The awareness of ELL students about their 21st century skills

Abstract

This study investigates the 21st century skills of the third and fourth year students studying at the Department of English Language and Literature of two Turkish state universities. Additionally, this study reveals the levels of the 21st century skills of these students. To this end, a case study has been designed and conducted with 158 ELL students and 20 lecturers of the same department. The study has been conducted throughout the 2019-2020 academic year. In this study we review the related literature and we have chosen the two appropriate research instruments to collect the data. These instruments include a survey questionnaire for the students and a survey questionnaire for the lecturers are used to investigate the 21st century skills of ELL students. The quantitative analysis of the data reveals that the students in these ELL departments are aware of their own 21st century skills. Another conclusion of this study demonstrates that although most of the students stated that they already use most of the 21 century skills, the lecturers do not readily approve of them. The lecturers stated that the students did not use different thinking techniques to create original ideas in their lives, evaluate new ideas by using analysis, work patiently to produce solutions to the problems, and the students did not take steps to improve their skills. Additionally, the lecturers disagreed with the statements that the students listened to other's opinion about a subject, had effective communication skills, adapted to different roles in their lives, were open to criticism, knew that learning was a lifelong process, knew that media was effective in directing people's opinion, used appropriate media tools to get information and used technological tools to analyse information.

An Investigation of Prospective Teachers and Teacher Trainers 21st Century Skills Awareness

“…Similarly, Bedir (2019) found that English teacher candidates have a moderate level of awareness on 4Cs, and also Baran-Lucarz and Klimas (2020) revealed that the majority of EFL teacher candidates lack a clear knowledge of what 21st century abilities are. On the other hand, Irgatoğlu and Pakkan (2020) found the 21st century skills awareness levels of the students studying at the English Language and Literature department to be high. The students in the English Language and Literature department read more books, write more book reviews, reflect critically on the themes in the books they read, and discuss those themes in their classes with others, which may be the reasons that distinguish them from the students in the English Language Teaching Department.…”

“…At the tertiary level, it was concluded that undergraduate students studying in the English Language and Literature department were conscious of 21st century skills and most of them use the 21st century skills in their lives (Irgatoğlu & Pakkan, 2020). In the studies conducted to determine the 21st century skills of the students studying at the education faculties of the universities and the preservice teachers, there was a statistically significant difference in the perceptions of the prospective teachers about lifelong learning competencies according to the gender and the department they study (Evin-Gencel, 2013), teaching skills varied greatly depending on the department, academic success, private lesson experience, teaching practice, and gender (Tican & Deniz, 2018), prospective teachers had a level of agreement with the sub-dimensions of 21st century skills that is higher than moderate (Kan & Murat, 2018), pre-service teachers who received pedagogical formation education had 21st century skills at a sufficient level, and there were no significant difference between 21st century skills in terms of gender and department they study (Erten, 2019), and that digital storytelling helped primary school teacher candidates develop their 21st century competencies (Ciğerci, 2020).…”

Validation of the competences for the 21st-century skill scale in higher education students

“…Having addressed the skills considered as those necessary to face the challenges posed by the 21st century, considered by Wagner (2008) as the 'Survival Skills', it is important to make reference to the instruments used to assess them, knowing that it is in the sphere of teaching and learning that we find greater emphasis in the most recent literature (Care et al, 2018;Irgatoğlu & Pakkan, 2020;Sondergeld & Johnson, 2019;Tican & Deniz, 2019), where scales and semi-structured interviews prevail. Skills are predominantly evaluated through interviews, observation, and mixed approaches.…”

21st Century Skills and Learning Environments: ELT Students Perceptions

“…Algorithmic thinking is another crucial skill for today's corporate and educational settings. It involves planning the actions or course of action needed to achieve the desired objectives (Doleck et al, 2017;Irgatoglu and Pakkan, 2020). Digital literacy is also important in today's digital world (Kocak et al, 2021).…”