Collaborative Learning and 21st-Century Skills

Twenty-first-century skills refer to cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal skills required in a knowledge society in which people constantly create and share novel knowledge with advanced technologies. People who live in the world of constant change need to develop such competencies as creativity, problem solving, metacognition, information literacy, citizenship, responsibility, communication, and collaboration. Among these 21st-century skills, collaboration is one of the most frequently stated skills in diverse frameworks of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and international organizations. For effective collaboration, group participants should be able to exchange their ideas clearly, respect different viewpoints, encourage everyone to participate in discussion, and manage projects efficiently. Instructors and instructional designers need to [Page 129]design and implement effective collaborative-learning activities for the development of this ...