectives.

It would be useful for them to work alongside you, as their mentor, for this week.

Working together, but with the ECT leading, complete the 21st Century Skills Curriculum Matrix

The matrix should identify where 21st Century Skills would align well with curriculum subjects e.g. Communication would of course align well with English but it may also do so with PE.

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Once completed support the ECT in identifying potential, and generic learning objectives for each of the 21st Century Skills, perhaps 2 or 3 for each.

They will bring some examples.

Rather than a 'typical' mentor meeting, this week you will work in a collaborative manner with your ECT drawing upon several of the 21st Century Skills!

Week 4: Applying and Embedding 21st Century Skills in the Classroom

This week, drawing upon learning in weeks 1-3, the ECT practiced embedding 21st Century Skills into their teaching and included some 21st Century Skills learning objectives. They also observed a colleague to identify potential opportunities to embed 21st Century Skills within the observed lesson segment.

Application and Exploration of Practice and Setting:

The ECT has been practicing and embedding their learning and have chosen a couple of subjects to include 21st Century Skills teaching and learning objectives this week.

Invite them to discuss how this has worked.  You might find the following questions useful:

  • What subjects did you choose to focus on, and for what reason did you choose these?

  • What 21st Century Skills did you identify to include in the lesson/s?

  • What were the 21st Century Skills learning objective/s for the lessons?

  • How did you explicitly teach elements of this/these 21st Century skills?

  • How did it go?  Was it successful - how do you know?  What might you need to consider further?

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The ECT also observed a colleague invite them to share their thinking as a result of this observation.  The following question may frame the discussion:

  • What lesson did you see?

  • What opportunities did you identify whereby 21st Century Skills could have been included?

  • What learning objective might you have used?

  • What teaching points might you have included?

Next week the ECT will continue to practice embedding 21st Century Skills, trialing with other subjects.  

Schedule an observation for this week that alongside the Teachers' Standards focuses on 21st Century Skills - the learning objective, explicit teaching and overall learning of the 21st Century Skill by the pupils.

Week 5: Applying and Embedding 21st Century Skills in the Classroom

This week, the ECT continued to practice embedding 21st Century Skills as part of teaching and learning.  You will undertake their termly observation and will focus on 21st Century Skills alongside the Teachers' Standards.

The ECT reflected upon their learning and how they are applying this to practice.

Application and Exploration of Practice and Setting:

The ECT has been practicing further and embedding their learning and have chosen a couple more subjects to include 21st Century Skills teaching and learning objectives this week.

Invite them to discuss how this has worked.  You might find the following questions useful:

  • What subjects did you choose to focus on, and for what reason did you choose these?

  • What 21st Century Skills did you identify to include in the lesson/s?

  • What were the 21st Century Skills learning objective/s for the lessons?

  • How did you explicitly teach elements of this/these 21st Century skills?

  • How did it go?  Was it successful - how do you know?  What might you need to consider further?​

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Reflection and Discussion

Finally, the ECT will have reflected on the use of 21st Century Skills in their teaching and learning using Brookfield's four lens model (below).  Invite them to share their reflection with you.  The following questions may help frame this conversation:

Self

  • ​What have been the successes with embedding 21st Century Skills in your Teaching?

  • What are your strengths in this area?

  • What do you need to develop further?

  • What learning has been most influential?

 

Students

  • How have your students responded?

  • Have you had any feedback from your students? 

  • Have you gauged any unintended feedback from your students?  E.g. body language etc.

  • Have you seen progress in the students development of the specific 21st Century Skills you have introduced?

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Peers

  • What did you learn from developing the 21st Century Skills Curriculum Matrix?

  • What will you take forward as a result of our observation and professional learning conversation?

  • What target will you set yourself as a result?

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Scholarship

  • What has been the key element of learning that you feel will have most impact on your practice?

  • Are there elements your would like to explore further?

(Hughes, 2023)

Next week, the ECT will focus on preparing and delivering professional development to their colleagues around 21st Century Skills.

This is to develop their own 21st Century Skills and to offer them an opportunity to share their learning.

You may need to ensure that this is scheduled and be there to support the ECT.

Week 6: Sharing with Colleagues - Leading Professional Development

This week the ECT reflected upon their learning and experiences of embedding 21st Century Skills into their teaching and prepared to share this new knowledge and practice with colleagues.  They have been tasked with preparing a short staff development input (of around 20-30 minutes) which they will deliver this/next week.  You may need to support them with this.

Application and Exploration of Practice and Setting:

The professional development session could be structured as follows:

  • What are 21st Century Skills & why is it important that we teach them to our pupils? - using the 21st Century Skills poster

  • The 21st Century Skills matrix - embedding across subjects rather than being an add-on - sharing the matrix they completed.

  • Example 21st Century Skills learning objectives.

  • Teaching 21st Century Skills - making them explicit teaching points, embedding into current lessons, allowing time for pupils to practice.

You may want to then set next steps for staff - do you want staff to begin embedding 21st Century Skills in their teaching?  Will they have time to practice in term 4 before further exploration?

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