problem solving as a 21st century skill

21st Century Skill 'Problem Solving': Defining the Concept

Rahman, M. M. (2019). 21st Century Skill “Problem Solving”: Defining the Concept. Asian Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, 2(1), 64-74. https://doi.org/10.34256/ajir1917

11 Pages Posted: 4 Sep 2020

Md. Mehadi Rahman

Institute of Education & Research

Date Written: 2019

Only knowledge is not sufficient to make students succeed in the world. Students need to attain 21st century skills like problem-solving, creativity, innovation, meta-cognition, communication etc. to endure in the modern world. Problem-solving skill is one of the fundamental human cognitive processes. Whenever students face a situation where they do not know the way to complete a task, the problem occurs. Problem-solving is a process, which involves systematic observation and critical thinking to find an appropriate solution or way to reach the desired goal. The framework of problem-solving consisted of two major skills: observation and critical thinking skill. Observation skill refers to collecting data, understanding and interpreting the meaning of the information using all the senses. Critical thinking involves the individual’s ability to do the following: conceptualizing, logical reasoning, applying strategy, analytical thinking, decision making and synthesizing to solve any problem.

Keywords: 21st Century Skill, Problem-Solving, Critical Thinking, Observation Skill, Cognitive Process, Analytical Thinking, Divergent Thinking

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Md. Mehadi Rahman (Contact Author)

Institute of education & research ( email ).

University of Dhaka Nilkhet Dhaka, 1000 Bangladesh

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The factors influencing 21st century skills and problem-solving skills: the acceptance of blackboard as sustainable education.

1. Introduction

Problem statement, 2. research model and hypotheses development, 2.1. information sharing, 2.2. resource availability, 2.3. subjective norm, 2.4. virtual social skills, 2.5. communication skills, 2.6. critical thinking, 2.7. students’ self-efficacy, 2.8. problem-solving skills, 2.9. blackboard system used, 2.10. students’ academic performance, 3. research methodology, 3.1. participants, 3.2. measurement instruments and data collection, 4. result and data analysis, 4.1. measurement model analysis, 4.2. measurement model assessment measures model for validity and reliability, 4.3. structural equation model analysis, 4.4. hypotheses’ testing results, 5. discussion and implications, 5.1. implications for theory and practice, 5.2. limitations, 6. conclusions and future work, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

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Alturki, U.; Aldraiweesh, A. The Factors Influencing 21st Century Skills and Problem-Solving Skills: The Acceptance of Blackboard as Sustainable Education. Sustainability 2023 , 15 , 12845. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151712845

Alturki U, Aldraiweesh A. The Factors Influencing 21st Century Skills and Problem-Solving Skills: The Acceptance of Blackboard as Sustainable Education. Sustainability . 2023; 15(17):12845. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151712845

Alturki, Uthman, and Ahmed Aldraiweesh. 2023. "The Factors Influencing 21st Century Skills and Problem-Solving Skills: The Acceptance of Blackboard as Sustainable Education" Sustainability 15, no. 17: 12845. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151712845

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Integrating 21st century skills into education systems: From rhetoric to reality

Subscribe to the center for universal education bulletin, ramya vivekanandan rv ramya vivekanandan senior education specialist, learning assessment systems - gpe secretariat.

February 14, 2019

This is the third post in a series about  education systems alignment in teaching, learning, and assessing 21st century skills .

What does it mean to be a successful learner or graduate in today’s world? While in years past, a solid acquisition of the “three Rs” (reading, writing, and arithmetic) and mastery in the core academic subjects may have been the measure of attainment, the world of the 21 st century requires a radically different orientation. To participate effectively in the increasingly complex societies and globalized economy that characterize today’s world, students need to think critically, communicate effectively, collaborate with diverse peers, solve complex problems, adopt a global mindset, and engage with information and communications technologies, to name but just a few requirements. The new report from Brookings, “ Education system alignment for 21st century skills: Focus on assessment ,” illuminates this imperative in depth.

Recognizing that traditional education systems have generally not been preparing learners to face such challenges, the global education community has increasingly talked about and mobilized in favor of the changes required. This has resulted in a suite of initiatives and research around the broad area of “21st century skills,” which culminated most notably with the adoption of Sustainable Development Goal 4 and the Education 2030 agenda, including Target 4.7, which commits countries to ensure that learners acquire knowledge and skills in areas such as sustainable development, human rights, gender equality, global citizenship, and others.

In this landscape, Global Partnership for Education (GPE) has a core mandate of improving equity and learning by strengthening education systems. GPE supports developing countries, many of which are affected by fragility and conflict, to develop and implement robust education sector plans. Depending on the country, GPE implementation grants support a broad range of activities including teacher training, textbook provision, interventions to promote girls’ education, incentives for marginalized groups, the strengthening of data and learning assessment systems, early childhood education, and many other areas.

This work is buttressed by thematic work at the global level, including in the area of learning assessment. The strengthening of learning assessment systems is a strategic priority for GPE because of its relevance to both improving learning outcomes and ensuring effective and efficient education systems, which are two of the three key goals of the GPE strategic plan for the 2016-2020 period . The work on learning assessment includes the Assessment for Learning (A4L) initiative, which aims to strengthen learning assessment systems and to promote a holistic measurement of learning.

Under A4L, we are undertaking a landscape review on the measurement of 21st century skills, using a definition derived from Binkley et. al . and Scoular and Care :

“21st century skills are tools that can be universally applied to enhance ways of thinking, learning, working and living in the world. The skills include critical thinking/reasoning, creativity/creative thinking, problem solving, metacognition, collaboration, communication and global citizenship. 21st century skills also include literacies such as reading literacy, writing literacy, numeracy, information literacy, ICT [information and communications technologies] digital literacy, communication and can be described broadly as learning domains.”

Using this lens, the landscape review examines the research literature, the efforts of GPE partners that have been active in this space, and data collected from a sample of countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia in regard to the assessment of these skills. These research efforts were led by Brookings and coordinated by the UNESCO offices in Dakar and Bangkok. As another important piece of this work, we are also taking stock of the latest education sector plans and implementation grants of these same countries (nine in sub-Saharan Africa and six in Asia), to explore the extent to which the integration of 21st century skills is reflected in sector plans and, vitally, in their implementation.

Though the work is in progress, the initial findings provide food for thought. Reflecting the conclusions of the new report by Brookings, as well as its earlier breadth of work on skills mapping, a large majority of these 15 countries note ambitious objectives related to 21st century skills in their education sector plans, particularly in their vision or mission statements and/or statements of policy priorities. “Skills” such as creativity and innovation, critical thinking, problem-solving, decisionmaking, life and career skills, citizenship, personal and social responsibility, and information and communications technology literacy were strongly featured, as opposed to areas such as collaboration, communication, information literacy, and metacognition.

However, when we look at the planned interventions noted in these sector plans, there is not a strong indication that countries plan to operationalize their intentions to promote 21st century skills. Not surprisingly then, when we look at their implementation grants, which are one of the financing instruments through which education sector plans are implemented, only two of the 15 grants examined include activities aimed at promoting 21st century skills among their program components. Because the GPE model mandates that national governments determine the program components and allocation of resources for these within their grant, the bottom line seems to echo the findings of the Brookings report: vision and aspiration are rife, but action is scarce.

While the sample of countries studied in this exercise is small (and other countries’ education sector plans and grants may well include integration of 21st century skills), it’s the disconnect between the 15 countries’ policy orientation around these skills and their implementation that is telling. Why this gap? Why, if countries espouse the importance of 21st century skills in their sector plans, do they not concretely move to addressing them in their implementation? The reasons for this may be manifold, but the challenges highlighted by the Brookings report in terms of incorporating a 21 st century learning agenda in education systems are indeed telling. As a field, we still have much work to do to understand the nature of these skills, to develop learning progressions for them, and to design appropriate and authentic assessment of them. In other words, it may be that countries have difficulty in imagining how to move from rhetoric to reality.

However, in another perspective, there may be a challenge associated with how countries (and the broader education community) perceive 21st century skills in general. In contexts of limited resources, crowded curricula, inadequately trained teachers, fragility, weak governance, and other challenges that are characteristic of GPE partner countries, there is sometimes an unfortunate tendency to view 21st century skills and the “basics” as a tradeoff. In such settings, there can be a perception that 21st century skills are the concern of more advanced or higher-income countries. It is thus no wonder that, in the words of the Brookings report, “a global mobilization of efforts to respond to the 21CS [21st century skills] shift is non-existent, and individual countries struggle alone to plan the shift.”

This suggests that those who are committed to a holistic view of education have much work to do in terms of research, sharing of experience, capacity building, and advocacy around the potential and need for all countries, regardless of context, to move in this direction. The Brookings report makes a very valuable contribution in this regard. GPE’s landscape review, which will be published this spring, will inform how the partnership thinks about and approaches 21st century skills in its work and will thereby provide a complementary perspective.

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Fit for the future: assessing skills for the 21st century

Sheradan Miller considers how qualifications can assess the skills students need for the workplace today and in the future.

Thursday 11 Aug 2022

Dr Sheradan Miller

Students take our qualifications as a passport to the next phase of their lives, whether that means continuing their education or entering the workplace. But to what extent can these students evidence the competencies required by employers? And do they have the tools they need for independent study in further and higher education?

In media and policy circles, we often hear these highly valued skills referred to as ‘21st century skills’. Questions of how and if to teach and assess them is an ongoing point of discussion. We set out to see what the research evidence has to say on the topic.

There have been many attempts by researchers to define and systemise the 21st century skill set into frameworks*. By comparing and analysing these, we found that the six most-cited 21st century skills were collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking, digital literacy and problem solving.

As we began exploring the research, we identified specific teaching styles and examples of assessments for these skills – most of which included a performance-based element. A key issue is that the skills are hard to separate as they are generally multidimensional and interdependent. While this makes teaching and assessment more difficult to design, we can’t ignore this interrelationship.

To illustrate, let’s take the example of collaboration, which involves both communication and problem solving. Of course, students work in groups all the time, but there is no evidence that simply engaging in more group work improves collaboration skills . When it comes to assessing collaborative activities, there are particular challenges. Analysing group dynamics is already complex, so a requirement to assess individual performance adds an additional layer of difficulty. This is something that our team has previously explored, specifically in relation to collaborative problem solving , and we’ve produced resources to support group activities in schools.

Certain skills, for example critical thinking, are better suited to teaching and assessment. But do students need a dedicated course on critical thinking, or is it a more generalised skill? AQA used to offer A-level Critical Thinking as a separate qualification, focusing on established theories and practices to develop skills such as reasoning, decision making and formulating clear arguments. However, much of the research evidence suggests that the teaching of critical thinking principles can be integrated across disciplines. For example, argument analysis, whereby students are asked to analyse and critically evaluate arguments, is already a key element of many subjects.

Other skills are more difficult to teach, assess and even define clearly. Creativity is one example. In teaching, it may intersect with other skills – such as in the case of creative problem solving, where students are asked to think of novel solutions to a problem. When assessing creative works, one technique that may effectively measure creativity is ‘consensual assessment’, where experts in a particular domain independently rate the comparative creativity of different pieces of work, arriving at a consensus view. While research suggests that this method results in a high level of agreement between experts, it has significant practical and cost implications.

Accepting that these skills are intertwined makes teaching and assessment challenging. However, if we think of project-based learning, there are opportunities to incorporate several 21st century skills – eg communication, problem solving, digital literacy and critical thinking. In fact, students may already be engaged in this sort of activity through participation in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award or by taking the Extended Project Qualification.

The knowledge we’ve gathered so far from the research literature provides us with a strong understanding of the landscape for 21st century skills. The next step for us will be to work with colleagues in our curriculum team to further identify where some of these skills are already incorporated into our qualifications and where there may be gaps.

We’ll also be speaking with students and teachers about the extent to which they think AQA qualifications prepare young people for employment and higher education. AQA recently conducted a survey, in England, of 2,032 individuals aged 18–25 years and 500 recruiters to explore their views of different ‘life’ skills. The full report from that study will be published in the coming months.

The future of work is changing with automation and the continued importance of technology. If we can identify these 21st century skills and integrate them into our assessments, engaging closely with schools, we can help students to be as well equipped for the future as possible.

*As well as focusing on the frameworks summarised in Chalkiadaki’s (2018) literature review , we also looked at a UK-specific framework, the Skills Builder Partnership

Assessing and Teaching 21st Century Skills: Collaborative Problem Solving as a Case Study

• First Online: 05 April 2017

Cite this chapter

• Patrick Griffin 6  

Part of the book series: Methodology of Educational Measurement and Assessment ((MEMA))

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This chapter describes the assessment of collaborative problem solving using human-to-human interaction. Tasks were designed to require partners to contribute resources or skills that they uniquely controlled. Issues were task design, data capture, item and data definition, calibration, and the link to teaching intervention. The interpretation of the student performance is mapped to a criterion-referenced interpretation framework, and reports are designed to assist teachers to intervene at a Vygotsky zone of proximal development in order to promote development of the student ability in collaborative problem solving. The data analytics demonstrate how the equivalent of test items are developed and issues such a local independence are discussed.

An earlier version of this chapter was presented as a keynote lecture at the Institute of Curriculum & Instruction at East China Normal University, November 6–8, 2015, Shanghai, China.

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Rasch, G. (1960/1980). Probabilistic models for some intelligence and attainment tests. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Reprinted with Foreword and Afterword from Information and control by B. D. Wright, 1960. Copenhagen, Denmark: Danmarks Paedogogiske Institut.

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Griffin, P. (2017). Assessing and Teaching 21st Century Skills: Collaborative Problem Solving as a Case Study. In: von Davier, A., Zhu, M., Kyllonen, P. (eds) Innovative Assessment of Collaboration. Methodology of Educational Measurement and Assessment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33261-1_8

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A Comprehensive Guide to 21st Century Skills

Jenna Buckle

The concept of "21st century skills" isn't new—skills like critical thinking, collaboration, and problem solving have been taught in classrooms for decades. 

Yet, as the demands of our changing economy rise, many school districts are now including 21st century skills in strategic plans to better prepare students for college, career, and life.

What are 21st century skills, why do they matter, and how can your district implement 21st century learning strategies into curriculum, assessment, and instruction? This guide shares information, research, and examples to bring you up to speed.

Table of Contents

1. What Are 21st Century Skills?

2. The Importance of 21st Century Skills

3. Frameworks and Examples of 21st Century Skills

4. 21st Century Learning Strategies and Implementation

5. Additional Resources

Free Download: Panorama's Social-Emotional Learning Survey

What Are 21st Century Skills?

Districts, schools, and organizations prioritize different 21st century skills depending on what is most important to their respective communities. Generally, however, educators agree that schools must weave these skills into learning experiences and common core instruction. Here is a non-exhaustive list of the most commonly cited 21st century skills.

• Critical thinking
• Communication skills
• Problem solving
• Perseverance
• Collaboration
• Information literacy
• Technology skills and digital literacy
• Media literacy
• Global awareness
• Self-direction
• Social skills
• Literacy skills
• Civic literacy
• Social responsibility
• Innovation skills
• Thinking skills

The Importance of 21st Century Skills

While the bar used to be high school graduation, the bar for today's students is now college, career, and real-world success. Let’s take a look at why 21st century skills matter.

• Higher-education and business leaders cite soft skills as being the most important driver of success in higher-level courses and in the workplace.
• In today’s world, our schools are preparing students for jobs that might not yet exist. Career readiness means equipping students with a nuanced set of skills that can prepare them for the unknown.
• Social media has changed human interaction and created new challenges in navigating social situations.
• The age of the Internet has dramatically increased access to knowledge. Students need to learn how to process and analyze large amounts of information.
• Content knowledge from core subjects can only go so far; students need to be taught how to apply facts and ideas towards complex problems.

We've reviewed the definition of 21st century skills and why they're important in a changing world. Now, let's review a few frameworks and how school districts are putting 21st century learning into practice.

Frameworks for 21st Century Skills

The framework for 21st century learning.

This popular framework was designed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) . Describing the skills, knowledge, and expertise students must master to succeed in work and life, the framework combines content knowledge, specific skills, expertise, and literacies. P21 believes that the "base" of 21st century learning is the acquisition of key academic subject knowledge, and that schools must build on that base with additional skills including Learning Skills, Life Skills, and Literacy Skills.

• Learning Skills: Also known as the "four Cs" of 21st century learning, these include critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.
• Life Skills: Flexibility, initiative, social skills, productivity, leadership
• Literacy Skills: Information literacy, media literacy, technology literacy

World Health Organization 

The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies the fundamental life skills as decision-making and problem solving, creative thinking and critical thinking, communication and interpersonal skills, self-awareness and empathy, and coping with emotions and stress. The WHO focuses on broad psychosocial skills that can be improved over time with conscious effort.

Redefining Ready! Initiative 

The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) Redefining Ready! initiative offers a framework that many districts use to define college, career, and life readiness. AASA provides readiness indicators to capture the educational landscape of the 21st century. Metrics include Advanced Placement courses, standardized testing, college credits, industry credentials, attendance, community service, and more. On the topic of life readiness, AASA argues:

School District Frameworks

21st century skills take hold in various ways for school districts. A " Portrait of a Graduate " is one common strategy for communicating what it means for students to be college, career, and future ready. To develop a profile of a graduate, districts often adapt existing 21st century skill frameworks to fit their needs. Input from stakeholders—such as the district board, teachers, parents, partner organizations, and students—ensures that the final "portrait" is authentic to their community. Here are some Portrait of a Graduate examples.

Everett Public Schools in Everett, Washington defines 21st century skills as citizenship, collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking, and growth mindset. The district believes that graduates are college, career, and life ready when they have the academic knowledge, attitudes, and skills to transition to college level coursework, workforce training, and/or employment.

Gresham-Barlow School District (GBSD) in Gresham, Oregon has a mission to develop culturally responsive graduates who will thrive in an ever-changing global community. The district’s Portrait of a Graduate represents the GBSD community's collective vision of what their graduates should look like. The portrait consists of six learner profiles: Independent Lifelong Learner, Adaptable Collaborator, Compassionate Communicator, Responsible Creator, Open-Minded Critical Thinker, and Globally Aware Community Member.

Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District (SCUC ISD) in Schertz, Texas has a strategic goal around graduating college and/or career and/or military ready students. Within this vision, SCUC ISD has outlined five Traits of a Graduate: Dynamic Leader, Self-Motivated, Skilled Communicator, Service Oriented, and Future Ready.

Council Bluffs Community School District in Council Bluffs, Iowa, developed a Profile of a FutureReady Graduate that encompasses both academic and social-emotional indicators of success. The district’s social-emotional indicators—aligned to the CASEL framework—include Self-Management, Self Awareness, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision Making.

North Kansas City Schools just north of Kansas City, Missouri, identified seven competencies that span time, space, jobs, and occupations, ensuring that students' life skills are highly transferable. The district's competencies—developed with input from students, community and business leaders, teachers, and administrators—include Adaptability, Communication, Collaboration, Empathy, Integrity, Learner's Mindset, and Problem Solving. 

Download our guide to developing your district's own vision for college, career, and life readiness

21st Century Learning Strategies & Implementation

Having a strong vision for 21st century learning is just the first step. Without an intentionally designed plan for implementation, it's unlikely that your students will acquire the skills outlined in your district's vision. Here are some best practices from Panorama's partner districts to set you up for success.

1. Build staff capacity to demonstrate 21st century skills in support of student learning.

It all starts with the adults in your building. Teachers and staff need to deeply understand and model the skills that you want your students to develop. Integrate 21st century skills into staff professional development as a precursor to growing these competencies in students. Download our Adult SEL Toolkit for ideas, worksheets, and activities to build adult SEL.

2. Develop strategies to support teachers with implementation of 21st century skills.

It can be helpful to create a playbook of recommended strategies and approaches that span across content areas. For instance, you might encourage teachers to add comments to report cards about students' 21st century skills.

3. Assess students’ 21st century learning skills.

What gets measured matters. Regularly collect data on how students are progressing in this area, whether the data is anecdotal, qualitative, or quantitative. For example, you might administer a biannual survey in which students reflect on their development of 21st century, social-emotional skills . Keep in mind that the data you gather should be formative rather than evaluative. Be transparent about the purpose.

4. Equip educators with data to proactively identify and support students who are off track.

Once you have data on students' 21st century skills, you'll want to ensure that the data is actionable for educators. Many districts opt to implement an early warning system with indicators across academics, attendance, behavior, and social-emotional learning/21st century skills. This helps educators make data-driven decisions about the best way to keep each student on track.

Additional Resources

Looking for more information on 21st century skills? Here are some other articles and resources to explore:

• "Why Social and Emotional Learning and Employability Skills Should Be Prioritized in Education" via CASEL and Committee for Children 
• "Teaching 21st Century Skills For 21st Century Success Requires An Ecosystem Approach" via Forbes
• "Bringing 21st Century Skill Development to the Forefront of K-12 Education" via Hanover Research
• "How Do You Define 21st-Century Learning?" via Education Week

Honing in on 21st century skills is essential to ensuring that students are prepared for college, career, and civic life . While there is no one "right" way to approach this work, we hope that the information in this guide inspires you to explore what 21st century learning could look like in your district!

Develop students' 21st century skills with Panorama's Social-Emotional Learning Survey

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21st Century Skill “Problem Solving”: Defining the Concept

2019, Asian Journal of Interdisciplinary Research

Only knowledge is not sufficient to make students succeed in the world. Students need to attain 21 st century skills like problem-solving, creativity, innovation, metacognition, communication etc. to endure in the modern world. Problem-solving skill is one of the fundamental human cognitive processes. Whenever students face a situation where they do not know the way to complete a task, the problem occurs. Problem-solving is a process, which involves systematic observation and critical thinking to find an appropriate solution or way to reach the desired goal. The framework of problem-solving consisted of two major skills: observation and critical thinking skill. Observation skill refers to collecting data, understanding and interpreting the meaning of the information using all the senses. Critical thinking involves the individual's ability to do the following: conceptualizing, logical reasoning, applying strategy, analytical thinking, decision making and synthesizing to solve any problem.

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ETS Research Report Series

Leonard Baird

Journal of Education and Learning (EduLearn)

Critical thinking and problem solving is one of the competencies that must be possessed to meet the 21st Century. This competence is very important to be mastered by students, especially vocational high school students. One learning model that can hone 21st Century competencies is Problem Based Learning. This research was carried out on productive subjects of the Trial. This study aims to determine the improvement of critical thinking and problem solving competencies, and student learning outcomes on subject matter subjects. This study uses a classroom action research design with measurement of competence using observation and measurement of learning outcomes using a multiple choice written test. The results of the study showed an increase in thinking and problem solving critical competencies from the first cycle of 37.4% to the second cycle of 78.2%. While the average value of the first cycle is 70.4 and the second cycle is 86.4. Students who reach KKM in cycle I are 38% and in cycle II 82%.

Sri Haryati

The development of science, technology and art as a result of globalization requires us to adjust to these developments. One of the competencies that learners have in facing globalization as a hallmark of 21st century learning is critical thinking skills and problem solving. The characteristics of 21st century learning include critical thinking skills, problem solving, communicating, and collaborating. Critical thinking skills and problem solving are considered as fundamental skills in 21st century learning. By critical thinking, learners are trained to construct science, identify, discover, develop, test, analyse, and generate conclusions. Critical thinking, discipline, responsibility, cooperation, caring for the environment are the characters that learners must have in 21st century learning. High-level thinking skills such as analyzing, evaluating, and creating can be applied simultaneously in well-designed learning environments.

Business Economic, Communication, and Social Sciences Journal (BECOSS)

Christopher Fernando

The development of the times is the background of increasingly rapid technological advances. The times have become the basis for the education industry to continue to grow. The development of education is expected to produce high-quality human resources and are able to think critically and creatively in solving problems. Quality education will lead to quality human resources as well. Critical thinking and problem solving as skills that need to be mastered by students, especially the younger generation. It has been widely recognized as one of the most important skills. Someone who has the ability to think critically and problem solving is considered to have many benefits because he has the ability to analyze certain situations and make the right decisions for the situation at hand. The research was conducted to determine the level of critical thinking and problem solving skills among students and students using three variables. The results of the study were analyzed using descriptive...

Education Partnerships Inc

Educational Research Review

Andreas Demetriou

Belgin Bal İncebacak

A problem is a situation, in which a person tries to find a solution and does not exactly know how but still tries to solve it. One of the important elements of problem solving skills that individuals should have is to choose the appropriate strategy in the solution of the problems, which is important in terms of achieving success in solving problems. The research question of the study is " what are the levels of sixth and seventh grade students' problem solving skills? " The aim of this study was to investigate the problem solving and problem-solving strategies levels of secondary school students. The study was carried out through method with a total of 72 students from the two provinces in the Black Sea region of Turkey selected by random in the second term of the 2014-2015 academic year. In this qualitative research for the case study, content analysis was applied. The study group consists of 50 students in Samsun province and 22 students in Sinop province in the Blacksea region, 35 of the students are females, whereas 37 of them are male students. Turkish by the researchers, were used as the data collection tools. The problems applied were evaluated according to Polya's stage of problem solving. The problems were evaluated according to stages such as understanding the problem, choosing a strategy, applying the chosen strategy, and evaluating the solution. While examining students' problem solving papers, it was observed that they were more successful at solving problems, with which they came across before or are similar to the ones they had solved. It was observed that majority of the students had difficulty in solving non-routine problems. It is believed that this results from the fact that mostly routine problems are discussed and solved in the curricula.

Miterianifa Miterianifa

European Journal of Human Resource Management Studies

Clive Hunter

Muthu Kumar

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• > Journals
• > Industrial and Organizational Psychology
• > Volume 8 Issue 2
• > Employability in the 21st Century: Complex (Interactive)...

Article contents

Employability in the 21st century: complex (interactive) problem solving and other essential skills.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2015

Neubert, Mainert, Kretzschmar, and Greiff ( 2015 ) plea to integrate the 21st century skills of complex problem solving (CPS) and collaborative problem solving (ColPS) in the assessment and development suite of industrial and organizational (I-O) psychologists, given the expected increase in nonroutine and interactive tasks in the new workplace. At the same time, they promote new ways of assessing these skills using computer-based microworlds, enabling the systematic variation of problem features in assessment. Neubert and colleagues’ ( 2015 ) suggestions are a valuable step in connecting differential psychologists’ models of human differences and functioning with human resources professionals’ interest in understanding and predicting behavior at work. We concur that CPS and ColPS are important transversal skills, useful for I-O psychologists, but these are only two babies of a single family, and the domain of 21st century skills includes other families of a different kind that are also with utility for I-O psychologists. The current contribution is meant to broaden this interesting discussion in two important ways. We clarify that CPS and ColPS need to be considered in the context of a wider set of 21st century skills with an origin in the education domain, and we highlight a number of crucial steps that still need to be taken before “getting started” (Neubert et al., 2015 , p. last page of the discussion) with this taxonomic framework. But first, we feel the need to slightly reframe the relevance of considering 21st century skills in I-O psychology by shifting the attention from narrow task-related skills to the broader domain of career management competencies.

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• Volume 8, Issue 2
• Filip De Fruyt (a1) , Bart Wille (a1) and Oliver P. John (a2)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2015.33

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Math Fluency Is All About Problem-Solving. Do We Teach It That Way?

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To learn math, students must build a mental toolbox of facts and procedures needed for different problems.

But students who can recall these foundational facts in isolation often struggle to use them flexibly to solve complex, real-world problems , known as procedural fluency.

“Mathematics is not just normalizing procedures and implementing them when somebody tells you to use that procedure. Mathematics is solving problems,” said Bethany Rittle-Johnson, a professor of psychology and human development at Peabody College in Vanderbilt University, who studies math instruction. “To solve problems, we have to figure out what strategy to use when—and that tends to get too little attention.”

In a series of ongoing experiments, Rittle-Johnson and her colleagues find students develop better procedural fluency when they get opportunities to compare and contrast problem-solving approaches and justify the approaches they use in different situations. While some students may develop this skill on their own, most need explicit instruction, she found.

Rittle-Johnson spoke with Education Week about how teachers can use such comparisons to help students develop a deeper understanding of math. This interview has been edited for space and clarity.

For more on the best research-based strategies on improving math instruction, see Education Week’s new math mini-course .

How often do teachers talk to students about multiple strategies, and how to select them, in math problem-solving?

Students in the [United States] are very rarely doing rich contextual problems. Even more rarely, they’re being asked to compare strategies to solve them. I don’t hear teachers talk about [using different strategies] a lot, and textbooks tend to do a pretty bad job of explaining it.

For example, in Algebra 1, solving systems of equations, there are many standard solutions strategies that are taught in separate chapters and textbooks, ... but I see shockingly little time spent having students think and compare and choose which strategy to use. In one study where teachers were trained [to compare math strategies], only about 20 percent did in the classroom—and only about 5 percent of teachers who [did not receive training.]

Sometimes I hear teachers say, “Well, multiple strategies, that’s great for my high-end learners, but I don’t want to show that to my struggling learners. … So maybe multiple strategies is the ideal, but I’m not going to get to it because I’m tight on time and my kids are behind.” But we hear from struggling learners that they really appreciate the multiple strategies and we see that it helps them, too, across the grade bands and across contexts.

How can teachers decide when to bring in and compare different strategies while introducing a new math concept?

We find comparisons can be useful in all different phases of instruction.

It can be helpful for kids to have had some time to think about one strategy before they think about multiple strategies, maybe at most a lesson. But the risk is in general, if you wait too long, kids just get attached to one strategy. You run the risk of kids becoming really attached to one strategy, and then they become more resistant to wanting to think about and use multiple strategies.

What does this sort of comparison look like in the classroom?

One best practice is to have the steps of the different strategies written out. It can be kids’ strategies that they wrote on the board. It can be projecting strategies from textbooks or your solutions, but one thing we know is: Make sure both strategies are visible so that kids don’t have to remember. Then we ask kids to think about similarities and differences and think about, when is each a good strategy?

Sometimes we have students compare correct and incorrect strategies and explain the concepts that make the correct strategy correct. Just because you teach kids correct ways of doing things, that doesn’t mean the incorrect strategies disappear. Students really need help thinking and reasoning through why those are wrong.

What are the more common struggles for teachers to teach multiple strategies?

The No. 1 barrier we face is time. Teachers just feel they’re under so much pressure to cover so much content that they feel like they can’t take the time to do this, and that they see the value and the payoff in it. It does pay off for what is assessed [in standardized math tests], but it’s not directly assessed, and so that makes teachers nervous.

Also, sometimes teachers really don’t like to say this way is better than this other way. Even though mathematicians would say, “yeah, this way is clearly better in this context, and this other way is clearly better in that context,” ... sometimes teachers feel uncomfortable that they’re making a value judgment.

But the evidence is really clear that it’s helpful to show correct and incorrect examples and talk through them.

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English Language Course and 21st Century Skills for Teachers and School Staff

The course aims at enhancing English language skills of participants by applying a wide range of 21st century skills. The aim is to provide you with a solid understanding of general English for your level (A2-C1).

Description

Learning objectives.

• To improve participants’ productive skills
• To improve participants receptive skills
• To enhance participants’ competence in communication linked to specific situations
• To enhance the need in participants to develop their language skills continuously
• Participants will start and complete an individual project during the course
• Participants will develop self confidence when using English
• Participants will develop fluency
• To give participants a view of student driven classrooms learner autonomy

Methodology & assessment

Certification details, pricing, packages and other information.

• Price: 430 Euro
• Package contents: Course

Additional information

• Language: English
• Target audience ISCED: Primary education (ISCED 1) Lower secondary education (ISCED 2) Upper secondary education (ISCED 3)
• Target audience type: Teacher Student Teacher Company staff
• Learning time: 25 hours or more

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Teaching mixed-abilities

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Igniting Innovation: Mastering the 4 C's for a Transformative Classroom

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Psychology in Education: To what extent does our knowledge of psychology and the knowledge of the subject we teach contribute to the success of our students?