THE 21ST CENTURY SKILLS CHARACTERIZED BY THE GRAD

5 AND 6
TEACHERS IN TEACHING BASIC EDUCATION CURRICULUM
( K TO 12 ) IN MIDSAYAP SOUTH DISTRICT

THESIS PROPOSAL

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOUTHERN

CHRISTIAN COLLEGE, MIDSAYAP COTABATO IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS IN EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT

(MAEM)

BY

LORNA C. IRAG

DECEMBER, 2018
 CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

The advent of modernization , globalization and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian

Nations) 2015 concepts challenged the Ministries of Education to adopt change and innovations

to meet the global standard. To respond to the challenge, the 1996 Philippine hosting of Asia

Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), provided education as one of the areas emphasized in

eco-tech cooperation to pursue the ASEAN dream of prosperous community where equitable

growth is an avowed goal (Macaranas, 2014). With the current significant developments,

reaching regional harmonization in education is not far to reach.

The challenge motivated the Southeast Asian Ministries of Education Organization

Regional Center for Educational Innovation and Technology(SEAMEO- INNOTECH ) to

facilitate the development of 21st Century skills of Southeast Asian Teachers. The theme of this

opportunity is Gearing Up Responsible and Outstanding Teachers in Southeast Asia for the 21 st

Century. This updated the teachers with the current educational issues required for them to

learn and implement as 21st Century educators and develop 21 st Century learners (GURO

21,2011).

In addition, the new knowledge, skills and values needed to strengthen to meet the

standard are the the 21st Century Teacher as a Subject Matter Expert, Facilitator of Learning and

Classroom Manager. The teachers are developed to acquire 21st Century literacy which include
the Arts and Creativity, Ecoliteracy, Cyber literacy, Financial Literacy, Media Literacy,

Social/Emotional Literacy, Globalization and Multicultural Literacy (GURO 21, 2011).

The characteristics expected to see in a successful 21st century educator are exhibited by

the Eight Habits namely: Adapting where the 21st century educator must be able to adapt the

curriculum and the requirements to teach to the curriculum in imaginative ways; Being visionary

where imagination is a crucial component of the educator of today and tomorrow. They must

look across the disciplines and through the curricula; they must see the potential in the emerging

tools and Web technologies, grasp these and manipulate them to serve their needs.;

Collaborating, an educator must be able to leverage collaborative tools to enhance and

captivate the learners, must be collaborators in sharing, contributing, adapting and inventing.;

Taking risks , there’s so much to learn and an educator should know all these things by taking

risks and sometimes surrender to the students’ knowledge should have a vision of what to want

and what the technology can achieve, identify the goals and facilitate the learning.; Learning,

students are expected to be life-long learners. Teachers, must continue to absorb experiences and

knowledge, as well, must endeavour to stay current and must learn and adapt as the horizons and

landscapes change; Communicating, the teacher must be anywhere and anytime. The 21st

century teacher is fluent in tools and technologies that enable communication and collaboration.;

Modelling behaviour, it is expected that teachers will teach values, must model the behaviors

that are expected from the students. The 21st century educator also models tolerance, global

awareness, and reflective practice, whether it’s the quiet, personal inspection of their teaching

and learning, or through blogs, twitter and other media, effective educators look both inwards

and outwards.; and Leading , whether teachers are champion of the process of ICT integration,
a quiet technology coach, the 21st century educator is a leader. Like clear goals and objectives,

leadership is crucial to the success or failure of any project GURO 21, 2011).

The Department of Education ( DepEd) is implementing the programs to meet the

standard of quality education and produce quality outcome. The skills required from the 21 st

century educators are needed to provide the 21st century learners with required competence

for them to meet the trends of the century.

The Division of Cotabato is implementing the development of 21st century skills among

the teachers that are needed to produce the quality learners who developed skills, capacities

and acquire opportunities for successful future career. However, the query that may arise is

what is the gap in the characteristics of teachers related to 21st century skills in teaching basic

education by the teachers in Midsayap South District to cope with the required standard.

Statement of the Problem

This study will identify the 21 st Century skills characterized by the Grade 5 and 6

teachers in teaching basic education curriculum ( Kto 12) in Midsayap South District.

Specifically, this will seek the answers to the following questions:

1. What is the profile of the of Grade 5 and 6 teachers in Midsayap South District in

terms of
a. sex
b. Age
c. teaching experience
d. educational attainment
 2. What 21st century skills are characterized by by Grade 5 and 6 teachers in teaching

Basic Education Curriculum in terms of

a. adapting

b. being visionary

c. collaborating

d. taking risks

e. life long learning

f. communicating

g. modelling behaviour

e. leading

3. What is the contribution of 21st century skills characterized by the Grade 5 and 6 teachers

in pupils learning?

4. Is there a significant difference in the contribution of the 21 st century skills characterized

the Grade 5 and 6 teachers in teaching Basic Education Curriculum in the learning of pupils

when grouped by

a. sex

b. age

c. teaching experience

d. educational attainment
Hypotheses:

Ho1: There is no significant difference on the contribution of 21 st century skills

characterized by in teaching Basic Education Curriculum when grouped by sex.

Ho2: There is no significant difference on the contribution of 21 st century skills

characterized by in teaching Basic Education Curriculum when grouped by age.

Ho3: is no significant difference on the contribution of 21st century skills characterized by

in teaching Basic Education Curriculum when grouped by teaching experience.

Ho4: There is no significant difference on the contribution of 21st century skills

characterized by in teaching Basic Education Curriculum when grouped by educational

attainment..

Significance of the Study

The result of this study may benefit the following stakeholders:

DepEd . For the DepEd to gain baseline data pertaining to the characterization of the

21st century skills of teachers in the DepEd and the contribution to the learning of pupils to

plan out for the program to strengthen the teachers competencies in using 21st century skills

in teaching.

Administrators. To the result may provide basis for the administrators to conduct

training to teachers related to 21st century education.

 Teachers. The result may provide information of the importance of adapting teaching

strategies to the 21st century skills to improve the learning of pupils.

Future researchers. The result of this study will serve as the reference of future related

studies.

CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITEATURE

 This chapter contains the concepts, information and descriptions of a 21st century

education and skills to give clarity of the topics covered in this study.

Description of the 21st Century Teacher

The 21st Century Teacher The 21st Century teacher looks forward to the future and aware

of the ever-changing trends in technology and are in tune of what the future may bring to

education. A good 21s century teacher is aware of the career opportunities that will be in the

coming years for their students, and are always advocating towards forward thinking and

planning to ensure all students will not be left behind. Lastly, the 21st Century Educator must

use teaching strategies to ensure that the focus in education is on preparing today’s children for

the future of where these children will live and where they will work, not for or current world

(Cox, 2011).

Characteristics of a 21st Century Teacher

The characteristics of the 21st Century Teacher includes the following: facilitate and

inspire student learning and creativity so that all students achieve in the global society; enable

students students to maximize the potential of their formal and informal learning experiences;

Facilitate learning in multiple modalities; work as effective members of learning teams; use the

full range of digital-age tools to improve student engagement and achievement; work with the

students to co-create new learning opportunities; use data to support student learning and

program improvements; be lifelong learners; be global educators and work with policy leaders

as a change agents (Ledesma, 2011).

 The 21st Century Skills

Twenty –First (21st) Century Skills are 12 abilities that today’s students need to succeed

in their careers during the information age. These skills are: critical thinking, creativity,

collaboration, communication, information literacy, media literacy, media literacy, technology

literacy, flexibility, leadership, initiative, productivity and social skills what are the 21 st century

skills (Zook, 2011).

In addition, Zook (2011) said that each 21 st century skill is broken into one of the three

categories: learning skills, literacy skills, and life skills. Learning skills (four C’s) teaches

students about mental processes required to adapt and improve upon a modern work

environment. While the Literacy skills (IMT) focuses on how students can discern facts,

publishing outlets, and the technology behind them. There’s a strong focus on determining

trustworthy sources and factual information to separate it from the misinformation that floods

the Internet. In the case of Life skills (PLIPS) take a look at intangible elements of a student’s

everyday life. These intangibles focus on both personal and professional qualities. All together

the the categories cover all 21st century skills that contribute to a student’s future career .

The category one on learning skills have four C’s which are critical thinking : finding

solutions to problems, creativity: thinking outside the box, collaboration: working with others

and communication: talking to others. Critical thinking is the most important quality for

someone to have in health sciences, business settings which is essential to improvement and

helps student figure stuff out for themselves when they do not have a teacher at their disposal.

For creativity, it is equally important as a means of adaptation. The skills empowers students to

se concepts in a different light which lead to innovation. While in collaboration means getting

students to work together, achieve compromises, and get the best possible results from solving
a problem. Finally, communication is the glue that brings all of these educational qualities

together. Communication is a requirement for any organization to maintain profitability. It is

crucial for students to learn how to effectively convey ideas among different personality types.

Furthermore, Zook (2011) identified the Literacy skills category of 21sr Century skills.

the are called IMT skills and each concerned with different element in digital comprehension.

This category includes information literacy: Understanding facts, figures, statistics and data,

Media Literacy: Understanding the methods and outlets in which information is published, and

Technology Literacy: Understanding the machines that make the information age possible.

These literacies have specific descriptions. For information literacy, it is the foundational skill

that helps students understand facts, especially data points that they will encounter online and

teaches how to separate fact from fiction. Media literacy is the practice of identifying

publishing methods, outlets, and sources while distinguishing between the ones that are

credible and the ones that are not. While technology literacy goes another step further to teach

students about the machines involved in the information age. As computers, cloud

programming, and mobile devices become more important to the world, the world needs more

people to understand those concepts. Technology literacy give students the basic information

they need to understand what gadgets perform what tasks and why.

On the other hand, Zook (2011) further discussed about Life skills category which is the

final category also called FLIPS. These skills all pertains to someone’s personal life, but they

also bleed into professional settings. FILPFS are flexibility: deviating from plans as needed,

leadership: motivating a team to accomplish a goal, initiative: starting projects, strategies, and

plans on one’s own, productivity: maintaining efficiency in an age of distractions and social

skills: meeting and networking with others for mutual benefits. It is further described that
flexibility is the expression of someone’s ability to adapt o changing circumstances. This is the

most challenging qualities to learn for students because it is based on two uncomfortable ideas

which are: “your way is not always the best way and you have to know and admit when you are

wrong”. In the case of Leadership , it is someone’s penchant for setting goals, walking a team

through the steps required, and achieving those goals collaboratively. For initiative, this is

described as the basis of true success requiring students to be self-starters. Initiative only

comes naturally to a handful of people that results to students need to learn it to fully succeed.

Lastly, social skills which are crucial to the ongoing success of a professional. This may have

been implied in past generations, the rise of social media and instant communications have

changed the nature of human interaction.

Teaching Strategies in the 21s Century

The 21st century educator exhibit characteristics and applicable teaching strategies. The

21st century educator looks forward to the future and aware of the ever changing trends in

technology and are in tune of what the future may bring to education. A good 21st century

teacher is aware of the career opportunities that will be in the coming years for their students.

And are always advocating towards forward thinking and planning to ensure all students will

not be left behind. The 21st century educator must use teaching strategies to ensure that the

focus in education is on preparing today’s children for the future of where they will live and

where they will work. Teaching strategies include a) the technology in the classroom which is

ever-changing and moving at a rapid pace. The 21st century teacher is one that moves right

along with it. This strategy on technology in the classroom, whether for lessons, assignments,

or grading, can help students learn better and faster, and help make a teacher’s time more
 effective. b) Collaborative-an effective 21st century educator must be able to collaborate and

work well in a team. c) adaptive- a 21st century teacher is able to adapt to whatever comes their

way. Teaching is a career that has pretty much stayed the same over the fast decades. They

must be able to adapt their teaching style to include different modes of learning, adapt when the

lesson fails, and adapt to new technology. d) Lifelong learning. A 21st century educator is a

lifelong learner. They do not

The National Training of Trainers(2014) emphasized the 21st Century skills categories are

communication skills, learning and innovation skills, information, media and technology skills

and life and career skills . The effective communication skills are identified as : teaming,

collaboration, interpersonal skills, local, national, and global-orientedness and interactive

communication .While the learning Innovation Skills (3Cs) are creativity, curiosity , critical

thinking problem solving skills and risk taking.

On the other hand, the life and career skills are identified as flexibility and adaptability,

leadership and responsibility, social-socio cultural skills, initiative and self-direction,

productivity and accountability, ethical, moral and spiritual values. Information, media and

technology skills include visual and information literacies, media literacy and basic, scientific
 and economic and technological literacies . Further, visual literacy are focused on the ability to

interpret, make meaning from information presented in the form of an image. And the ability to

evaluate, apply, or create conceptual visual presentations. For information literacy it is the

ability to identify what information is needed, identify the best sources, evaluate the sources

critically, and share that information and is most essential in the conduct of research. In case of

scientific literacy includes encompasses written, numerical, and digital literacy as they pertain

to understanding science , its methodology, observations, and theories. Also, it is the knowledge

and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making,

participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity (The National Training of

Trainers, 2014) .

Macaranas, Federico M. PhD. (2014).Presentation of the sisters of St. Paul of charters, at http:///
www.asean-aimedddu/research/presentation/asean-2015-challenges-opportunities-for-educators. Retrieved
November, 2017.

GURO 21 (2011). MODULE 2, Facilitating 21st Century Learning, SEAMEO-INNOTECH.