Browsing by Author "Lampinen, Katja"

Aims. The aim of this Masters' Thesis was to study 21st century skills through teachers' perceptions. 21st century skills are described fairly similarly in futures research, home economics sciences, educational sciences and the Finnish national core curriculum for basic education. Knowledge and skills, actions and will, as well as attitudes and values all fit in to 21st century skills. In this study I am going to answer three questions: (1) What is teachers' futures awareness like? (2) What are the target schools' teachers' perceptions of the skills needed in the 21st century? (3) How can teachers promote 21st century skills in the school? Methods. I implemented the study with a qualitative research strategy and a phenomenographic research approach. I interviewed ten (10) teachers of the same united school of basic education (grades 1–9) using focused interview (1 group interview and 8 separate interviews). I recorded and transcribed the interviews (79 pp., Times New Roman, font size 12). I analyzed the interviews with theory-driven content analysis using ten skill categories as a structure for the analysis. I formed over all 560 reductions of expressions and 98 subcategories. Results and conclusions. There were differences in the futures awareness of the teachers and not all of the teachers thought of the future very long-sightedly. Good self-knowledge and everyday life skills, finding relevant information and critical thinking, collaboration and communication skills and learning to learn, described the teachers' perceptions of the 21st century skills. They promoted these skills by using group work systematically, being present and facing the pupils as well as setting boundaries and giving responsibility to pupils. Promoting 21st century skills requires a community-based operational culture, visibility of teachers' values in their work and teachers' progressive attitude towards their work.