About TEACH21st

Concepts such as in-depth learning, lifelong learning and competences for the 21st century have been abounding for a long time. Their topicality has been reinforced as a result of the rapid changes in society and the development of knowledge. In addition to subject-specific competences, emphasis is placed on the importance of, among other things, competences that deal with learning, exploring and creating, critical thinking, communicating and interacting. These are skills that are considered necessary to solve tasks and participate in a society characterized by increasing digitalisation. Although several studies point to the importance of these competencies, there is currently little research-based knowledge about how pupils' so-called competencies for the 21st century can be developed and mapped. TEACH21st seeks to contribute to closing this knowledge gap, and focuses on collaborative learning (collaborative problem solving) – an important skill within competencies for the 21st century. First, we will investigate how collaborative learning can be taught, and will therefore design learning materials and schemes in teacher design teams at three teacher training institutions. The subjects mathematics (with an emphasis on programming) and English have been chosen as teaching subjects. Through competence development, teachers will receive training in implementing the learning scheme in their classes.

In the next phase, the project will carry out a randomized controlled study where we will compare two intervention groups - those who are taught cooperative learning by teachers who have participated in the development of the cooperative learning material and implemented it in their classes, and classes where teachers have only implemented the learning scheme with a control group. The aim of this is to investigate whether the teaching of cooperative learning has an effect on the pupils' competencies (eg in the subjects and domains in which they are taught, and in other domains (transfer effects)). Important outcome variables are cooperative learning, dispositions for cooperative learning, digital and subject-specific competencies. This requires the use of several assessment methods, and builds on the project group's previous research on measuring and mapping 21st century competencies. The project is well underway with the development phase, and carried out first pilots of five different teaching schemes in the autumn of 2020 and partially in the spring of 2021. During the spring of 2021, a teaching scheme was selected, and this will be developed further. The TEACH21st project is about to enter phase 2 of the project, and preparations for the intervention study have just started. We continue to work on the development of the waggled teaching plan. This scheme is being tested and prepared for an escalation. At the same time, the various teacher design teams continue to work on their teaching plans, and scientific publications related to these. You can see more of this on this website.