Recently, there has been renewed interest of countries to reform their curriculum in order to promote 21st century skills among learners. It is expected too, that subject syllabi should align with the curriculum in promoting such skills. However, most studies in the field of religious studies in Lesotho have not focused on the extent to which this subject contributes to the promotion of 21st century skills and that prompted the present study. Qualitative Content Analysis was employed to determine the extent to which religious studies syllabus promotes 21st century skills. Document Analysis was used to analyze aims of the syllabus to establish different skills which are promoted by each aim. The findings indicated that religious studies syllabus aims differ in terms of the degree at which they promote 21st century skills. It also appeared that learning and innovation skills are predominantly promoted by the syllabus aims. However, the syllabus’ aims seem to shrink from promoting technological skills. As a result, the following suggestions were made; first, the curriculum developers should emphasize all skills equivalently. Additionally, curriculum developers should restructure the curriculum to promote technological skills.
There is a growing recognition of the importance of quality education that fosters essential skills for students' future success in the 21st century. To ensure the development of the 21st century skills, it is imperative to employ authentic assessment methods that integrate and nurture these skills that include critical thinking, creativity and communication. However, very little is currently known about the authenticity of assessment methods employed by Lesotho secondary Religious Education (RE) teachers. This study therefore employed qualitative case study buttressed by Theory of Multiple Intelligences to assess the prevailing assessment methods used in RE classrooms to determine the extent to which they integrate and foster 21st century skills. For data collection, semi-structured interview was utilized to gather useful data. To determine the eligibility of those to comprise the sample, purposive sampling was employed to select fifteen RE teachers; five participants from each of the three RE associations found in the Northern, Central and Southern regions of Lesotho. Data collected from interviews was analyzed qualitatively and the following results were found: first, to a large extent, the assessment methods used by RE teachers are traditional and offer no place for integration of 21st century skills. It was also revealed that teachers lack comprehensive knowledge of the implementation of authentic assessment methods that target the nurture 21st century skills. It was therefore recommended that RE associations in Lesotho should put accent on the implementation guidance and benefits of authentic assessment methods for holistic development of learners.
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