How Can Institutions and Governments Facilitate 21st-Century Skills for Students?

“In many countries in the world, there is strong demand for innovation and entrepreneurial skills. The digitalization of work also makes it more and more important to develop these skills that are more difficult to ascertain by computers, such as critical thinking and communication, so this is one of the challenges ahead for higher education institutions.”

Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin, Senior Analyst and Deputy Head, Directorate for Education and Skills, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Higher education institutions are increasingly expected to support students with developing higher-order thinking skills, such as creativity and critical thinking, and technical knowledge, to better respond to labor market demands and contribute to innovation in society.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) Directorate for Education and Skills’ Education GPS, the future of labor market outcomes will be influenced by and linked to various emerging trends and societal factors, including the burgeoning need for critical skills, internationalization, migration, the digital-divide, curriculum and instruction, and research and innovation in education.

Furthermore, the OECD highlighted in its Education at a Glance 2021 that lifelong learning is increasingly critical for adults to upskill and reskill in a changing world. This is especially true with the continued development of the novel coronavirus pandemic and its digitalization of many industries, workflows and processes worldwide, and resulting influences on labor pool demands and student and employer expectations.

With all of these changing demands and expectations, higher education institutions have to rethink and reassess how they support students in being successful throughout their careers and lives. And while some institutions have been actively implementing innovative student-centered pedagogies to promote the development of 21st-century skills, others seek more support and information on how to change their approaches to teaching and learning.

To better guide and inform educators and institutions on the subject, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) Directorate for Education and Skills recently hosted a panel called “Fostering 21st Skills in Higher Education.”
Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin, Senior Analyst and Deputy Head, Directorate for Education and Skills at the OECD moderated the panel and discussed with OnlineEducation.com how governments and institutions can foster 21st-century skills in education through the use of various technology, policy, and teaching pedagogy tools.

Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin, Senior Analyst and Deputy Head, Directorate for Education and Skills, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin is a senior analyst and deputy head of the “Innovation and Measuring Progress” Division at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (Directorate for Education and Skills). He currently leads work on education during the Covid-19 crisis and the OECD’s project on digitalization in education, “Smart data and digital technology in education: AI, learning analytics and beyond.”

Vincent-Lancrin also focuses on disciplined innovation and change management, showing what kind of support, environment, and tools school teachers and university professors could give to improve their teaching and students’ learning. Generally speaking, he works on educational innovation, research, higher education, and how new trends influence the futures of learning and education policy at the schooling and higher education levels.

Vincent-Lancrin holds a PhD in philosophy and economics from the University of Paris, a master’s degree in economics from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Paris, and a grande école diploma in public management and action from the ESCP Business School.

OnlineEducation.com: What do you recognize to be emerging as 21st-century skills? How have you identified these skills and what is their value?

Vincent-Lancrin: “21st-century skills” are just a list of skills that varies according to authors, but the general idea is to encourage a shift towards taking into account skills in addition to subject knowledge.

We must think of how we can manage to develop students’ skills at the same time as we develop the knowledge in different fields as different demands emerge in the workplace globally.

In many countries in the world, there is strong demand for innovation and entrepreneurial skills. The digitalization of work also makes it more and more important to develop these skills that are more difficult to ascertain by computers, such as critical thinking and communication, so this is one of the challenges ahead for higher education institutions.

Initially, I talked about “skills for innovation,” that is, those skills that are useful for people to innovate or absorb innovation. They are more or less the same skills as 21st skills.

It is important to note that 21st-century skills refer to different categories of skills: content and procedural knowledge (technical skills); higher-order skills (e.g., creativity or critical thinking); socio-emotional skills (e.g., communication collaboration, energy, conscientiousness). Knowledge and skills are also not opposed—one doesn’t go without the other.

OnlineEducation.com: How do recent examples of institutions designing and leveraging new teaching pedagogy tools to facilitate students’ acquisition of these skills differ from traditional methods?

Vincent-Lancrin: What is traditional in some places is not in others.

We want to improve the quality of teaching in higher education. There is a lot of debate as to what areas of research can be improved, but we also need to remember that one of the key missions of higher education is to actually teach students the skills they need for life and work. And this is really something that we truly think is critical to cultivating 21st-century skills in higher education today.

To me, the main difference is not just in the teaching pedagogy but in the intentionality: teachers have to be intentional in trying to develop these skills as they teach their subject. Usually, it comes with more “active learning” pedagogy techniques, but you can also do it by just tweaking scripted instruction if that’s your tradition.

OnlineEducation.com: What do you think hinders some institutions from facilitating education on 21st-century skills?

Vincent-Lancrin: At the OECD, we have worked with 26 higher education institutions from 14 countries to exemplify how these skills can be done in practice and made tangible. What does this look like? How can we make it tangible? How can we make it feasible?

Teaching these skills and equipping these students with these things by working to improve higher education through a variety of means—what does this look like? What do courses for these skills look like? What training or support should be given to higher education faculty to do this work? And so that’s one of the main questions of these efforts.

The second question is critical to address, especially in the current online environment: how can this learning and skill teaching be sustained within institutions? How can we have something that is not just a project but is transformative within institutions? And what kind of institutional support is needed from leaders? And then how can governments support this? These are major questions as well.

There is a real need to clarify what the different competencies mean in an educational context. To that purpose, we have developed conceptual rubrics and scoring rubrics on creativity and critical thinking, two of the “21st-century skills.” Conceptual rubrics are just a way to support teachers to design their lessons and be intentional in leaving space for their students to develop those skills. Scoring rubrics help them to communicate with students what the outcome should look like when they demonstrate those skills.

OnlineEducation.com: How can technology be used to facilitate student-centered learning and the development of modern skills?

Vincent-Lancrin: One thing technology can help with is to track all these skills. Once you try to be intentional with more skills, you need easy ways to assess and record the acquisition of those skills. Technology makes it easier. It also allows students to be part of the process through the use of e-portfolios, for example.

But there are many other ways in which technology can be used: it is really a tool that can support human beings to do many things. For example, technology makes collaboration with people who are far away easier, thanks to emails, phone, video-conferences, etc.

OnlineEducation.com: What policies can governments and institutions implement to foster 21st-century skills in education? And what impact do you believe policies can have on students’ futures?

Vincent-Lancrin: Governments and institutions have to be intentional and, 1) be explicit and explain what they mean by those skills; 2) provide support and examples to teachers; 3) provide professional development opportunities; and 4) give examples of how to assess those skills, and assess them themselves in exams and national evaluations.

Governments also need to think about the alignment of different levels of the system. If your university entrance criteria (or exams) do nothing of those skills, secondary school teachers and students will not pay attention to their development—they will focus on what is assessed and actually valued.