EXPLORING PRE-SERVICE ENGLISH TEACHERS' READINESS FOR 21ST CENTURY SKILLS INTEGRATION IN THEIR CLASSROOMS

Abstract

The study examined pre-service English teachers' readiness for 21st century skills integration in their classrooms. Four research questions were formulated to guide the study.

The Descriptive survey research design was employed for the study. The study sampled 80 students from 300level and 400level studying English in the department of Educational Foundations. The study employed the Simple random sampling technique to select the 80 students. The computed sample size of 80 students was based on a sample population of 412 students in 300 level and 400 level Department of Educational Foundations under English programme. The research instrument was a questionnaire designed by the researcher. The instrument was validated by the researcher’s supervisor, necessary corrections were made on the oral questionnaire before it was administered to teachers that were selected for the study. Data was collected using a questionnaire. In administering the questionnaire, the face-to-face method was adopted to minimize the chances of errors in the process of responding to it. Data was analyzed item by item mean and standard deviation (SD) were calculated for each of the items to find out the variations.

The findings revealed that pre-service teachers’ perception towards 21st century learning skills are genuine and positive which can be integrated into classroom and 21st century learning skills are not gender bias or discrimination, both male and female can learn effectively with any of the sub learning skills if initiated into the classroom. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended amongst others: teachers, educators and English language teaching department to involve more in training programs to continuously improve on the 21st century learning skills integration into their courses and provide more opportunities for pre-service teachers to practice implementing those learning skills in classroom. Teacher education program needs to place emphasis on the development of 21st Century learning skills particularly to enhance pre-service teachers’ collaboration skills, communication skills, and creativity since these are significantly related to pre-service readiness towards practice teaching programme.