In an increasingly globalised world economy governments across the world are pushing for educational reform. Countries are competing to raise a generation of students that are equipped for the globalised market and are global citizens.
In order to achieve this school teachers are working hard to incorporate 21st century skills across government schools in Bahrain. The 21 century skills include: technological proficiency, language proficiency; communication and team work, leadership and decision making, initiative; critical thinking, problem solving and creativity; local and global citizenship.
Translating these skills into action in the classroom is a big challenge for teachers. Teachers have to take these skills and incorporate them into their lesson plans, create classroom activities around them, and be able to assess them.
The goal is to make Bahraini students competitive with their peers in Asia, Europe, the Americas and across the globe. But what does it mean to have a generation of students graduate with 21st century skills? It means that they can be ready for the workplace on one hand, be global citizens and, most important of all, be life long learners.
For today’s generation of graduating students they must be technologically literate and language literate (preferably in more than one language). They must be able to work in teams and communicate with others, be able to take initiative, take on leadership and decision-making roles. They must possess higher thinking skills like problem solving, critical thinking and creativity. Last of all they must possess awareness of local and global citizenship.
Going beyond the content of the curriculum, teachers are now challenged to create classroom environments that encourage practice of these skills and be able to teach them to their students.
In the case of science education, an area I am specialised in, the focus has been to incorporate more laboratories in the teaching of science. Laboratories are a great tool that science teachers use to teach beyond the scientific content. In conducting labs students not only cement their scientific knowledge but also are able to learn the skills needed for the 21 century.
In carrying out laboratory experiments students learn higher order skills such as critical thinking, problem solving. They work in teams and must be able to communicate their results. So they must learn to work with others and be able to speak to others. They develop leadership skills, become decision-makers, and learn how to take initiative. Last of all by tying laboratory experiments to local environmental issues such as extinction, or global problems such as climate change, students develop their local and global citizenship skills.
Another important aspect that must be emphasised in the new generation of graduating students is independent learning. We must develop our classroom activities and assessment to graduate independent learners. What that means is that students must be allowed to work more independently from the teachers. As the case may be with classroom activities teachers must be willing to allow students to take more responsibility for their learning and not be afraid for them to make mistakes. As the old adage states: we learn more from our mistakes!
When it comes to assessment, students must be challenged with higher order thinking skills types of questions. Questions that go beyond multiple choice, fill in the blank, or choose right or wrong. More higher thinking level questions need to be incorporated that emphasise critical thinking, problem solving and creativity.
With these steps our students will grow as the world grows and be able to compete internationally. Last of all, they must become life-long learners with a passion for learning. The 21st century skills that we instil in them, they will carry with them. We must emphasise that learning does not end with graduating from school, college, or even taking on a job. That learning is indeed a life-long process and commitment.
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