This webinar is part of the Teaching and Learning 21st Century Skills online learning series.
The objective of this learning series is to support a 'breadth of skills' holistic approach to teaching and learning through the integration of 21st Century skills in education systems in the sub-Saharan Africa region through:
- increasing participants knowledge of key concepts related to teaching and assessing 21st Century skills,
- fostering exchange between country participants in order to build collaborative capacity in the integration of 21st Century skills in education systems, and
- showcasing and learning from the Teaching and Learning: Educator’s Network for Transformation (TALENT) and Brookings Institution Optimizing Assessment for All initiative that countries can apply within their systems.
Session #2. 21st Century skills: Pedagogical practices, assessment and curriculum, Time 10:00 am - 11:30 am UTC
This webinar session will highlight the importance of alignment across pedagogy, assessment, and curriculum in order to embed 21st Century skills in students' educational experiences. The session draws on implementation responses from countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with complementary experiences from France Education International.
Intended learning objectives
At the end of this session, participants will understand how a change in learning goals to include 21st Century skills requires a review of pedagogy, assessment and curriculum.
Webinar Agenda
Foreword: Davide Ruscelli, Coordinator of the Teaching and Learning: Educator’s Network for Transformation (TALENT).
Welcome and introduction: Yao Ydo, Director UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE)
What is required for the adoption and integration of 21st Century skills, Esther Care
Esther Care discusses an approach to definition and description of sets of skills that are teachable and learnable within the formal education context. The generic approach provides the backdrop to the following country presentations on assessment and pedagogical issues associated with 21st Century skills.
Reflections with the audience
Learnings from the TALENT community
I Assessment in the context of Kenya's core competencies, Winrose Rono
Winrose Rono, of the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, describes the complementarity of competency-based assessment and the adoption of a 21st Century skills perspective. The example from Kenya demonstrates how assessment must be adapted to 21st Century skills learning goals.
II How to approach the teaching of problem solving and collaboration in Zambia, Beatrice Mbewe
Beatrice Mbewe, a teacher from Zambia, outlines the country's competencies framework and shows how this influences the pedagogical approach which contextualises its curriculum.
Reflections with the audience
Integration of life skills into pedagogical practices, Stéphanie Ermini
Stéphanie Ermini shares France Education International’s experiences from Burundi, Egypt, Haiti and Morocco.
Concluding remarks, Davide Ruscelli
About the speakers
Yao Ydo was appointed as the interim Director of UNESCO International Bureau of in August 2020. Prior to joining the IBE, Mr. Ydo worked with UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office in Abuja where he served as the Regional Director, representing the organization at the regional, national and international levels. Mr. Ydo began his career at the Headquarters of UNESCO, Paris, in the Basic Education and Literacy Section in 1997 as an Associate Expert. His extensive hands-on experience in education includes a variety of education posts at UNESCO Field Offices in Mali, Cameroon, Congo (DRC), and Senegal. Mr. Ydo holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics and Didactics from the University of Grenoble, France, a postgraduate Diploma in Diplomacy and Strategic Studies from the Centre of Diplomatic and Strategic Studies in Paris, and a Master's degree in English from the University of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Esther Care, a former senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, Washington DC, leads global projects which explore the integration of 21st Century skills into nations’ education policy and practice, with a particular focus on assessment of these skills. A Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne in Australia, Professor Care publishes widely in peer reviewed international journals in psychometrics, educational psychology, assessment, and education reform. She is most recently engaging in Asia and Africa at national levels in assessment of curricular proficiencies and the development of 21st Century skills assessment, and at global level in surveying student opportunities to acquire a 'breadth of skills' being provided by countries' education systems.
Winrose Rono is the Vice-Chairperson of the Technical Committee on Curriculum Reforms at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development. As an Assistant Director in the Department of Primary Education, she coordinates the development of curricular and curriculum support materials. She has participated in the development of an integration Matrix for Global Citizenship Education and Optimizing Assessment for All (OAA) project. Winrose has a Bachelor’s degree in Education Arts and a Master’s degree in Curriculum Studies both from Moi University, Kenya. Currently she is undertaking a Phd programme in Curriculum studies at The Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Kenya. Before joining the Institute, she taught Geography and Religious Education in a high school. Winrose is passionate about Global Citizenship Education as well as assessment of the 21st Century skills.
Beatrice Mbewe is a teacher at the Vera Chiluba Primary School, Ministry of General Education. She is a holder of a Bachelor of Arts in Education (BA Ed.-Primary) from the University of Zambia. In addition to being a class teacher, she works as a school In-Service Coordinator whose role is to facilitate the implementation of Continuous Professional Development programs that keep teachers abreast with information on a broad range of dynamic Pedagogical and Assessment skills in line with the curriculum and the standards of education to improve learner performance through the acquisition of a variety of skills. Therefore, Beatrice works in collaboration with the Curriculum Development Center and other schools in order to achieve this goal. Finally, Beatrice is an Examiner and Item setter with the Examination Council of Zambia.
Stéphanie Ermini has been is in charge of international education programmes at France Education International (FEI), within the Education Cooperation Department since 2014. In 2017, she developed and piloted several projects, focusing specifically on the integration of life skills (or 21st Century skills), in education systems, in response to calls for tenders from UNICEF (Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Djibouti). Since 2019, she has been project manager of a framework contract with UNICEF promoting, within FEI and with numerous partners, the exchange of experiences and good practices in order to offer ministries of education the most relevant technical support possible for rethinking their educational policies, curricula, and pedagogical practices.
Davide Ruscelli is a Junior Professional Officer/Associate Expert in Education at UNESCO Dakar. He is currently ensuring the interim of the “teaching and learning” cluster of the UNESCO multi-sectoral Dakar Office and he coordinates the TALENT Secretariat, a task team of the Regional Coordination Group (RCG4) of SDG4. In this function, he is in charge of the implementation of the “Strengthening Learning Assessment Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa through TALENT” project funded by the Global Partnership for Education and he has managed on UNESCO’s side the “Optimizing Assessment for All – Africa initiative”, an action research project in collaboration with the Brookings Institution focused on the integration of 21st Century skills in the teaching and learning process. Prior to joining UNESCO, Davide worked in UNICEF Malawi focusing mainly on education systems strengthening at national and decentralized levels.
Recommended resources
All participant resources are also available here
Pre-session
- UNESCO. 2019. Educational content up close: examining the learning dimensions of Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education. Paris: UNESCO.
- UNESCO. 2020. Capturing 21st Century skills: Analysis of assessments in selected sub-Saharan African countries. Dakar: UNESCO Office Dakar.
- Video: An example of field testing assessments in Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC_coglab_sub]
Post-session
- Care, E.; Kim, H.; Sahin, A. G. 2020. Optimizing Assessment for All: Developing 21st Century skills-embedded curriculum tasks. Washington DC: The Brookings Institution.
- Kim, H.; Care, E. 2020. Optimizing Assessment for All: Classroom-based assessments of 21st Century skills in the Democratic Republic of Congo, The Gambia, and Zambia. Washington D.C.: The Brookings Institution.
- Care, E. (2020). Optimizing Assessment for All: Assessment as a stimulus for scaling 21st Century skills in education systems. Washington D.C.: The Brookings Institution.