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Chapter 6
Teachers’ professional development
In the previous chapters, we have identified the sets of 21st century skills that are essential to
learners’ education, and discussed how their development of such skills can be scaffolded by
applying various strategies, using examples from Hong Kong, Switzerland and the United States.
Chapter 6 marks the beginning of the third section of the book. This section takes readers’
understanding of teaching 21st century skills further beyond theory. It aims to guide education
professionals along the process of actualizing 21st century skills education in a three-step process,
starting with the teacher’s own acquisition of relevant skills as discussed in chapter 6, followed
by development of learners’ 21st century skills using suitable pedagogy advocated in chapter 7,
and finally the assessment of learner performance for evaluation and improvement in chapter 8.
Chapter 6 focuses on the first step towards achieving this goal – to equip teachers, mainly those
currently in service, with the ability to accomplish the mission of developing students’ 21st
century skills.
The world has seen rapid changes in the demand for talents in nurturing future leaders and
fuelling the necessary workforce is a major concern in the educational field.. The professional
development of teachers, namely education and training to enhance teachers’ knowledge and
skills, has thus become a top priority. In order to effectively foster students’ development of 21st
century skills, teachers themselves must have at least a good command of these skills, and be
well prepared in their own capacity to impart such skills onto students. A quick search in the
existing literature yields a less than satisfactory result for professional development specifically
designed for 21st century skills teaching, especially for in-service teachers. This is a grave issue
as teachers educated and trained under the old teaching model in past decades are neither
adequately aware of nor ready with all the skills to create a 21st century teaching environment for
their students’ learning. The exact areas they are weak in have not received sufficient attention in
the literature either. With the aims to provide stronger educational support to in-service teachers
in their adoption and development of new skills in 21st century teaching, this chapter first
highlights the skills and capacities that teachers lack, then suggests methods for teachers’
reference in their acquisition or strengthening of such skills to keep themselves in line with
contemporary educational development.
6.1 Skills needed for a new teaching style
All-rounded student development no longer refers only to intellectual growth, but involves the
mastery of various skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, communication and
collaboration skills (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2009), as we have discussed in chapter 2.
In response to such a change, teachers need to meet new expectations to facilitate the
development of 21st century skills in student-centered learning, with one prime example being
Chu, S., Reynolds, R., Notari, M., Taveres, N., & Lee, C. (2016). 21st Century Skills Development
through Inquiry Based Learning From Theory to Practice. Springer Science.
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the ISTE standard for teachers (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).
Getting teachers prepared for the launch of a new 21st century skills oriented teaching style is no
easy task. It is proposed that most of the learning goals of 21st century skills can be taught within
the context of scientific inquiry or project based learning, which requires “ambiguous” teaching
(Windschitl, 2009). This teaching style calls for teachers to be able to engage students in self-
directed strategies about their own learning, to organise activities that delegate learning decisions
to students and monitor their progress, to facilitate learning activities such as collective problem-
solving, and to guide students in thinking about complex problems by giving them feedback
following assessment (Rapporteur, 2010). In easing the “ambiguity” of such a novel teaching
model, this section aims to explore areas that teachers need to polish their own skills in so as to
effectively support the teaching of and help students develop 21st century skills, namely teachers’
attitudes towards and competencies of adopting 21st century skills, their pedagogical orientation
and professional identity.
6.2 Teachers’ adoption of 21st century skills
Those who pay attention to teacher education over the years may have noticed a paradigm shift
from a knowledge-oriented curriculum to one that stresses more the activities and practices that
bring about knowledge acquisition (Zeichner, 2012; McDonald, Kazemi, & Kavanagh, 2013).
However, a considerable proportion of in-service teachers may have been trained in more
conventional ways. They may have limited exposure to various practice-based learning
approaches such as inquiry learning – the cradle for 21st century skills development. Successful
teacher adoption of 21st century skills, for both their personal use and passing on to students,
hinges on their attitude towards, awareness of and willingness to learn and use them. It also
depends on their ease of utilizing such skills. Our discussion below shows that, among the
components of 21st century skills, many teachers are particularly lacking in information
technology literacy, information literacy, media literacy as well as digital collaboration skills.
These limitations may affect their teaching performance in leading, guiding, modelling for and
probing students in evidential explanation to help them acquire 21st century skills in a student-
centered and inquiry-based learning mode.
6.2.1 Information technology literacy
Information technology (IT) literacy is the most fundamental among the set of digital literacies.
IT literacy is the first skill teachers must acquire in order to master all the three skills under the
umbrella of digital literacy, as the search for and organization of information is largely supported
by technology nowadays, as well as the creation and utilization of media (Barone, 2012; Safar &
AlKhezzi, 2013). There is an increasing trend for technology integration in the classroom,
requiring teachers to incorporate technology into their pedagogy (Kopcha, 2012; Richards, 2006;
Wilson & Christie, 2010). In particular, the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge
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(TPACK) model put forward by Mishra and Kohler (2006) as a framework to aid teachers in
their quest to integrate technology into their teaching is becoming widely adopted in the
professional development of teachers (Archambault & Crippen, 2009; Harris & Hofer, 2011;
Schmidt et al., 2009).
Teachers progress through various stages of technology adoption, beginning with being alert to
the possibilities of technology implementation for both personal purposes and letingt students
acquire IT literacy in their everyday learning. This awareness eventually brings about routine
utilization of technology, and with appropriate training and support, they advance to more
creative usage of technology for teaching and learning (Christensen & Knezek, 2008; Sandholtz,
Ringstaff, & Dwyer, 1997). On the bright side, recent research has reported teachers’
competence and confidence in providinging instruction using technology (Ismail, Azizan, &
Axman, 2011; Kopcha, 2012). Nevertheless, teachers who have admitted facing barriers to
technology integration over the years are commonly found to be lacking in access to hardware
and software, training and support, and they often have little trust or belief in technology (Bhalla,
2012; Dawson, 2008; Ertmer et al., 2012; Kopcha, 2012).
Access to hardware and software is noted to be the basic criterion for technology utilization at
school. Technology infrastructure available to teachers has to be reliable and useful to serve their
purposes. If technology usage is time consuming or perceived not contribute to students’
learning process, teachers will be inclined not to use it (Kopcha, 2012). Besides, if hardware or
software provided for teaching and learning is insufficient, it is difficult to fulfill the need of
facilitating student-centered learning. In reality, compared to the past when teachers had to, for
example, ask for computers to be installed directly in classrooms (Clark, 2006), technology is
now more easily accessible for teaching and learning. A survey conducted in 2010 indicated that
over 90% of computers in U.S. schools are used for instructional purposes, and that the ratio of
students to instructional computers with Internet access was 3:1 (Gray, Thomas, et al., 2010).
While computers are more handy, the same study revealed that students do not have ready access
to mobile computers or devices, and that Internet access in classrooms is not always reliable
(Gray, Thomas, et al., 2010).
The definition of access can be extended from beyond the school campus to computer and
Internet access at home. It has been evidenced that teachers exhibit a higher level of confidence
in their IT skills competency if they have both on-campus and home access to computers (Ismail,
Azizan, & Axman, 2011; Kahveci, Sahin & Genc, 2011) and the Internet (Condie & Livingston,
2007). The availability of technology infrastructure to teachers also boosts their confidence in
using IT professionally, for example, in using word processing softwares, and saving and
accessing shared files (Ismail, Azizan, & Axman, 2011). This brings our discussion to the next
point concerning attitudinal issues of teachers towards IT.
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Teachers’ beliefs in IT and confidence in their own IT skills are two prime attitudinal obstacles
towards effective technology integration in their teaching (Bhalla, 2012; Kopcha, 2012;
Ottenbreit-leftwich et al., 2010). Specific concerns that teachers harbor include their worry that
the syllabus cannot be completed on time should computers be used in teaching and learning, and
their fear that computers may be broken, lost or damaged during use. These two worries had the
highest ranking in the category of attitudinal challenges in the study conducted by Bhalla (2012).
Studies in the area have shown that teachers’ beliefs on IT are positively linked to their IT
practices (Ertmer et al., 2012; Ottenbreit-Leftwich et al., 2012). If teachers feel uncomfortable
with the use of technological tools or are apprehensive that they may not be qualified to teach
using IT, there are less likely to incorporate technology into their teaching, resulting in less
interaction between students and technology.
6.2.2 Information literacy (IL)
The rise of inquiry project-based learning places teachers in their new role of facilitators, guiding
students through the understanding and exploration of chosen topics (Harada & Yoshina, 2004).
Teachers’ capacity to apply research and problem-solving skills are required to facilitate students’
development in inquiry-based learning. In the process of equipping themselves with knowledge
on the wide variety of topics potentially chosen by students, teachers have to organize abundant
information in and integrate different contextual materials into the curriculum. After students
have submitted their inquiry learning projects, teachers often have to review and validate
resources they cited in student assessments. Precisely, inquiry teaching requires teachers to
possess specific knowledge of how to support students in developing researchable questions,
planning an investigation, collecting and interpreting data and presenting results (Gess-Newsome
& Lederman, 1999).
The issues concerning teachers’ IL skills commence with the pivotal question of teachers’
understanding of the term IL. In a research study conducted by Probert (2009), it is found that
the two thirds of New Zealand teachers who participated in the survey demonstrated limited or
no understanding of IL, judged by the way they defined an information literate person. These
teachers could only give general and vague descriptions that loosely define IL. There was also a
misconception that IL skills are the same as ICT skills. This finding is echoed by a similar study
involving 500 high school teachers in Greece (Korobili, 2011), in which the notion of IL was
observed to be poorly understood, and often mixed up with computer literacy. Teachers even
falsely conceptualized the computer literacy training they attended as IL training. Little
improvement is seen in a more recent study, in which respondents were still unfamiliar with the
term (Smith, 2013). In Smith’s study, respondents gave inconsistent definitions of IL, ranging
from something as broad as an all-encompassing set of literacy and relevant information skills to
a definition as narrow as the ability to find information.
There are also problems found in teaching information literacy to students. Overall, teachers find
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it difficult to align the development, delivery and assessment of IL instruction to their existing
curriculum objectives (Williams & Wavell, 2007; Smith, 2013). Some teachers may have
received training on information processing models – models that divide the process of seeking
information into manageable stages, starting from identifying questions to locating information
sources, as well as the stages of information evaluation and management (Probert, 2009).
However, these models were rarely used, and in cases where teachers claimed to apply such
models in class, they were unfamiliar with the stages of the model, or have mistaken irrelevant
techniques as an information processing model (Probert, 2009). Some teachers also exhibited a
low level of confidence in deciding on teaching topics, the first step of many information
processing models (Gawith, 1988; Australian School Library Association, 2001), as they tend to
seek clarification on the finer details of the topic requirements in their initial preparation
(Merchant, 2002). Although teachers are generally confident in their own ability to retrieve
information (Korobili, 2011), some of them show little awareness of the need for and benefits of
engaging students in the process of information search (Merchant, 2002). These teachers view it
as their responsibility to research into and prepare materials for their students when learning a
new topic important, thereby reducing students’ opportunities to practice information access and
use. This is problematic as it is the teacher’s level of consciousness or awareness of IL skills
rather than their own IL level that ultimately determines students’ IL competency (Merchant,
2002). In the same study, students’ experience were also suggestive of improvement needed in
teachers, as they reported that they received not much assistance in evaluating the quality and
source of information gathered.
6.2.3 Media literacy (ML)
Media education is most effective when teachers have clear expectations of students’ media
consumption habits and media awareness to be able to design a tailor-made media education
program for their students’ maximum benefit and to evaluate their improvement and that of the
program itself (Chu, Chu, Tavares, Siu, Chow, & Ho, 2010). Since children in the present era are
exposed to media content from a much earlier stage at a more frequent rate via the Internet and
popular social media such as Facebook (Prensky, 2001), teachers may have the wrong
assumption that their digital native students are having the same level of media literacy as they
do, and that the conventional media education curriculum that worked for the teachers at their
school age still fits their students now (Buckingham, 2002). This wrong estimation of students’
media consumption habits and awareness may either waste students’ time of learning something
they have already acquired or lead to an inappropriate design and a misapplied and insufficient
focus on media education (Chu, Chu, Tavares, Siu, Chow, & Ho, 2010). Teachers’ realistic
understanding thus plays an influential role in students’ future development and learning
outcomes. However, a survey conducted in 2010 to assess and investigate Hong Kong teachers’
understanding of and expectation towards their students’ media literacy showed that teachers’
understanding towards students’ media consumption habits deviated from reality and they tended
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to overestimate students’ preference for online game (Chu, Chu, Tavares, Siu, Chow, & Ho,
2010). As conceived by Burnett (2002), the discrepancy between teacher-student assumptions of
media consumption habits reflected in the survey points to the fact that local teachers are short of
the skills needed to comprehend the overall picture of their students’ media consumption and
hence not capable enough to design a media education curriculum with the right resources and
assessment methods for them.
Furthermore, ML includes one’s skillful use of media tools and sharing of appropriate and
relevant information with others (Hobbs, 2010). To be competent in ML, teachers not only have
to acquire a basic level of understanding in mastering the media tools, but also keep themselves
abreast with new technologies and skills required to maintain and promote the quality and
capability of accessing information through various media. The purpose of using media in the
classroom is often limited to one-way information presentation from the teacher to students
(Keengwe & Kang, 2013). There is a perceived lack of interaction between students and
technology, in which students remain in the receiving end of the media, owing to the
predominant use of technology such as PowerPoint and video clips in teachers’ presentations.
The reason behind students’ passive role in media utilization in class is the consequence of
teachers’ unfamiliarity with the software chosen for students to create PowerPoint presentations,
and their lack of skills to facilitate students’ use of the media. This recent study shows that
teachers’ ML proficiency highly influences students’ media usage, and hence their ML.
6.2.4 Collaboration skills
In order to develop and sharpen one’s skills of collaborating with peers and becoming a team
player, one very effective way is to learn through experience – to collaborate with fellow
classmates in activities that encourage social interaction (Cortez, Nussbaum, Woywood, &
Aravena, 2009). In the course of collaborative learning, the traditional role of the teacher as the
lecturer is replaced by that of a facilitator (Chu et al., 2012). With this change in the teacher’s
role from a knowledge deliverer to a mediator of students’ knowledge development, new tools
and pedagogies are needed to appropriately scaffold students’ acquisition of collaboration and
communication skills.
Various kinds of software and platforms, such as blogs (Kim, 2008), forums (Cook et al., 2014)
and wikis (Chu, Lee, & King, 2012) assist collaboration among teachers, groups of students as
well as between the teacher and students. In particular, there is widespread recognition of the
collaborative potential of wiki as substantiated by the rapidly growing number of its applications
in group work across disciplines and levels of study (Caverly & Ward, 2008; Chu, 2010). While
discussion on IT literacy in 6.2.1 focuses on the types and frequency of software utilization, this
section about collaboration gives emphasis to the purpose for which software is used. It appears
that despite the enthusiasm expressed by scholars on wiki-assisted collaborative learning,
teachers are yet to catch up with the trend. In a study documenting wiki usage in U.S. K-12
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schools (Reich, Murnane, & Willet, 2012), only a meagre 1% percent of wikis served as a tool
for students’ collaborative projects. This finding contrasted with the statistics indicating that 21%
of the teachers reported requiring their students to contribute to blogs or wikis (Gray, Thomas, &
Lewis, 2010). Juxtaposing this with two other discoveries in Reich et al.’s study that 25% of
wikis were used in individual student assignments which involved minimal collaboration and
that 34% of wikis were merely used for delivery of teaching materials, it seems to be obvious
that teachers to date may not have fully comprehended and maximized the potential of wikis in
facilitating student collaboration.
After taking the first step to adopt collaborative tools in teaching and learning, it is imperative
that teachers take the necessary measures to ensure sufficient and effective communication
among students on the chosen collaborative platform. Without the teacher’s timely support and
mediation, collaboration requires a lot more effort and becomes time consuming, leading to
failure in task completion (Rummel & Spada, 2005). But as students advance in their
collaboration skills, they gradually require less guidance to complete their assigned group work.
In order to design collaborative learning activities most suited to students’ experience and level,
teachers should be able to observe and judge the levels of student ownership of the inquiry mode,
as Heick (2013) has termed, and decide on the degree of freedom to be given to students in terms
of the research question to be set, study methods, data collection, choice of presentation and
collaboration tools.
To integrate 21st century skills into the current teaching content, teachers have to be open to
ongoing professional development. It does notsuffice for teachers to only focus on routine
practice of instruction in their respective classrooms and disregard other teachers. In addition to
keeping track of their own professional learning, it is beneficial that teachers share their
knowledge with colleagues in a community of practice, engage in reflections of their own
teaching, are ready to take risks and foster trust within the community of practice (Law, Pelgrum,
& Plomp, 2008). Scholars have proposed that such a relationship among teachers can be built
with the assistance of technology and collaboration with other educators. Riel and Becker (2008)
have shown that teachers who adopt a leadership role are more likely to use technology in
creative ways than other teachers. Voogt (2010) has found that teachers who work more closely
with their counterparts are more professionally engaged than teachers who have a traditional
pedagogical orientation. Similarly, Drent and Meelissen (2008) have observed that teachers, who
use technology in 21st century learning settings, are more likely to enact the educational change
that is needed in moving in this teaching direction.
Teachers should mentally prepare themselves for adopting 21st century teaching skills prior to
actual changes, so as to professionally identify and engage in corresponding teaching roles with
the use of technology and collaborative networks. Teachers’ willingness to collaborate with one
another is also rather heavily influenced by the school culture. It has been shown there is a
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positive correlation between teacher collaboration with and the support they receive from the
school. For cases in which resources, in terms of time and training, are not sufficient for the
development of collaborative relationships, teachers are more inclined to center their attention on
their individual work and less prepared to increase their workload to reach out and collaborate
(Leithwood et al., 2000; Little, 2003). Besides, it is essential that teachers and administrators in
the school share common goals and values in their work. School principals can foster a school
climate that promotes professional learning, by employing strategies such as attending to the
school’s specific priorities (e.g. financial or structural), cultivating shared values and flexibility
among staff members, and building a culture of collaboration (Drago-Severson, 2012).
6.3 Acquisition of 21st century teaching skills
After reviewing the components of 21st century skills that teachers should possess for their own
use and for them to pass on to students, we explore way of getting teachers to process,
understand and internalize these necessary skills for modern teaching and learning. Section 6.3
recommends tools and resources that teachers may find useful in designing learning activities
that facilitate both teachers’ and in turn students’ acquisition of 21st century skills. This section
takes one more step forward and suggests that schools adopt professional development strategies
to maximize teachers’ potential in cultivating students’ 21st century skills.
6.3.1 21st century skills standards for teachers
Teachers may use various frameworks developed for 21st century skills education (see chapter 2)
as reference. All standards describe what a 21st century student should be capable of doing, from
which teachers can develop teaching strategies that facilitate the learning process. Specifically,
the ISTE NETS for teachers puts forward the following abilities required of teachers in order to
effectively teach 21st century skills:
1. To Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity: Teachers use their knowledge of
subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance
student learning, creativity and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments.
2. To Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments: Teachers
design, develop and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating
contemporary tools as well as resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop
the knowledge, skills and attitudes identified in the NETS•S (National Educational Technology
Standards for Students).
3. To Model Digital-Age Work and Learning: Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills and work
processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society.
4. To Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility: Teachers understand local and
global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and
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ethical behavior in their professional practices.
5. To Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership: Teachers continuously enrich their
professional practice, model lifelong learning and exhibit leadership in their school and
professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and
resources (ISTE NETS Standards for Teachers, 2008).
6.3.2 Strategies to develop teachers’ 21st century skills
After introducing three tools that teachers may use to improve their own 21st century skills and
those of their students, we come to the section that discusses the strategies through which
teachers can develop such skills or to learn how to utilize the above tools.
6.3.2.1 Collaborative inquiry
The ultimate aim of teacher professional development is to improve teaching practice. In this
regard, inquiry learning is often recognized as a way of encouraging shifts in teaching practice in
terms of self-improvement and classroom behavior (Bray, 2002; Hughes & Ooms, 2004). Inquiry
based professional development is no different from inquiry based projects undertaken by
students: teachers are required to draw on resources from the literature and experience of their
own or their colleagues to guide inquiry in a sustained and reflective manner (Butler &
Schnellert, 2012), and such inquiries are carried out over a period of time (Dede, Ketelhut,
Whitehouse, Breit, McCloseley, 2006). This feature makes inquiry programs superior to
workshops and seminars, as the latter are usually not coherent and lack the depth to provide
ongoing support for implementation of new pedagogies (Sandholtz, 2002; Hughes & Ooms,
2004). In the inquiry, teachers may address common issues of teaching and learning to sustain
educational reforms, and then collectively come up with solutions to the concerns identified
(Deni & Malakolunthu, 2013).
One benefit of teachers’ collaborative inquiry efforts is their increased attempts to problem-solve
(Deni & Malakolunthu, 2013). Through teachers’ concerted effort, they engage in conversations
that examine the causes and impact of instructional problems, such as classroom dynamics,
student and teacher conduct. Teachers’ patterns of thinking are progressively oriented towards
problem solving, with discussions and diagnostic viewpoints supported by examples and
evidence, which lead to new angles and possibilities to solve problems. Having gained first-hand
experience in collaborative inquiry, teachers can evaluate their performance and pass on relevant
skills and knowledge to their students, as various inquiry cycles have shown (Butler & Schnellert,
2012; Nelson & Slavit, 2008).
Through identifying the purpose and topic of investigation, teachers in the same inquiry group
agree on common initiatives for participation, a key source of motivation that accounts for the
success of inquiry programs (Hughes & Ooms, 2004). Inquiry programs provide opportunities
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for teachers to work together with their colleagues, allowing teachers who normally teach
individually to interact with others at work and stimulate one another to reflect on their teaching
practice (Sandholtz, 2002). Empirical evidence has shed light on collaboration of this nature
improving working relationships among colleagues (Bray, 2002).
Support for teacher inquiry programs is essential to facilitate fruitful professional development.
Both the support for the collaborative inquiry process and for an inquiry environment are highly
relevant in this case (Nelson & Slavit, 2008). The former refers to facilitative processes that
create room for teachers to discuss their inquiry path and progress along an inquiry cycle, for
example through the adoption of protocols to structure collaborative data analysis. These
measures may strengthen teachers’ abilities to challenge existing beliefs with a critical eye. The
latter involves reinforcement from external stakeholders such as school, district or state
initiatives, and established norms of collaboration or experts invited from outside the school.
Forming partnerships with universities is one pragmatic way of obtaining such support for
teacher development, as discussed in the following section.
6.3.2.2 Partnering with universities
Schools and universities often join hands in the quest of developing teachers’ 21st century skills.
Collaboration of this type may be organized in different forms. Smaller scale, subject-specific
activities may be more suited to projects with less funding, while this is also possible for a series
of professional development events aiming for ongoing critical reflection on challenging
contents (Sandholtz, 2001). Such kind of collaboration is mutually beneficial. Academic
researchers play a leading role in the integration of theory and practice by offering their expertise
on theoretical knowledge so that teachers may refine their practical skills (Baumfield &
Butterworth, 2007). Theoretical knowledge, however, is not exclusive to university academics.
In fact, teachers are recognized for their intellectual leadership capacity too and make huge
contributions as teacher researchers (Zeichner, 2003). With solid frontline experience, teacher
researchers have the power to redefine and transform existing understanding on teaching and
learning (Baumfield & Butterworth, 2007), which is valuable information for the research of
university staff.
The target participants of partnership programs between schools and universities are not limited
to teachers and university academics. Many activities have a primary purpose beyond teachers’
professional development. Notably, students are often included in these partnership studies
(Sandholtz, 2001). For example, a study on upper primary four students’ media awareness (Chu,
et al., 2010) investigates both teachers’ understanding on their students’ media literacy, and
students’ evaluation of their own media awareness. Within the study, teachers took part in an
introductory workshop on media education that encouraged incorporation of media use into the
curriculum. They were asked at the end of the workshop to predict their students’ media
awareness and media use patterns by completing a questionnaire. The students filled in the same
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questionnaire, and the results were compared to the teachers’ prediction. Teachers’ lack of
knowledge of students’ media awareness revealed a potential research direction on professional
development that targeted at deepening teachers’ understanding of students’ media literacy. The
findings also alerted teachers to the need to pay attention to students’ media usage and to design
pedagogies that best facilitate students’ 21st century skills building.
Another example of school-university partnership is the Globaloria Program devised for both
students and educators to engage in social and collaborative game design and construction using
open source Web 2.0 platforms so as to boost their proficiency in higher-order skills and
concepts needed for 21st century citizens (Whitehouse, Reynolds, & Caperton, 2009). A set of 6
contemporary learning abilities for teacher professional development was developed,
incorporating 21st century skill components including collaboration, creativity, information
literacy, information technology literacy and media literacy. This set of contemporary learning
abilities was arrived at based on the researchers’ empirical observations, and is useful for further
research, as well as application by teachers and students.
6.3.2.3 Formal training courses
Formally structured courses are organized, often by higher education institutes, to serve the
purpose of enhancing teachers’ capacity to adapt to changes required in 21st century teaching. By
these courses, we refer not to short, one-off workshops or seminars without follow ups which do
not suffice to cast a long-lasting impact on teaching and learning (Hughes & Ooms, 2004). We
recommend courses that may address various aspects of 21st century skills, and that are held over
a period of time to allow teachers the time needed to digest what they have learnt. Such courses
include university-organized in-service professional development programs for teachers, for
example, courses exploring task-based learning making use of portfolio development (Liu, 2010)
and courses instructing teachers how to integrate the technique of digital storytelling into the
classroom (Chung, 2006). These courses guide teachers step-by-step through the process of
implementing the pedagogy, providing them with the necessary knowledge and skills, as well as
chances to share them with colleagues at work.
6.3.2.4 Teacher communities
Peer support in the form of the teacher communities is another way to engage teachers in the
professional development of 21st century skills. In teacher communities, teachers with common
goals in areas such as teaching and problem solving can exchange ideas on classroom practice
and student learning, develop and share teaching materials, observe one another teach when
possible, and offer advice that helps members of the community learn new ways of teaching
(Lomos, Hofman, & Bosker, 2011; Little, 2012). Most professional communities focus on the
concept that collaboration among teachers promotes teacher learning, which in turn improves
their teaching and student learning (Levine, 2010).
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There are many types of teacher communities, such as inquiry communities, teacher
professional communities and communities of practice, each with a slightly different focus.
Teachers in inquiry communities conduct systemic inquiry with colleagues to enhance teaching
and learning in schools. Through protocol-guided discussions and identifying previously
unexamined teaching gaps, tacit knowledge is made explicit (Levine, 2010), urging teachers to
formulate questions and develop tools that in the end lead to long-term change in their teaching
practice (Levine, 2010; Nelson & Slavit, 2008). The success of teacher communities however
depends heavily on teachers’ willingness to openly share and discuss their teaching dilemmas
and uncertainties with one another (Little, 2012), which in general strengthens teachers’ ability
to collaborate, in addition to gaining insights via discussions.
6.3.3 Tools for 21st century skills development
This section aims to broaden teachers’ repertoire of education technology for their own
professional development and for application in class. Some tools specifically target one
component of 21st century skills; the citation machine, for example, helps heighten information
literacy. Other tools can be applied to assist in the development of multiple competencies, for
instance, social media facilitates communication as well as collaboration, while the ability to use
the platform itself requires ML and IT literacy. Depending on the demands of the situation,
teachers may consider using one or a combination of the following tools.
6.3.3.1 Information literacy: citation guides and citation machines
The awareness for ethical use of sources and the ability to properly cite them is one of the
aspects that students were found weak in (Yeung, Chu, & Chu, 2012). The problem of plagiarism
is more common in second-language writing due to students’ lower proficiency in the language
(Pecorari, 2003). Owing to the lack of practice, teachers themselves may not be familiar with
systems available to deal with plagiarism.
A big milestone towards ethical use of sources is to be able to identify what constitutes
plagiarism, as the main cause behind plagiarism is students not understanding citation rules and
produce proper citations (Wilholt, 1994; Landau, Druen, & Arcuri, 2002). For this purpose,
teachers may consult publishing manuals for various citation styles, like the APA style (APA,
2001) for subjects or projects related to humanities. Admittedly, these publishing manuals may
be too detailed for learners at primary or even secondary school levels. Nevertheless, they are the
authoritative sources to refer to in case any questions arise. For convenience and easy
comprehension, teachers may turn to the vast collection of online citation guides such as the
official websites of individual citation styles and webpages written by universities. These
websites provide a well-catalogued list of citation rules which teachers may adapt for their own
classroom use. While students in primary and secondary school may have limited access to
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academic journals, sources such as newspapers and webpages are very often freely accessible
and commonly used in their inquiry projects. The introduction to citation rules also offers a
precious opportunity to acquaint students with the wide variety of sources they can use for their
own information search.
Once students have grasped a basic idea of the methods of basic citations, teachers can assign
inquiry-based tasks to students, either individual or group tasks, for them to practice and improve
their citation techniques by learning to paraphrase, quote and cite sources. Through practice
students can gain experience in doing citations and advance their information literacy skills (Chu
et al., 2010; Siu, Chan, Law & Chu, 2014). In the process, citation machines and plagiarism
checking software are tools that may guide students in combatting plagiarism. A citation
machine generates citations in the chosen citation style. At the beginning stage of learning how
to cite, one often makes mistakes in the citation format required. Using a citation machine helps
avoid plagiarism one may not be aware of, and at the same time see examples of how sources are
properly acknowledged (Siu et al., 2014). Teachers may first familiarize themselves with the
operation of the software, then demonstrate how to use it in students’ inquiry tasks. Apart from
the citation format, other common types of plagiarism include inability to paraphrase and even
direct copying of sources (Siu et al., 2014). Citation checking websites thus serve as gatekeepers
to check whether students have committed plagiarism. There are many websites that perform this
function free of charge, and have a capacity sufficiently large for checking primary and
secondary level work. By requiring students to submit their drafts for checking, teachers can
monitor students’ progress based on the evaluation report generated by the website, and decide
how much more guidance students require to complete the task. With a large database and
computed program, these websites check plagiarism more efficiently than manual evaluation,
allowing teachers more time to give feedback and advice. Students also benefit from using
citation checking websites. As the report denotes any act of intended or unintended plagiarism,
they gain first-hand experience of correcting improper citations by revising their drafts before
submission of the final version (Siu et al., 2014).
6.3.3.2 Information technology literacy and media literacy: digital storytelling
Digital storytelling incorporates multimedia elements such as images, audio- and video-files in
the art of telling stories. This exercise aims to present information on a specific topic, usually
revolving around a selected theme and often narrated from a particular viewpoint (Robin, 2006).
Digital stories produced for educational purposes can be categorized into three large groups,
namely personal narratives of one’s life events (Kajder, 2004), historical documentaries that
examine past events (Klaebe, Foth, Burgess, & Bilandzic, 2007), and informative or instructive
stories about concepts or practices (Andrews, Hull, & Donahue, 2009).
Both teachers and students may experience gains from the application of digital storytelling. It
acts as an alternative instructional tool to PowerPoint presentations (Dogan & Robin, 2008). So
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teachers may make good use of the multimedia nature of digital stories to capture students’
attention, stimulate their interest in the topic (Burmark, 2004), and as an entry point to bridge the
transition from existing knowledge to the creation of new ideas (Kajder & Swenson, 2004). With
the help of digital storytelling, teachers may also help students envision and decipher the
meaning of abstract texts (Kajder & Swenson, 2004). This technique may have a similar effect
on teachers – teachers have used digital storytelling not only in the classroom but also in cross-
curriculum sharing with fellow teachers (Dogan & Robin, 2008).
Other than being an instructional tool, digital stories may be used by students. In fact, digital
stories are more frequently created by students than teachers, for example in making video
yearbooks, field trip reports and inquiry project presentations for various subjects (Dogan &
Robin, 2008). Students are motivated to participate in the making of digital stories, as they enjoy
less academic and more creative forms of coursework (Dogan & Robin, 2008; Sadik, 2008).
Digital storytelling can therefore be incorporated into the curriculum as a part of inquiry based
group projects, giving students ample opportunities to practice various 21st century skills.
Students enhance their information literacy through performing a search for information, images
and audio clips, become more competent in information technology skills after using software to
edit photos or other multimedia components, as well as strengthen their media literacy as they
put together the final product. The projects also provide meaningful opportunities for students to
collaborate, and to think critically and creatively (Sadik, 2008).
Just like other forms of inquiry based learning, students require and benefit from teachers’
assistance throughout the project. As digital storytelling involves the use of more information
technology applications, the need for technical support is especially vital. Teachers may
recommend different kinds of software for photo editing, sound editing and video editing etc.,
and demonstrate to students how to use these applications. Guidance in sketching the storyboard
and writing the script may also be necessary, since a good digital story includes not only
interesting ideas but also a thorough plan that considers all text, graphic and sound components
(Chung, 2006).
6.3.3.3 Collaboration: social media
Scholars generally agree that social media functions as tools to connect with people through on-
site communication in order to foster and maintain relationships, and establish communities of
similar interest at ease (Trautschold, Mazo, & Karch, 2011; Boyd & Ellison, 2008; Mayfield,
2008). At present, there are numerous forms of social media enthusiastically accepted by the
public. To name but one example, Facebook is a composite site for text and multimedia sharing.
There are of course other multimedia sharing platforms such as Flickr, Instagram and Youtube,
as well as information oriented social media like PBWorks and wikis.
It has been argued that the potential of social media in education has not been fully exploited
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(Chen & Bryer, 2012) as it is primarily used for personal communication (Coyle & Vaughn,
2008). There are five characteristics that distinguish social media from other forms of media,
and make it suitable for both formal and informal learning. They are: user generated content,
prosumer, co-creation, sharing, and community. These affordances of social media make the
media a user-friendly platform for teachers to collaborate. In fact, teachers have already been
making use of wikis for resource sharing. Wikis created for this purpose occupy the highest
percentage (40%) among educational wikis in the U.S. (Reich, Murnane, & Willet, 2012). These
wikis are unfortunately very often inactive ones with few and infrequent updates. To ensure the
quality of wiki, one method is to promote its function as an online community for teacher
professional development, co-created by fellow teachers. Wiki is acknowledged for its advantage
over didactic forms of teacher instruction as it enables teachers to address the complexities of an
actual classroom situation and to take ownership of their pedagogical ideas. If its capacity is fully
utilized, it facilitates peer exchange of ideas as well as the sharing of experience and challenges
(Foley & Chang, 2008).
The ultimate goal of teacher development is to equip teachers with the necessary knowledge and
skills that can enhance student learning. Wiki is equally, if not more, applicable in student
collaborative projects. Students hold a positive attitude towards wiki-assisted collaboration and
their motivation to participate in group work is often seen to be boosted. Those who are more
capable offer explanations to their less capable groupmates, and the help-seekers play an active
role in interpreting the explanations received (Woo, Chu, Ho, & Li, 2011; Lui, Lau, & Chu,
2014). In addition to attitudinal benefits, wiki has been proven to effectively facilitate group
work by breaking down geographical and temporal barriers during collaboration. Students can
contribute to the wiki contents regardless of time and venue (Woo, Chu, Ho, & Li, 2011).
6.4 Conclusion
In order to successfully implement 21st century skills pedagogies, teachers are adviced to first
acquire the various components of 21st century skills so as to be able to freely deploy the most
appropriate pedagogies in teaching and learning. We have identified in this chapter the 21st
century skill components that teachers are relatively weak in, namely information literacy,
information technology literacy, media literacy and digital collaboration skills. Before mastering
these skills, it may be immature to expect teachers to guide students through 21st century skills
learning activities as many of these activities call for a wide range of skill components. Selected
tools that may be useful in supporting 21st century pedagogies need to be introduced, each
targeting one or more skill components. Citation guides and citation machines are effective in
promoting ethical use of sources, and this is one important element of information literacy.
Digital storytelling provides teachers and students with valuable chances to practice information
technology skills and improve media literacy. The effect of social media in facilitating
collaboration is also shown to be widely recognized. Finally, strategies that help teachers acquire
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21st century skills are discussed. Teachers may consider participating in collaborative inquiry to
gain first-hand experience of this pedagogy, partner with universities to benefit from the
expertise of university academics and engage in teacher communities for peer support.
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