| 21st Century Skills

LEARNABILITY

As a citizen of the 21st century,
you should know how to:

Try to learn efficiently and autonomously according to your goals, context and needs.
Reinvent yourself, experience and learn over and over again.
Pursue and persist in learning, be willing and committed to relearn and adapt. Be aware of what you need to manage your own learning process and needs.
Be curious, explore, investigate, research, think, reflect, analyze, continue to learn throughout your life (e.g., a new app, a new programming language)
Identifying learning opportunities and overcoming obstacles to keep you learning
Learning to do new, different things or doing the same thing, but in a different way
Having ethics during learning, building on previous knowledge and experiences to achieve new skills more efficiently each time
Learn from different contexts, culture, skills, background, etc.

Learning to use a computer, a cellphone, or social media is not enough. Having digital skills means developing:

Competence Area

Skills

Reading comprehension
Critical thinking, creative thinking (divergent thinking)
Ability to manage your learning activity and processes
Problem-solving
Cognitive self-regulation
Ability to concentrate for short and extended periods of time
Communication: ability to communicate using different forms (verbal, non-verbal, oral, foreign language)
and means (email, video chat, instant messaging, blogs, wikis, websites, social media, papers, presentations, or face-toface conversation)
Going beyond basic mastery skills
Expanding your learning opportunities

Motivation, confidence, positive attitude towards learning and improvement
Seeing your achievements as results of your efforts (internal attribution)
Self-concept, self-esteem, self-efficacy
Self-confidence, autonomy
Emotional self-regulation and anxiety control (ability to control your emotions)
Initiative to learn more and advance professionally

Ability to work in a team
Valuing interpersonal relationships, team work
Cooperation, solidarity, interpersonal skills
Controlling environmental conditions for better learning
Having cultural knowledge
Cooperative regulation and control
Collaborative learning to learn

Monitoring comprehension and task performance
Mastering, understanding, remembering, and summarizing information strategies
Monitoring and evaluation of efficacy of processes and strategies
Regulating cognitive processes: anticipating, planning, evaluation and transferring
Conocimiento de sí mismo, de la tarea y de las estrategias para abordarla
Planificación, organización y gestión del tiempo
Self-evaluation, self-control, self-regulation
Problem-solving
Ability to plan learning activities
Reflecting on your learning behaviour
Reflect critically on your skills, knowledge, goal and progress

Being responsible for learning
Commit yourself to learning
Having a work ethics/learning ethics (commitment)
Respecting ethical and deontological codes

Sources: The framework is based on a review of existing digital competency frameworks
(Griffin, McGaw, & Care, 2012; Hautamäki et al., 2002; López et al., 2020).

Learnability is essential
for lifelong learning:

It is never too late to learn.
At 70, Sumiko Iwamuro, became the oldest student ever
to learn DJ techniques and is now the longest-running DJ
in the world.

Watch video

SKILLS FOR LIFE SERIES

Aprender a Aprender

What do we mean when we talk about <learning how to learn>? Knowing how to regulate learning processes in order to make our efforts more effective is a key life skill. This document offers recommendations on how to learn to regulate learning processes other than learning how to learn.

Download it now!

Authors

Héctor Ruiz Martín
International Science Teaching Foundation

Lifelong learning

Why systems of learning need to adapt to a new normal of global life? Alarm bells have been ringing for the last decade about the future of work and the changing skills demands brought on by technology and automation. The rapid onset of COVID-19 has only accelerated the pace of change. This skills brief offers recommendations on how to properly enable lifelong learning systems.

Download it now!

Authors

Emilee Erwin
Vice President, Strategy and Public Affairs D2L
Joe Pickerill
Senior Strategy and Public Affairs Director D2L
Brendan Desetti
Director, Government and Stakeholder Relations D2L

SKILLS IN ACTION

Reconectar con nuestros cerebros

Estrategias para aprender major

Aprender a aprender

Developing learnability

How to learn anything

Learning How to Learn

Find out what the IDB Group has done in adaptability skills

Learn more

RESOURCES

European Council. (2006).
Recommendation of the European Parliamentand the Council of 18 December 2006 on key competencies for lifelonglearning. Brussels: Official Journal of the European Union, 394, 10–18.
Frenkel, S. (2014).
Metacognitive components in learning to learn approaches. International Journal of Psychology: A Biopsychosocial Approach, 14, 95-112.
Gargallo López, B., García-García, F. J., López-Francés, I., Jiménez Rodríguez, M. Á. y Moreno Navarro, S. (2020).
La competencia aprender a aprender: valoración de un modelo teórico | The learning to learn competence: An assessment of a theoretical model. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 78 (276), 187-211.
Griffin, P., McGaw, B., & Care, E. (2012).
Assessment and teaching of 21st century skills. Springer.
Hautamäki, J., Arinen, P., Niemivirta, M. J., Eronen, S., Hautamäki, A., Kupiainen, S., ... & Scheinin, P. (2002).
Assessing learning-to-learn: A framework.
Hoskins, B., & Fredriksson, U. (2008).
Learning to learn: What is it and can it be measured?. European Commission JRC.
Lai, E. R. (2011).
Metacognition: A literature review. Always learning: Pearson research report, 24.
Moreno, A., & Martín, E. (2014).
The Spanish approach to learning to learn. R. Deakin Crick, C. Stringher, & K. Ren (Eds.). Learning to learn, 196-213.

#SKILLS21

21st century skills help individuals of all ages to reinvent themselves throughout life, adapt to changing and diverse circumstances, and identify opportunities for growth amid differences.