21st Century Skills in Finnish School System

Arto K. Ahonen
Finnish Institute for Educational Research
University of Jyvskyl, Finland
arto.k.ahonen@jyu.fi
Introduction
In todays digital world, students must adapt to emerging technologies and new social
environments that change the way we communicate and work. Learning to collaborate
effectively and connect digitally on local and global scales is essential for everyone in a
knowledge-based economy. Although reading, writing and mathematics are essential,
todays school curricula should also include critical thinking and problem-solving,
communication, collaboration, creativity and innovation. In recent years the role of these so
called 21st century skills has received much attention at various levels of the Finnish
educational system.
During last years, the role of 21st century skills at teaching and learning has received strong
attention at the diverse levels of Finnish educational system. Recent national expert panel
indicated, that Finnish school leaders and politicians agree that we need to apply 21st century
skills more apparently in our schools (Salo, Kankaanranta, Vhhyypp&Viik-Kajander,
2011). There seems to be a common understanding that the development of our school system
necessitates the better embedding of 21st century learning as well as the design of new
assessment tools and methods in order to provide citizens better capabilities to act in the
knowledge society (Krokfors et.al 2010; Vhhyypp&Mikama, 2010; Norrena,
Kankaanranta & Ahonen, 2012). Like always, school is also a subject of public debate. It is
argued that we are in the crossroads where we have to decide whether we are going to let the
school separate itself from the other sectors of life and society or whether we wish to keep it
up with the development in society at large (e.g. Pohjola, 2011;Vlijrvi, 2012). Moreover,
recent evaluation research on the implementation of Finnish school curricula has shown that
even though 21st century skills are well recognized and referred to in curricula, the role of
these skills in everyday school practices remains rather ambiguous and tend to be overlooked
in regular teaching and learning activities (Kartovaara, 2009;Siekkinen&Saastamoinen,
2010).
The national recognition of 21st century skills has also brought along a need for - and interest
in the development of - tools and methods for teaching and assessing such skills. Finland has
recently participated in two international studies related to 21st century skills. A study called
Innovative Teaching and Learning (ITL) investigates the factors that support successful
pedagogical change and its emerging outcomes within and across various country contexts,

and uses the results to inform both policy and practice. This research applies both global and
local lenses to study innovative teaching and learning. Finland also participates in another
international project, named Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S),
taking into account the future needs for teaching and learning. While todays international
and national standards primarily measure core subject performance (in mathematics, science
and reading), ATC21S is designing new assessment prototypes to help education systems
include the 21st-century skills that are essential to performing better in those core subjects.

The 21st Century Skills Frameworks

The issue of skills needed for the 21st century has been a subject of educational policymaking
and research for over a decade; the skill sets have been defined in various educational
initiatives in the USA, Australia, the European Union, and the OECD. These definitions have
much in common and all include elements of collaboration, communication, ICT literacy, and
social/cultural skills, along with skills such as civic participation, creativity, critical thinking,
and problem solving (see also Voogt&ParejaRoblin, 2010).
The European Union identifies eight areas of key competences for lifelong learning, and the
scope of each is precisely defined (Gordon et al., 2009). As part of the international research
project ATC21S (Assessment & Teaching of 21st Century Skills), a large group of researchers
defined 21st century skills as ways of thinking, ways of working, tools for working, and living
in the world (Binkley et al., 2012). In the United States, the Partnership for 21st Century
Skills, a joint governmentcorporate organization, has devised its own definition of 21st
century skills. According to their website, the skills are: life and career, communication,
collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and information, media and technology skills
(P21Skills). The OECD has formulated its own version of 21st century skills and competences
through the Definition and Selection of Competences (DeSeCo) initiative, which also
underpins PISA (the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment) (Ananiadou&
Claro, 2009). Overall, economic and societal changes closely related to recent developments
in technology and consequently in the characteristics of jobs and the home environment,
seem to be regarded as the most important drivers of demand for 21st century skills
(Voogt&ParejaRoblin, 2010). Table 1 presents a comparison of ATC21s and OECD
frameworks alongside their adaptation in the Finnish National Curriculum from 2004 (OPS,
2004). The skills are presented in the curriculum as cross-curricular themes C, or as working
methods W.

As can be seen on the table 1 the elements of 21st century skills have been rather well
covered already in the valid Finnish National curriculum from year 2004. This national
curriculum covers the nine years of compulsory basic education. In the valid national
curriculum (2004, 19) the working methods describe the learning activities closely related
with the skills described in existing 21st century skills frameworks. Also the descriptions of

cross-curricular themes relate closely to the 21st century skill frameworks especially in the
areas of life skills and citizenship.
Table 1. Comparison of 21st century skills frameworks
Assessment and
Teaching for 21st
Century Skills

OECD
DeSeCo

Finnish National Core

Finnish Draft National
Curriculum 2004
Core Curriculum 2016
Cross-curricular themes,
Skills for the Future
C and working methods, W

Ways of Thinking
Creativity and
innovation

Information as a
product:

Human growth (C)

Creative and innovative

thinking and learning

Critical thinking,
problem solving,
decision making

Restructuring and
modelling of
information and
developing of own
ideas (knowledge)

Skills for thinking,

learning and problem
solving (W)

Problem solving,
argumentation,
reasoning and
conclusion

Effective
communication:

Work skills (W)

Communication and
interaction

Learning to learn, meta

cognition
Ways of working
Communication
Collaboration
(teamwork)

Collaboration and
virtual interaction

Social skills (W)

Active participation (W)

Cultural know-how
Work skills and learning
skills

Tools for working

Information literacy
ICT literacy

Multiliteracy (e.g.
reading, writing,
mathematical, visual,
media and digital
literacy)

Information as a
source:

Media skills and

communication (W)

Searching, evaluating,
and organizing
information

Human technology(W)

Ethics and social

impact dimension of
communication:

Cultural identity and

global awareness (C)

Self-care, everyday
management and safety

Participatory citizenship
and entrepreneurship (C)

Participation,
involvement and
responsibility

ICT literacy (W)

ICT literacy

Living in the world

Global and local
citizenship
Life and career
Cultural awareness and
social responsibility

Social responsibility
Social impact

Responsibility for the

environment, well-being,
and a sustainable future
(C)
Safety and traffic (C)

There is an on-going reform of the National core Curriculum in Finland. The draft version of
the core curriculum for the year 2016 is taking a big step towards even better involvement of
21st century skills, as most of the skills listed in the above-described frameworks are to be
covered in the new core curriculum. For example, the skill of multiliteracy covers many
different types of literacies; reading, writing, mathematical literacy, visual literacy, media
literacy and digital literacy (OPS 2016, 2013).

How are the 21st century skills adopted in the pedagogical practices?
How, then, can these plans be better adopted also in the school culture and pedagogical
practices? Although the themes are regarded as central at curricular level, putting them into
practice is not always so simple. The study by Kartovaara (2009) indicated that school leaders
in Finnish comprehensive schools do not consider these themes to be well established in their
teaching; also they find teaching of them difficult. Moreover, the study found that there are
great differences between schools in the degree to which they adopt 21st century skills in their
teaching and learning programmes. A recent study conducted by the Finnish National Board
of Education found students knowledge of cross-curricular themes to be good but that their
attitudes toward them needed improvement (Lipponen, 2012). Teachers think that crosscurricular themes do not have a clear enough roles in the school curriculum and are therefore
often absent from their teaching (Niemi, 2012).
So far the problem has been that teachers in Finland and elsewhere have but few tools and
models available for this purpose. International student assessment such as PISA 2015 is
transferring into a computer based format, which allows the assessment of more complex
skills, such as collaborative problem solving. This may have an impact also on teaching and
learning at school.Although the twenty-first century skills - often labelled as soft or
generic skills have been widely recognized in curriculum standards, the main emphasis in
standards and assessment is still on hard skills in language and mathematics as well as
hard factual knowledge (Scardamalia, 2012, 250). The consensus among researchers in the
learning sciences is that these two are not in conflict. We cannot interpret that the problem
solving or social skills are practiced separate from the substance knowledge (c.f. Mugatroyd,
2010). Thinking skills and working skills are actually learned the best together in their natural
context (e.g. Rotherham & Willingham, 2009; Silva, 2009).

ITL-study in Finland
The international ITL Research (Innovative Teaching and Learning) was conducted in
Finland during years 20102012. ITL Research focuses on teaching practices that have been
shown to have strong relationships with 21st century learning outcomes, with a model that
draws extensively from leading global research and frameworks (e.g., Law et al., 2010;
P21skills, Binkley et al., 2012). Innovative teaching in this research refers to three
categories of practices:

Student-centered pedagogies that promote personalized and powerful learning for

students;
Extending learning beyond the classroom in ways most relevant to knowledgebuilding and problem-solving in todays world; and
ICT integration into pedagogy in ways that support learning goals.
It is important to note that ICT use is not a goal in itself, but a tool to broaden and deepen
learning opportunities (Shear, Gallagher & Patel 2011).The case study of the ITL research in
Finland consisted of 24 lessons of classroom observations in six schools, 29 teacher
interviews and survey responses form 292 teachers and 18 rectors (Norrena et al., 2011). The
results show that the most common practices towards innovative teaching are student
centered pedagogies and teachers use of ICT. Still the students use of ICT and extending
learning beyond the classroom was occurring very rarely. Also the amount and quality of the
ICT usage in classrooms varied a lot even between the classes and study groups in the same
school (Norrena et al., 2011; Kankaanranta & Norrena, 2010).
The study concludes that the form of tasks teachers use in their instructions affect strongly on
the variety of methods the students adopt in their learning (Shear et al.,2010). If the
instruction demands problem solving, collaboration or active citizenship, it will encourage
students to use these skills. But if these skill are lacking in the instruction, they will be absent
also in the learning activities. The learning tasks and instruction involves a roof effect: the
learners will not do any more than they are asked for (Shear et al.2010; Kankaanranta &
Norrena, 2010).
Also, the learning of 21st century skills does not appeal if the teacher is not expecting it. The
teachers are in central role in enhancing the learning of 21st century skills.Critical thinking,
creativity, and even information literacy are not skills specific or unique to this century; they
have been important human skills for thousands of years (Rotherham & Willingham, 2009).
What is actually new is the extent to which changes in the global and national economy mean
that collective and individual success depends on having such 21st century skills (Rotherham
& Willingham, 2009). As yet, we know much less about how to teach collaboration,
creativity, and innovation than about how to teach mathematics or languages, for instance.
Along with a complete instructional programme, successful inculcation of 21st century skills
in schools requires new assessments that can accurately measure richer learning and the
accomplishment of more complex tasks (Rotherham & Willingham, 2009; Gordon et al.,
2009; Pepper, 2011).

ATC21S in Finland
The national interest in the enhancement of 21st century learning has also brought forth the
need and interest towards developing tools and methods for teaching and assessing such
skills. This led Finland to join in year 2010 as one of the founder countries in the Assessment
and Teaching of 21st Century Skills, ATC21S project. Finnish participation was finely

justified by Finlands Minister of Education and Science as follows (Ministry of Education,

2009):
From the Finnish perspective, the project offers an opportunity to develop teaching
methods and learning environments and to enhance pupils' creativity, social skills,
innovativeness and problem solving skills.
As yet, we know much less about how to teach collaboration, creativity, and innovation than
about how to teach mathematics or languages, for instance. Along with a complete
instructional programme, successful inculcation of 21st century skills in schools requires new
assessments that can accurately measure richer learning and the accomplishment of more
complex tasks (Rotherham & Willingham, 2009; Gordon et al., 2009; Pepper, 2011).The
Finlands participation in the ATC21S project has been a step towards better understanding of
the assessment of more complex skills.While todays international and national standards
primarily measure core subject performance (in mathematics, science and reading), ATC21S
is designing new assessment prototypes to help education systems include the 21st-century
skills that are essential to performing better in those core subjects.An interesting and ongoing
challenge is getting the technical solutions meet the pedagogical goals in the everyday
practices of schools.
In the ATC21S project, collaborative problem solving has been conceptualized as consisting
of five broad strands 1. perspective taking; 2. participation; 3. social regulation; 4. task
regulation; and5. knowledge building (Griffin et al., 2012).Between 20102013 ten Finnish
basic education schools participated in the research and development; CPS tasks were piloted
in four phases, namely concept checking, cognitive laboratories, classroom pilots and a trial.
All tasks were translated into Finnish and localized to suit the national purposes. The
development and localization of the tasks required intensive collaborative work with the
students and teachers in the participating schools. Along with collection of student data, a
study for participating teachers was conducted. The research was designed to answer
following questions.
1. Whatarethestudents abilities in theareasofcollaborativeproblemsolving?
2. How does the assessment and reporting from the ATC21S study describe this
knowledge?
3. How can the assessment information from ATC21S study be used in teaching and
learning?
In Finland a thousand 1115-year-old students from ten comprehensive schools partcipated in
the ATC21S studies. The participating students completed assesment tasks through a web
browser using schoolcomputers. The analyses of the log file data from task completions are
based on automated scoring, based on the Rasch model. As the name implies, collaborative
problem solving refers to cognitive processes executed in a socialsetting. Each skill can be
scaled based on the actions taken collected as process data, and online chat/discussions that
take place during performance of th etask. The scoring itself takes into consideration student

actions as they move through the tasks exploration of the task environment by selecting or
clicking on options or artefacts, in such a way that the student thinking process is
demonstrated, and skill level is explicit.The results of analysis of student performance across
the social and cognitive components of collaborative problem solving demonstrate that the
construct can be interpreted at two and five dimensional levels. The analysis is still in
progress.

Discussion about teaching and learning of21st century skills

Finnish teachers are highly educated professionals. When the changing society sets demands
for changes in school pedagogy it has to be remembered that also teacher training needs to be
adjusted to meet the challenges.The traditional role of a teacher as a lecturer is still
important part, but there are many other roles (such as guidance and collaboration with other
professionals) that become more important part of the teachers profession (Krokfors et al.,
2010). For example the adoption of new pedagogical innovations has been unsuccessful
mostly because of too little attention has been paid on the teachers own learning processes
(Lieberman & Pointer Mace, 2008). Guiding this process is the task of teacher education,
including both in- and pre-service teachers.
As also noticed in the ITL study (Norrena, 2013) there is a great variation between the
schools and especially between individual teachers ability and possibilities to enhance 21st
century skills in their teaching. Collaboration and school leadership are also key factors,
when schools also feel strong societal pressure to change. It is also needed to appreciate
schools role at the local community. Still, it is the teachers and their abilities that are in the
key position in enhancing the students 21st century skills. Finnish students have received
very good results in the PISA as well as latest PIRLS and TIMMS studies, and one reason
behind the success have stated being related with the highly qualified teachers (Sahlberg,
2012). It is also good to remember that Finland has not always been on the top of the
international comparisons. During two decades on 1970s and 1980 Finnish students
achievement were rated below the global average and the step above the average was taken
only as late as mid 1990s (Sahlberg, 2011). Still, the Finnish teacher training has been
university based and the latestschool reform was conducted in the mid 1970s. Even though
the technical development in the society is rapid, the school changes slowly. It is not realistic
to believe that the fundamental change in learning and instruction, that the adoption of 21st
century skills demands, could happen quickly.
Recent research have shown that the extended amount of computers and advent of new
technology have not changed the pedagogy in the classrooms (Kankaanranta&Puhakka 2008;
Law, Pelgrum&Plomp, 2010). Therefore by only adding more technology in schools there is
no guarantee that we will reach the hoped societal changes (Becta, 2005). The most important
is not the quantity of skills and knowledge the students achieve but what they are actually
able to do with them (Silva, 2009).Even though the national and school curriculum set the
guidelines for the learning goals and objectives, teachers still have a full freedom to choose

the learning methods and instruction adopted. The assessment is mainly formative based on
constant evaluation regarding individual students development on different subjects. Mainly
it is up to individual teachers free choice whether they include elements of innovative
teaching and learning in their instruction.
Even though Finnish students attained good results in recent international comparisons on
literacy and numeracy based on TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science
Study) and PIRLS (Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study), their attitudes and
motivation toward learning were among the weakest of the 50 participating countries
(Kupari, Sulkunen, Vettenranta&Nissinen, 2012). The researchers argued that there is a need
for change in our school pedagogy and that students intrinsic motivation for learning should
have a central role in planning any teaching and learning activities, both in and outside the
classroom (Kupari et al., 2012). If schools are able to provide more meaningful learning, the
21st century skills can rise to a central position.