The documents discuss the need for 21st century skills in education. It emphasizes that teachers need knowledge, skills and values to help students learn, resolve conflicts, respect diversity and become responsible citizens. This requires significant changes to education. It then outlines several 21st century skills that are important for both students and teachers to develop, such as life and career skills, information and technology skills, learning and innovation skills, effective communication skills. The documents provide details about each of these skills.

2. “If we are to select and prepare the new
generation of teachers equipped with the
knowledge, skills, and values to help their
culturally different and socially advantaged
students to learn, to resolve conflicts peacefully,
to respect each other’s dignity and cultures,
and to become socially responsible citizens,
significant changes are needed.”
-Delor’s Report (UNESCO, 1996)

3. We are in an era of borderless “flat”
world. Barriers have been broken by new
information and communication
technologies. Globalization has opened
doors that led nations to co-exist and be
interdependent. However, the common
future will still be more dependent on the
knowledge, skills, and values of its
people.

4. As future teachers of the 21st century,
there is an urgent need to understand the
new landscape that is brought about by the
changes in leaps and bounds of the century.
Furthermore, the development of the 21st
century skills is a necessary tool for
teachers. Without these 21st century tools,
no teacher can survive.

5. 21st CENTURY SKILLS

6. 21st CENTURY
SKILLS LEARNING AND
INNOVATION
INFORMATION,
MEDIA, AND
TECHNOLOGY
LIFE AND CAREER
EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION
LEARNING AND
INNOVATION

7. LIFE AND CAREER SKILLS

8. In recent times, the life and work environments
require far more than thinking skills and content
knowledge. The ability to navigate the complex life
and work environments in the globally competitive
information age requires students to pay rigorous
attention to developing adequate life and career skills.
Life and Career Skills include:
Flexibility and Adaptability
Initiative and Self-direction
Social and Cross-cultural Skills
Productivity and Accountability
Leadership and Responsibility

9.  Flexibility and Adaptability
Learners adapt to various roles,
responsibilities and schedules. Despite
the complex condition, they are able to
do the different tasks at one time.
Recognition of this potential will give a
signal to the teacher to provide all
learners the opportunities to develop
their individual potential of being
adaptable and flexible. Rigidity runs
counter to the development of this skill.

10.  Initiative and Self-direction
A self-directed learner demonstrates life and
career skills. Goals are set and managed by
themselves. There is a commitment to
learning as a lifelong process. Many of the
young learners are capable of doing things
without being told. They take initiatives. They
do not need to be given detailed instructions.
They plan and work out their plans. Like the
learners, the teachers should also possess the
same skills.

11.  Social and cross-cultural skills
This life and career skills require learners to
respect cultural differences and work
effectively with others, to be open-minded to
different ideas in order to innovate and
improve quality of work. If one understands
the other’s culture, it will be easy to respect.
Disrespect may spring from ignorance and
bias. To be able to appreciate mores,
tradition, history of others, one needs to be
open and willing to accommodate and
compromise.

12.  Productivity and accountability
Individuals who possess these skills are able to
produce results. They respect teamwork and
cooperation. They manage time very well and can
do multitask. The most tangible proof that one
has done something is the product or result. It
can be an idea, or a material product. When one
is asked to do something, that person has an
accountability to produce results as evidence of a
job done. Better results are accomplished if done
together through collaboration and cooperation.

13.  Leadership and responsibility
Good leaders use interpersonal and
problem-solving skills with integrity and
ethical behavior to influence and guide
others. Leadership and responsibility are
life skills that should be developed by all
learners and teachers. Leadership is not
assigned, it s earned. As the saying goes:
“Leaders are born but they can also be
made.”

14. INFORMATION, MEDIA, AND
TECHNOLOGY SKILLS

15. These skills reflect the ability to use
technology to expand learning and to
improve productivity. Information skills are
the ability to access information efficiently
and effectively. Using information
appropriately involves managing contents
from variety of sources, and understanding
legal and ethical issues when accessing
information.

16. Media skills require an understanding of
the purposes for different types of media,
how to interpret the values and points they
hold, and to recognize the influence media
has on its audience. Using media products
to create tools for learning, understanding,
and communicating requires understanding
how and what media creation tools will do
the necessary job most effectively.

17. LEARNING AND
INNOVATION SKILLS

18. Creativity and innovation allow the generation of
ideas and concepts, to perceive information
differently from others, and to have the ability to
approach issues from a different perspective
than others. Thinking creatively involves using
techniques such as brainstorming, collaboration,
and communicating effectively with others.
Expanding on these ideas by elaborating,
refining, analyzing and evaluating will maximize
and improve the creative effort.

19. The ability to think critically involves the
ability to reason effectively, including the
use of inductive and deductive reasoning as
it is appropriate to the situation. Problem
solving skills involve the ability to effectively
analyze and evaluate evidence, alternative
points of view, and to make connections
between information and arguments.
Critically reflecting on personal learning and
asking significant questions lead to
additional information and better solutions.

20. EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION
SKILLS

21. Communication skills can be defined as a set of skills
that enable a person to communicate properly.
According to Hymes, communication skills consist of
knowing “when to speak, when not, and what to talk
about, with whom, when, where, in what form”.
We interact constantly with other people and we can’t
stop expressing ourselves. Therefore, mastering these
skills is fundamental to our personal and social
development. We use them when speaking, listening,
reading, and writing.

22. THE 21st CENTURY
LITERACIES

23. How is Literacy defined?
In 1958, UNESCO defined literate as one who
can, with understanding, both read and write a short
simple statement on his or her daily life. However, in
1970, a functionally literate person is one who can
engage in all the activities to use reading, writing, and
calculation for the community’s development. Further
on, in 2000 literacy was defined as the ability to read
and write with understanding a simple statement
related to one’s daily life. It involves a continuum of
reading and writing skills and often includes,
numeracy.

24. However, the UNESCO international expert
meeting in 2003, redefined literacy as the
ability to identify, understand, interpret,
create, communicate and compute using
printed and written materials associated
with varying contexts. Literacy involves a
continuum of learning in enabling
individuals to achieve their goals, to
develop their knowledge and potential, and
to participate fully in their community and
wider society.

25.  THE ARTS AND CREATIVITY
Creativity and innovation are the 21st
century skills, thus in solving problems
and creating art works are part of this
literacy.

26.  ECOLITERACY
Acquisition of knowledge about climate
change, pollution, loss of natural habitats
and biodiversity. Solutions on how these
environmental problems could be
addressed must be practiced.

27.  FINANCIAL LITERACY
Basic knowledge about the basics of
economics and financial management.
This is necessary for every learner and
teacher to be able to handle income,
expenses and investments to be
economically secure.

28.  CYBERLITERACY/ DIGITAL LITERACY
(INFORMATION AND ICT KNOWLEDGE)
Being in the rapid changes in the use of
technology for teaching and learning,
teachers and learners need to develop
and enhance the use of digital gadgets
whether on-line or off-line.

29.  MEDIA LITERACY
Teachers and learners must learn how to
discern abut any information which are
transmitted via various forms and media.

30.  SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL LITERACY
Knowledge about social dimensions and
social skills that are appropriate in he
context of society. Emotional intelligence
must also developed to be able to
effectively manage stress due to the
changing environments of the 21st
century.

31.  GLOBALIZATION AND MULTI-CULTURAL
LITERACY
If you respect multi-cultural diversity,
aware of the global trends, acknowledge
differences and similarities, respect each
other’s dignity, then you are multi-
cultural literate.

32. CURRICULUM PROCESS

33. 1. Curriculum planning
- considers the school vision, mission and
goals. It also includes the philosophy or
strong education belief of the school. All of
these will eventually be translated to
classroom desired learning outcomes for
the learners.

34. 2. Curriculum designing
- is the way curriculum is conceptualized to
include the school and organization of
content, the selection and organization of
learning experiences or activities and the
selection of the assessment procedure and
tools to measure achieved learning
outcomes. A curriculum design will also
include the resources to be utilized and the
statement of the intended learning
outcomes.

35. 3. Curriculum implementing
- is putting into action the plan which is based on the
curriculum design in the classroom setting or the
learning environment. The teacher is the facilitator of
learning and, together with the learners, uses the
curriculum as design that guides to what will transpire
in the classroom with the end in view of achieving the
intended learning outcomes. Implementing the
curriculum is where action takes place. It involves the
activities that transpire in every teacher’s classroom
where learning becomes an active process.

36. 4. Curriculum evaluating
- determines the extent to which the desired
outcomes have been achieved. This procedure is on-
going as in finding out the progress of learning
(formative) or the mastery of learning (summative).
Along the way, evaluation will determine the factors
that have hindered or supported the implementation.
It will also pinpoint where improvement can be made
and corrective measures, introduced. The result of
evaluation is very important for decision making of
curriculum planners, and implementors.