Overcoming barriers to teaching 21C skills: the Bridge21 approach

The global twenty-first century (21C) skills agenda has become a common feature in the educational policy of many countries. However, teachers can face operational, definitional and systemic barriers to the integration of 21C skills in practice. The operational barriers include insufficient teacher capacity, which in turn is influenced by insufficient teaching materials and ultimately teacher beliefs. This paper explores how we can address these issues, at secondary school level, through the promotion of the use of a pedagogical model designed to support the teaching of 21C skills and an associated approach to teacher professional development (PD). Using a comparative methodology two research questions are addressed.RQ1. Do teachers who participated in the PD report more positive beliefs and greater agency in relation to teaching 21C skills, than their peers who did not partake in the PD?RQ2. Are teachers who participated in the PD more likely to implement approaches that support the development of 21C skills, than their peers who did not partake in the PD?Statistically significant, positive differences, with small and medium effect sizes, were found in responses (N = 510) to questionnaire sub-scales pertinent to the research questions. Implications of the findings on future reforms are considered.