Preparing Pre-service Teachers for 21st Century Skills Education

Abstract

This study examines the efficiency of a model aimed at teaching 21st century skills to preservice teachers at Damascus university. Two fundamental aspects were explored, firstly, promoting the teaching of 21st century skills; and, secondly, incorporating 21st century skills in the educators’ pedagogical training. Quantitative data was collected from 106 student teachers, and 34 teacher educators through two survey questionnaires. Results from the teacher educator’s survey data showed that the model to promote all 21st century skills in student teachers was efficient. The student teachers felt that the pedagogical training of this model was efficient in terms of promoting cognitive skills, but only average when considering information literacy and problem-solving skills and performed poorly in fostering communication skills. Thus, even though the model is efficient in promoting 21st century skills for future teachers, it lacks a training framework that places equal emphasis on applying the skills during teacher training.