21st CENTURY SKILLS OF TEACHERS

(NCBTS: Domain 7- Personal and Professional Competencies of Teachers)

The shifts that are present in the educational system revolve around these areas:
 The learner
 The access to various forms of information
 The ability to network
 The emerge of a new breed of teachers

Andrew Churches illustrates a detailed picture of the new breed of educators.

The risk

taker
The The

adaptor collaborator

The 21st Century

The
communi Teacher
model
cator

The The

learner leader
The

visionary
 TRAITS CHARACTERISTICS
 The Adaptor - Able to adapt the curriculum and the requirements in
innovative and creative ways.
 The Visionary - Able to see across the disciplines and through the
curricula.
- Able to use energizing tools and web technologies
- Able to see ideas and use these in his/her classes.
 The Learner - Able to continue learning and absorb experiences and
knowledge
- Must endeavor to stay current
 The Communicator - Is fluent in tools and technologies for communication
and collaboration.
 The Leader - Able to lead in the process of ICT integration.
 The Model - Able to exemplify model behaviors that one expects
from his/her students.
- Able to model tolerance, global awareness and
reflective practice.
 The Collaborator - Able to use collaboration tools to enhance and motivate
learners to share, contribute, adapt and invent.
 The Risk Taker - Able to take risks and surrenders oneself to student’s
knowledge.
- Able to trust his/her students.

According to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, these are the teaching skills we need to
include:
Information, Media Literacy and Communication Skills
Thinking and Problem-Solving
Interpersonal, Collaborative and Self-Direction Skills
Global Awareness
Economic and Business Literacy including entrepreneurial skills
Civic Literacy
Tony Wagner in his book “The Global Achievement Gap” stresses the seven survival skills:
Curiosity and Imagination
Accessing and Analyzing Information
Effective Oral Communication
Initiative and Entrepreneuralism
Agility and Adaptability
Collaboration across Networks and Learning by Influence
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
With the changes in the Educational System, education must be structured to meet the needs of
students in the 21st century. The terms, school, teacher, learner and curriculum have evolved to
have different meanings.
 Old Paradigm New Paradigm
School “buildings”  Nerve centers
 Walls are transparent
 Connecting teachers, students and
community to the wealth of
knowledge that exists in the world.
Teacher Dispenser of information  Orchestrator of learning
 Help students to turn information
into knowledge to wisdom.
Learner Young person who goes to school Learners are seen in new context:
and spends time in certain courses;  Helping them see how they
receives grades and graduates prepare for life in the real world.
 Instilling curiosity for life-long
learning
 Being flexible inn how we teach
 Exciting learners to become
resourceful so that they continue
learning after schooling
Curriculum  Teacher-centered;  Real life, relevant, project-based
fragmented curriculum 21st century education
 Time-based  Outcomes-based
 Memorization of discrete  Focuses on what students know,
facts can do and are like after all the
details are forgotten
 Focused on lower levels of  Designed for the higher levels of
Bloom’s Taxonomy of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Objectives
Objectives
 Textbooks-driven  Research-driven
 Passive learning  Active learning
 Learners work in isolation  Learners work in collaboration
 Teacher as the center of  Teacher as facilitator/coach
attention
 Little to no student freedom  Great deal of student freedom
 With discipline problems;  No discipline problems; students
teachers don’t trust students and teachers have mutually
respectful relations as co learners.
 No student motivation  Students are highly motivated
 Fragmented curriculum  Integrated/ interdisciplinary
curriculum
 Grades averaged  Grades are based on what was
learned
 Low expectations  High expectations
 Teacher is judge  Self-peer, and other assessments;
public audience and authentic
assessment
 Curriculum is irrelevant and  Curriculum is connected to
meaningless to students student’s interest, experiences,
potentials and the real world
 Print is the primary vehicle  Performances, projects and
of learning and assessment multiple forms of media are used
for learning and assessment
 Diversity of students is  Addresses multi-diversity of
ignored and assessment students
 Literacy in the 3R’s  Multiple literacies of the 21st
century-aligned to living and
working on globalization and the
new millennium
 Factory model-based on the  Global model based on the needs
needs of the employers for of a globalized and high-tech
the industrial age society.

Framework for 21st Century Learning

The 21st Century Learning consists of core subjects and themes that revolve around three
core skills.
Learning and Innovation Life and Career Skills Information- Media and
Skills (4C’s) Technology Skills
 Critical thinking and  Flexibility and  Information Literacy
problem-solving adaptability
 Media Literacy
 Creativity and  Initiative and self-
innovation direction  ICT Literacy

 collaboration  Social and cross-

cultural interaction

 Productivity and
accountability

 Leadership and
responsibility