Future skills – and inequalities? 21st Century Skills in low and middle-income countries

Organiser: Padmini Iyer, University of OxfordDiscussant: Elizabeth Erling, The Open UniversityPapers:  1: ‘Problem solving and critical thinking skills: assessing performance among 15 year olds in India and... [ view full abstract ]

Organiser: Padmini Iyer, University of Oxford

Discussant: Elizabeth Erling, The Open University

Papers: 

1: ‘Problem solving and critical thinking skills: assessing performance among 15 year olds in India and Vietnam’: Padmini Iyer & Caine Rolleston 

2: ‘Critical thinking in African higher education: what role for pedagogy?’: Caine Rolleston & Christopher Yaw Kwaah 

3: ‘Functional English skills in Ethiopia, India and Vietnam: a cross-country comparison of English ability and use among 15 year olds’: Rhiannon Moore, Gayatri Vaidya & Bridget Azubuike 

4: ‘Longitudinal evidence for the digital divide in Peru’: Santiago Cueto, Juan León & Claudia Felipe 

Overview of the symposium:

Across the diverse contexts discussed in this symposium, there is considerable policy interest in the ‘next phase’ of quality education, particularly in relation to how education can support the development of capabilities that equip young people for rapidly changing, increasingly globalised labour markets. 21^st Century skills, also known as ‘transferable skills’, are seen as important and necessary outcomes of secondary and higher education; many argue that capabilities such as ‘higher order’ cognitive skills, technical skills, and social and emotional skills are required to ensure that young people can build sustainable futures (World Bank 2014; OECD 2015). It has also been claimed that 21^st Century skills are a ‘crucial ingredient for disadvantaged youth to get and keep jobs’ (Moore & Novy-Marx 2016). However, in low and middle-income contexts, it is important to consider which 21^st Century skills are truly relevant and ‘transferable’ for young people’s future livelihoods. 

This symposium explores multiple dimensions of 21^st Century skills, including higher order cognitive skills, languages of wider communication and digital skills. Overall, the symposium considers the methodological challenges of assessing 21^st Century skills in low and middle-income contexts at different levels of education and beyond formal education contexts, and explores whether the current policy emphasis on transferable skills has anything to contribute to the sustainable development agenda, or if it will prove to be another area in which the most disadvantaged are left behind. Drawing on unique evidence from the 2016-17 Young Lives School Surveys, The first paper reports findings on problem solving and critical thinking skills among secondary school students in India and Vietnam, and consider the implications of variation found within and between countries. Referring to findings from the same school surveys, the second paper explores how functional English can be conceptualised and assessed in Ethiopia, India and Vietnam, including a recognition of the multiple ways young people in these diverse contexts may need to use English now and in future. Based on the ESRC and DFID-funded Pedagogies for Critical Thinking study, the third paper presents findings from Kenya, Ghana and Botswana which compare critical thinking skills across faculties and institutions, according to students’ demographic and educational backgrounds, and their orientations to learning as measured by an assessment of learning motivations and strategies. Finally, drawing on the 2016-17 Young Lives Household Survey, the fourth paper compares digital skill levels as well as access to and use of technology between two cohorts of young people in Peru, aged 15 and 22 years old respectively.