Determinants of Building 21st Century Skills in Palestinian Elementary Schools

Abstract

To fully engage in modern society, learners need to acquire not only individual skills– such as critical thinking, innovation and self-direction, but also participatory competences– such as collaboration, local connections, global connections, technology utilization and communication. The present study measures the factors influencing the development of such skills in the elementary stage science students in Palestine. The population comprised the science teachers for third through ninth grades at West Bank schools, while the sample consisted of 560 teacher respondents who provided self-assessment of their role in developing the 21st skills in their students. A scale developed by Ravitz et al (2012) was used to test 48 practices across 8 major skill categories: Critical Thinking Skill, Collaboration Skills, Communication Skills, Innovation Skills, Self -Direction Skills, Global Connections Skills, Local Connections Skills and Technology Utilization. Our focus was on measuring results in relation to five teacher-related variables: sex, academic degree, years of experience, teacher major and active learning training. The findings suggest that these variables are crucial in skill-building.