21st Century Skills: A Period of Curricular Turmoil?

Conference: The European Conference on Education (ECE2022)
Title: 21st Century Skills: A Period of Curricular Turmoil?
Stream: Teaching Experiences, Pedagogy, Practice & Praxis
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
Authors:
Astghik Karapetyan, Yerevan State University of Languages and Social Sciences of Valeriy Brusov, Armenia
Zaruhi Soghomonyan, French University in Armenia, Armenia

Abstract:

Evident is the fact that ICTs are at the core of fast-changing economy. However, ICTs in themselves do not create a knowledge-based economy (Ester van Laar et al, 2017). Innovation starts with people, making human capital within the workforce decisive (Anderson, 2008; Kefela, 2010). Current workplaces require highly skilled workers who not only need excellent technical preparation but also sufficient skills to adapt to the changing requirements (Ahmad, Karim, Din, & Albakri, 2013). According to Kozma (2011), a concern about developing future workforces endowed with the "21st century" skills resulted in a goal for school reform that was centered on information communication and technology. Yet, in recent years, the global discourse has evolved to include broader concerns about global citizenship and global competence, resulting in a number of frameworks which define the 21st-century skills. This article aims to provide a critical review of the theories on the 21st-century skills and existing definitions and approaches to teaching one of them – citizenship. Taking the Republic of Armenia as a case study, the article demonstrates that not only schools but higher education institutions need to multiply their endeavors in incorporating the teaching of the said skill both in their academic programmes and individual courses. Finally, the article draws on the fact that teaching some, if not all of the 21st-century skills does not require major reforms and huge transformations in the curricula because minute changes will suffice to successfully incorporate the skills into the lesson.

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