What exactly does Curriculum mean
4. 21st Century Skills
In 2015, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released a paper on the 16 essential skills for 21st Century Education. The skills were grouped into three areas of learning processes as illustrated it table 1.0.
Table 1.0
Skill Group |
Skill |
Definition |
Foundational Literacies |
1. Literacy |
Ability to read, understand and use written language |
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2. Numeracy |
Ability to use numbers and other symbols to understand and express quantitative relationships |
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3. Scientific Literacy |
Ability to use scientific knowledge and principles to understand ones environment and test hypothesis |
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4. ICT Literacy |
Ability to use and create technology based content, including finding and sharing information, answering questions, interacting with other people and computer programming. |
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5. Financial Literacy |
Ability to understand conceptual and numerical aspects of finace in practice |
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6. Cultural and Civic Literacy |
Ability to understand and apply knowledge of the humanities |
Competencies |
7. Critical Thinking/Problem Solving |
Ability to identify, analyse and evaluate situations, ideas and information to formulate responses and solutions
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8. Creativity |
Ability to imagine and device new, innovative ways of addressing problems, answering questions or expressing meaning through the application, synthesis or repurposing of knowledge |
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9. Communication |
Ability to listen to, understand, convey and contextulize information through verbal, nonverbal, visual and written means |
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10. Collaboration |
Ability to work in a team towards a common goal, including the ability to prevent and manage conflict |
Character qualities |
11. Curiosity |
Ability and desire to ask questions and to demonstrate open-mindedness and inquisitiveness |
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12. Initiative |
Ability and desire to proactively undertake new task or goal |
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13. Persistence/grit |
Ability to sustain interest and effort and to persevere to accomplish a task or goal |
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14. Adaptability |
Ability to change plans, methods, opinions or goals in the light of new information |
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15. Leadership |
Ability to effectively direct, guide and inspire others and accomplish a common goal. |
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16. Social and Cultural awareness |
Ability to interact with other people in a socially, culturally and ethically appropriate way. |