Integrating 21st-Century Skills into Irish Primary Schools: A Pilot Study on the Outcomes, Experiences and Observations of Teachers Prepared

Abstract

The implementation of 21st-century skills and competency-based learning in European and OECD countries' educational curricula indicates affirmative action across global educational systems to develop a wider breadth of skills beyond traditional literacy and numeracy skills. There is broad agreement and significant common interest across national and international competency frameworks concerning the importance of 21st-century skills. This consensus is underpinned by the need for education to equip learners with transferable knowledge and skills rather than relying upon well-worn procedures. From the Irish primary school context, there is an explicit focus on, and pathway to, the development of 21st-century skills beginning with Aistear: The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework and progressing to the development of the new draft Primary School Curriculum. This skills and competency pathway continues into post-primary school settings as students transition into the Junior and Senior Cycle stages of their education. With this explicit focus on competency and skills-based education, many schools seek to develop skills through innovative teaching methods or by employing specific skills-based interventions. This report presents a small-scale pilot study of the 'Magical Leaders' programme, a 21st-century skills intervention programme suitable for primary school students between 10 and 12 years of age. The mixed-methods study investigated teachers' attitudes and perspectives of the Magical Leaders programme, the 21st-century skills outcomes, the programme's resources and the core peer-to-peer teaching methodology. Using focus group discussions and adapted reliable and validated scales, the findings of this research have highlighted the positive development of students' 21st-century skills, teachers' and students' perspectives of engaging with the programme and the peer-to-peer teaching methodology. Several challenges to programme delivery were identified, including the programme's digital components, teacher training, lesson preparation time and adherence to programme fidelity.