digital interphase

1. Contextualising
21st Century skills – South Africa
Dr Jacqueline Batchelor

2. 21st century skills
What education is needed in the information society?
• Face the challenges of the 21st century
• Future skills / skills for tomorrow
• Skills/competencies needed to flourish in the
information society
• “The impact of speech and debate programs on
students and school cultures manifests largely in
communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and
communication skills – the 4Cs of 21st Century
Learning,“ (Wunn, 2015)

3. Defining 21st century skills
• “ . . . skills and competencies to become competent
professionals and to live as responsible citizens in the
information society.” (Plomp, p. 6, 2013)
• Skills for employability (Jayaram, 2012)
• What skills do they need to succeed today and
tomorrow? (Voogt, 2011)
• Informed citizenship and 21 Century employability
(Pearson, 2014)

4. UNDP (2001)

5. UNESCO (2008)
To live, learn, and work successfully in an increasingly
complex, information-rich and knowledge-based
society, students and teachers must utilise technology
effectively. Within a sound educational setting,
technology can enable students to become:
– capable information technology users
– information seekers, analysers, and evaluators
– problem solvers and decision makers
– creative and effective users of productivity tools
– communicators, collaborators, publishers, and producers
– informed, responsible, and contributing citizens.

6. Mastering new literacies generated by
ICT (Leu, 2007)
• Emerging ICT tools, applications, media, and
environments require novel skills, strategies, and
dispositions for their effective use.
• Central to full economic, civic, and personal
participation in a globalized society.
• Constantly evolve as their defining ICT
continuously are renewed through innovation.
• Multiple, multimodel, and multifaceted.

7. Broader literacy
• Enables individuals to take control of their future
development:
Basic literacy (3R)
• Problem Solving
• Critical thinking
• Learning skills
• Information literacy / Digital or ICT literacy
• Business literacy / Financial literacy

8. Broader literacy initiatives
Successful broader literacy initiatives contain positive
feedback cycles involving e.g.:
• individual affirmation,
• positive interactions between new skills required,
• reinforcement of such skills by their use to provide
services to others in the local community,
• recognition of the need for further skills development by
the individuals themselves,
• recognition of unsatisfied needs within the community,
and
• local development of innovative solutions.

9. Broader literacy initiatives
• Has broad based literacy created a mechanism
for people to create sustained change and
improvement in their lives?

10. Voogt (2011)
Three types of knowledge (Head, Heart, Hands)
• Foundational knowledge - what we know
• Humanistic knowledge – what we value
• Meta knowledge – what we do

11. Rural conundrum
• “The challenge for our education system is to
leverage technology to create relevant learning
experiences that mirror students’ daily lives and
the reality of their futures . . . Learning must be . . .
life-long, life-wide, and available on demand”
Bransford et al., (2006), p.9

12. Basic-plus transformation
• Back-to-basics and accountability for mastery
of “basics” will not meet 21st century needs.
The author advocates a “Basics-plus
education.” This would focus on 21st century
skills. (Langen, 2008)

13. Lifelong (Life-wide) learning key
competencies
• communication in mother tongue
• communication in foreign language
• mathematical competence and basic competences in
science and technology
• digital competence
• learning to learn
• social and civic competences
• sense of initiative and entrepreneurship
• cultural awareness and expression
European reference framework (2006)

14. Generic or core work skills
Sector Education Training Agencies (SETA) is to develop
skills across its 25 sectors. Unfortunately, ICT's are in a
vertical silo, instead of being a cross-cutter, developing
ICT skills in all sectors. ICT workers and ICT-enabled
workers require the same core skills:
• oral communication;
• problem solving;
• team working;
• lifelong learning;
• business awareness;
• creativity; and innovation.

15. January 2000, the Tirisano plan was
operationalised.
Through it the Department of Education has achieved greater
stability in the system, enhanced school effectiveness and
functionality, improved learner performance, and ensured a
clear focus on delivery. Since 2001, the Department has been
able to shift its focus from creating an integrated education
framework and providing basic systemic functionality to
institutional renewal and enhanced effectiveness, focusing on
teaching, learning, curriculum and whole-school
development, learner performance, increasing participation
in further and higher education, mathematics, science and
technology, building good citizenship through the promotion
of values, and targeting communities that are part of
government-wide programmes for rural and urban
development.

16. National e-Skills Plan of Action (NeSPA)
(2011)E-skills
The implications of this exponential growth in capacity, application and uptake of ICT are
societal rather than merely sector specific, addressing:
• Government (Public Sector) service delivery outcomes at National, Provincial and
Local levels;
• Business (Private Sector) effectiveness and sustainability in all guises (across the
full range from international IT corporates to SMMEs in deep [impoverished] rural
areas);
• Education and lifelong learning in all their existing formats, but particularly in
relation to Maths, Science, ICT training (within and outside the existing Labour
Market) and in improving equity, life chances and self reliance;
• the role of Civil Society/Labour in ensuring that rights and participation of citizens
and workers are adequately developed, included and respected;
• Governance and participation in decision making (e-Democracy and e-Participation
in community, locally, provincially and nationally); and
• the increasingly porous nature of Community, Societal and Nation State boundaries
for many socio-economic interests and the increasing involvement of the
international community

17. OBE - developmental outcomes envisage learners
who are also able to:
• Reflect on and explore a variety of strategies to
learn more effectively
• Participate as responsible citizens in the life of
local, national, and global communities.
• Be culturally and aesthetically sensitive across a
range of social contexts
• Explore education and career opportunities
• Develop entrepreneurial opportunities

18. Revised NCS
The critical and developmental outcomes are a list of
outcomes that are derived from the Constitution and
are contained in the South African Qualifications Act
(1995). They describe the kind of citizen the
education and training system should aim to create

19. Revised NCS
The Manifesto on Values, Education and Democracy
(Department of Education, 2001) identifies ten fundamental
values of the Constitution. These are:
• Democracy
• Social Justice and Equity,
• Equality
• Non-racism and Non-sexism
• Ubuntu (Human Dignity)
• An Open Society
• Accountability
• The Rule of Law
• Respect
• Reconciliation

20. Revised NCS (2002)
The Manifesto further identifies 16 strategies for familiarising young South
Africans with the values of the Constitution. Nurturing a culture of
communication and participation in school.
• Role-modelling: promoting commitment as well as competence
amongst educators
• Ensuring that every South African is able to read, write, count and
think
• Infusing the classroom with a culture of human rights
• Making Arts and Culture part of the curriculum
• Putting history back into the curriculum
• Learning about the rich diversity of cultures, beliefs and world
views within which the unity of South Africa is manifested.

21. Revised NCS (2002)
• Making multilingualism happen
• Using sport to shape social bonds and nurture nation-building at
schools
• Ensuring equal access to education
• Promoting anti-racism in schools
• Freeing the potential of girls as well as boys
• Dealing with HIV/AIDS and nurturing a culture of sexual and social
responsibility
• Making schools safe to learn and teach in and ensuring the rule of law.
• Promoting ethics and the environment
• Nurturing the new patriotism, or affirming a common citizenship

22. Revised NCS
• The kind of learner envisaged is one who will be
imbued with the values and act in the interests of a
society based on respect for democracy, equality,
human dignity, life and social justice.
• The curriculum aims to develop the full potential of
each learner as a citizen of a democratic South Africa.
It seeks to create a lifelong learner who is confident
and independent, literate, numerate and multi-skilled,
compassionate, with a respect for the environment
and the ability to participate in society as a critical and
active citizen.

23. Revised NCS - critical outcomes envisage
learners who will be able to:
• Identify and solve problems and make decisions using critical and creative
thinking
• Work effectively with others as members of a team, group, organisation
and community
• Organise and manage themselves and their activities responsibly and
effectively
• Collect, analyse, organise and critically evaluate information
• Communicate effectively using visual, symbolic and/or language skills in
• various modes
• Use Science and Technology effectively and critically showing responsibility
towards the environment and the health of others
• Demonstrate an understanding of the world as a set of related systems by
recognising that problem-solving contexts do not exist in isolation

24. Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements
(CAPS)
The National Curriculum Statement Grades R - 12 serves
the purposes of:
• equipping learners, irrespective of their socio-
economic background, race, gender, physical ability
or intellectual ability, with the knowledge, skills and
values necessary for self-fulfilment, and meaningful
participation in society as citizens of a free country;
• providing access to higher education;
• facilitating the transition of learners from education
institutions to the workplace; and
• providing employers with a sufficient profile of a
learner’s competences.

25. CAPS
The National Curriculum Statement Grades R - 12 is based on
the following principles:
• Social transformation: ensuring that the educational
imbalances of the past are redressed, and that equal
educational opportunities are provided for all sections of the
population;
• Active and critical learning: encouraging an active and critical
approach to learning, rather than rote and uncritical learning
of given truths;
• High knowledge and high skills: the minimum standards of
knowledge and skills to be achieved at each grade are
specified and set high, achievable standards in all subjects;
• Progression: content and context of each grade shows
progression from simple to complex;

26. CAPS
• Human rights, inclusivity, environmental and social justice:
infusing the principles and practices of social and
environmental justice and human rights as defined in the
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. The National
Curriculum Statement Grades R – 12 is sensitive to issues of
diversity such as poverty, inequality, race, gender, language,
age, disability and other factors;
• Valuing indigenous knowledge systems: acknowledging the
rich history and heritage of this country as important
contributors to nurturing the values contained in the
Constitution; and
• Credibility, quality and efficiency: providing an education
that is comparable in quality, breadth and depth to those of
other countries.

27. NCS - to produce learners able to:
• identify and solve problems and make decisions using critical and
creative thinking;
• work effectively as individuals and with others as members of a team;
• organise and manage themselves and their activities responsibly and
effectively;
• collect, analyse, organise and critically evaluate information;
• communicate effectively using visual, symbolic and/or language skills in
various modes;
• use science and technology effectively and critically showing
responsibility towards the environment and the health of others; and
• demonstrate an understanding of the world as a set of related systems
by recognising that problem solving contexts do not exist in isolation.

28. The Finnish model of sustainable rural
development
• Based on the creation of local information
societies (each of which differs depending on
local circumstances). Manuel Castells calls this
ICT-led rural development.

29. The KSAVE model (Binkley, 2010)
Ways of thinking
• Creativity and innovation
• Critical thinking, problem solving, decision making
• Learning to learn, metacognition
Ways of working
• Communication
• Collaboration (teamwork)
Tools for working
• Information literacy (includes research on sources, evidence, biases, etc.)
• ICT literacy
Living in the world
• Citizenship – local and global
• Life and career
• Personal and social responsibility – including cultural awareness and
competence

30. Voogt, 2011
Essential skills for the 21st century
(KSAVE)

31. Singapore Master plan #3