The perceptions of pre service efl teachers of the 21st century skills training and their application in teaching practicum

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER THE PERCEPTIONS OF PRE-SERVICE EFL TE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

THE PERCEPTIONS OF PRE-SERVICE EFL TEACHERS

OF THE 21ST CENTURY SKILLS TRAINING AND THEIR

APPLICATION IN TEACHING PRACTICUM

Supervisor : Nguyen Thi Thinh (M.A) Student : Do Thi Minh Tra

HA NOI - 2020

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

NHẬN THỨC CỦA SINH VIÊN SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH VỀ VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY KĨ NĂNG THẾ KỈ 21

VÀ ỨNG DỤNG CỦA CHÚNG VÀO KÌ THỰC TẬP

Giáo viên hướng dẫn : Nguyễn Thị Thịnh, M.A

Sinh viên : Đỗ Thị Minh Trà

HÀ NỘI - 2020

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor,

Ms Thinh Nguyen (M.A), for her precise guidance and invaluable encouragement during the development of my graduation thesis I am sincerely thankful for all her valuable suggestions despite her hectic schedule, which substantially contributed to the improvements of this paper

Secondly, I would like to send my special thanks to all of the participants in this research Without their valuable time and support in data collection procedure, I could never have completed this graduation paper on schedule

Last but not least, my grateful thanks should be sent to my classmates, my friends and my family for their great support, unwavering encouragement and patience during the time I conducted this research Their continuing presence and assistance is such a great motivation and inspiration for me to complete this graduation paper with my greatest effort

to conduct her research on pre-service EFL teachers’ perceptions of the 21st century skills training and their application in the practicum

This paper adopted mixed methods approach and researched pre-service EFL teachers in final year at a university in Hanoi, Vietnam The objectives of this study are to 1) investigate how the teacher education program equips pre-service EFL teachers with the 21st century skills; 2) examine to pre-service EFL teachers perceptions of the training of the 21st century skills in the program, and 3) explore how pre-service EFL-teachers apply these innovative skills in their practicum The researcher utilized questionnaires and interviews as the main research instruments

to survey 104 pre-service EFL teachers and further interviewed 5 out of these participants to explore that they mostly had acceptable understanding of the 21stcentury skills and were generally active in applying these skills in their practicum despite different struggles Based on the findings drawn from this study, some implications and suggestions were proposed with the hope to optimize the 21stcentury skills development process among EFL pre-service teachers

TABLE OF CONTENT

ABSTRACT 1

TABLE OF CONTENT 3

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, ABBREVIATIONS 5

ABBREVIATION 7

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background of the study and statement of research problem 1

1.2 Aim and objectives: 2

1.3 Scope of the study 3

1.4 Significance of the study 3

1.5 Organization of the study 4

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Key concepts 5

2.1.1 EFL pre-service teacher 5

2.1.2 EFL teacher education program 6

2.1.3 Practicum 8

2.2 Theoretical framework 9

2.2.1 The 21st century skills framework (6Cs Framework) 9

2.2.2 Framework for teachers’ 21st century skills development 12

2.3 Research gap 13

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 15

3.1 Research design 15

3.1.1 Research approach 15

3.1.2 Research sites: 16

3.1.3 Participants: 18

3.2 Research instrument 19

3.2.1 Questionnaire 19

3.2.2 Interview 21

3.3 Data collection procedure 22

3.4 Data analysis procedure 25

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 26

4.1 Research question 1: How does the teacher education program at FELTE equip pre-service EFL teachers with the 21st century skills? 26

4.1.1 The integration of the 21st century skills in seven subject groups

(according to Shulman’s classification) 29

4.1.2 Discussion on the integration of the 21st century skills in seven majored subject groups (according to Shulman’s classification) 34

4.2 Research question 2: To what extent do the pre-service EFL teachers perceive the training of 21st century skills in the program? 35

4.2.1 The background knowledge of pre-service EFL teachers of the 21st century skills: 36

4.2.2 Pre-service EFL teachers perceive the training of 21st century skills in the program 37

4.3 Research question 3: To what extent do pre-service EFL teachers apply the acquired 21st century skills in their practicum? 43

4.3.1.Interviewees’ background and perceptions of the 21st century skills 43

4.3.2.Interviewees’ integration of the 21st century skills in their practicum 45

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION 58

5.1 The summary of major research findings 58

5.2 Implications 61

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further research 62

REFERENCE LIST 64

APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE 69

APPENDIX 2:INTERVIEW PROTOCOL 75

APPENDIX 3: SUMMARY OF COURSE OBJECTIVES AND COURSE DESCRIPTION 77

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, ABBREVIATIONS Tables

Table 3.1 Interviewees’ background 24

Table 3.2 Interview details 25

Table 4.1 The classification of major subjects 28

Table 4.2 Inductive coding 28

Table 4.3 In vivo coding 28

Table 4.4 The integration of 21st century skills in “Knowledge of education” and “General pedagogical knowledge” groups 29

Table 4.5 The integration of 21st century skills in “Knowledge of educational contexts” group 30

Table 4.6 The integration of 21st century skills in “Knowledge of learners” group 31

Table 4.7 The integration of 21st century skills in “Curriculum knowledge” group 32

Table 4.8 The integration of 21st century skills in “Subject matter or content knowledge” group 33

Table 4.9 The integration of 21st century skills in “Pedagogical content knowledge” group 34

Table 4.10 Background knowledge on the 21st century skills 36

Table 4.11 Supporting system 37

Table 4.13 Creativity 40

Table 4.14 Collaboration 41

Table 4.15 Communication 41

Table 4.16 Citizenship 42

Table 4.17 Character Development 42

Figures

Figure 1: Teacher’s professional knowledge base categories (Adapt from

Shulman, 1987, p.8) 6

Figure 2: Table of major subjects in an EFL teacher education program 7

Figure 3: Most cited 21st century skills framework (Arenti, 2018) 10

Figure 4 The 21st century skills four Cs framework 11

Figure 5: Teachers’ 21st century skills development process 12

Figure 6: The review of questionnaire purposes 20

Figure 7: Data collection procedure 22

Figure 8: Pre-service EFL teacher’s results in background knowledge of the 21st century skills 36

Figure 9: Major subjects groups 38

Figure 10: The summary of research question 3 59

ABBREVIATION

EFL : English as a Foreign Language

GCSE : General Certificate of Secondary Education

TESOL : Teaching/Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages

TEFL : Teaching/Teachers of English as a Foreign Language

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study and statement of research problem

“The more complex the world becomes, the more creative we need to be to meet its challenges”

Ken Robinson (2017)

Accelerating globalization and a rocketing rate of technological developments act as a spur to a variety of fundamental changes in our civilization, especially better schooling facilities and broader learning environment Although these revolutions have offered us a myriad of opportunities for human advancement, they have also posed abundant unprecedented challenges for our education to prepare our students for their future jobs that have not even been created and the problems that have not ever been anticipated (Carruthers, H., 2018) Therefore, in order to help students navigate through such uncertainties, it is of great necessity to equip them with essential skills of this century, commonly known in short as 4Cs (Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration and Communication) (Saavedra & Opfer, 2012a; Ross, 2017) This demand requires teachers to have a thorough preparation, specifically a widely-held perception of these skills and their application in teaching, which is still

a huge challenge with teachers, especially pre-service teachers (Tican and Deniz, 2018) Because pre-service teachers are mostly unfamiliar with professional teaching techniques, every so often do they encounter confusion and embarrassment when approaching innovative teaching skills, especially during their practicum Through reviewing studies relating to the 21st century skills development of TESOL pre-service teachers, the researcher explored that this confusion was not isolated It was a shared problem when encountering the radical change among EFL pre-service teachers (Kniep, 1989; Sarason, 1982, 1996; Trubowltz, 2001; Guskey, 2002) These findings highlight the urgent need to support EFL pre-service teachers’ preparation for the application of 21st century teaching skills in their initial period of their professional career

It has been widely recognized that in order to effectively facilitate innovative teaching skills in classes, teachers at first need to familiarize themselves with these

techniques (Voogt, Erstad, Dede and Mishra, 2013; Valli, Perkkilä and Valli, 2014; Valtonen et al., 2017) In further research, teacher education programmes are regarded vital for this preparation period of pre-service teachers (Bedir, 2019) as their aim is to consolidate teachers’ perception of the 21st

century skills through empowering the development of myriad educational techniques, enabling pre-service teachers to devise flexible and creative strategies in various teaching scenarios they will encounter in their classrooms in the future The training period, according to Levine (2006) is the most important stage of having qualified teachers Although there exists a considerable body of literature on teachers’ 21st

century skills development (Valli, Valli and Perkilla, 2014; Borja II, 2018), most of these studies adopted a case study approach, which requires more similar studies in different contexts to acquire further profound and general understanding of the research issue Additionally, in Vietnam, there have been very few studies investigating teachers’

21st century skills development and their application in real context Moreover, most

of these studies focused mainly on the utilization of Information Communication Technology, which is only one element of innovative teaching skills There have been no existing studies addressing other facets of the 21st century teaching skills development, namely influential factors on teachers’ knowledge and application of these teaching skills, challenges encountered by pre-service teachers when facilitating creative teaching methods

Stimulated by the above-mentioned recognition as well as personal research

interest, the researcher decided to conduct the graduation thesis named “The

perceptions of EFL pre-service teachers of the 21st century skills training and their application in teaching practicum” with a view to exploring pre-service EFL

teachers’ perceptions of innovative skills training and their application of these skills

in teaching scenarios

1.2 Aim and objectives:

This study is to illuminate the aforementioned uncharted research area by examining how current teacher education programs affect pre-service teachers’ perception of evolving teaching techniques and their utilization of creative teaching strategies in diverse teaching practicum scenarios

To be more specific, this research addressed following questions:

1 How does the teacher education program at FELTE equip pre-service EFL teachers with the 21st century skills?

2.To what extent do the pre-service EFL teachers perceive the training of 21stcentury skills in the program?

3.To what extent do pre-service EFL teachers apply the acquired 21st century skills in their practicum?

1.3 Scope of the study

This study analyzes the implementation of the 21st century skills in major subjects in English teacher education program This decision is made because of the close relation between these subjects and real teaching scenarios

This research was carried out in one academic semester (from January to April, 2020)

This study was limited to 179 EFL pre-service teachers in their fourth academic year in a faculty of English Language Teacher Education, in a university in Hanoi

The geographical location covered in the study includes a university, three private English centers and two high schools The first center is for students below 15 years old, the second center is for students from kindergarten to high school and the last one teaches communicative English for adults All of these places were located

in Hanoi

1.4 Significance of the study

This thesis documents useful contributions to teachers’ professional development, specifically to sharpen their innovative teaching skills for the new era

of fundamental changes The findings from this research aim to assist pre-service teachers in gaining more thorough understanding about the necessary 21st century teaching skills and hence, are able to apply these skills into diverse teaching scenarios they may encounter in the future Additionally, this study is to provide teacher educators, policy makers with realistic insights for adapting teacher education programs Therefore, they can support pre-service teachers more effectively in their professional development that better fits the new educational context of this century

Last but not least, with the findings from this study, the researcher hopes to establish the foundation for other further research in this same field, especially in the context

of Vietnam education

1.5 Organization of the study

This thesis is organized into five main parts: Introduction, Literature review, Research methodology, Findings and discussion, and Conclusions The general

content of each part is as below:

Chapter I (Introduction) provides an overview of the research problems, state

the research questions, the scope of the study and the significances of the study

Chapter II (Literature review) offers the definition of key concepts and summarizes what have been researched on the four concepts, namely EFL pre-service teachers; EFL teacher education program; the 21st century skills and practicum

Chapter III (Research methodology) explains the methods this paper adopted

to reach the conclusion

Chapter IV (Findings and discussion) presents the results and discussion of the study

Chapter V (Conclusion) concludes what was discovered in this study and answers the research questions It also gives implications for teachers, teacher educators and researchers for further study Moreover, limitations of the research are discussed

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter aims to explicate key concepts relating to research topic and review relevant theory and literature that have been studied before to provide readers with general view of the research matter These include definitions of EFL pre-service teacher; EFL teacher education program; practicum; the 21st century skills and theoretical frameworks

2.1 Key concepts

2.1.1 EFL pre-service teacher

While Zacharis (2019) defines pre-service teachers are “students trained from higher education institutions to become professional teachers” Therefore, an EFL pre-service teacher can be understood as the one who participates in English teacher education programs in order to achieve a professional teacher degree In this thesis, EFL pre-service teachers are in their final academic year and are doing their teaching practicum in different educational institutions

In their first professional teaching period, EFL pre-service teachers mostly encounter myriad struggles, namely managing class time, giving clear instructions, evaluating learners, and giving attentive focus to learners (Numrich, 1996), let alone applying innovative teaching techniques into their classes The awkwardness when implementing learned professional skills into real challenging teaching scenarios, every so often causes pre-service teachers stressed and discouraged In some worse cases, many decide to quit their career, as reported as much as 17% of new EFL teachers giving up their profession in their first five years (The U.S Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics, April 2015)

In order to support student-teachers in better preparing for their performance

in professional contexts, especially in this era of radical change, it is of great importance to equip pre-service teachers with updated innovative teaching skills in teacher education programs and provide them with diverse opportunities in practicum

to gain teaching experience and put theories into practice ( Richards & Crookes, 1998)

2.1.2 EFL teacher education program

Teacher training programs are special educational programs that are meant to teach undergraduates the teaching profession (Presada and Badea, 2019) Therefore, EFL teacher education program can be understood as a training program for students who want to pursue teaching career This program, in the context of Vietnam, normally lasts three or four years and is taught by recognized educational institutions like universities or colleges

Though this training program may vary among different educational institutions, it still aims at providing student teachers with subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and curricular knowledge, besides other general knowledge such as knowledge of education, educational context, and knowledge of learners (Shulman, 1987)

Figure 1: Teacher’s professional knowledge base categories (Adopted from Shulman,

1987, p.8)

In this thesis, the researcher investigated the integration of the 21st century skills in major subjects of a teacher training program in a university in Hanoi This program includes 136 credits of both background knowledge and specialized

knowledge The major subjects in this program account for 50 credits The researcher adopted Shulman’s categories to classify these subjects into two big groups for analysis, which are “General dimensions of teacher knowledge” and “Content specific dimension of teacher knowledge” While in the former group, learners were trained general pedagogical knowledge, such as educational context, general pedagogical strategies and knowledge of learners, in the latter group, students further explored knowledge relating to curriculum, syllabus in a subject, the blending of pedagogy and subject content, to be more specific, how to teach a particular topic appropriately These 50 credits of major subjects are displayed as below:

Subjects

Pedagogy

An introduction to English Teaching Methodology Technology in Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages English Language Teaching Techniques and Practices

Teaching English for Special Purposes

Syllabus design Language Assessment Lesson Planning and Material Adaptation InterCultural Communication English Linguistic 1 English Linguistic 2 English Linguistic 3 Fundamental Geography British-American Countries Studies Literature of English Speaking Countries

Language and Media Administration of Education and Training

Figure 2.1: Majored subjects in an EFL teacher education program

These above-mentioned subjects are taught in teacher education programs with the integration of the 21st century skills in formative assignments so that student teachers can gradually develop and sharpen these skills However, as these innovative skills are not clearly stated, but to be implied through tasks and assignments, it is challenging to measure pre-service teachers’ perception of these skills Therefore, in this paper, the researcher investigated how student teachers perceive the 21st century skills equipped during their training program and how they applied these skills into their practicum

2.1.3 Practicum

Graham and Thornley (2000) defined practicum as a training structure that provides pre-service teachers with theoretical knowledge and hand-on experience on the school premises Cohen, Hoz and Kaplan (2012) viewed practicum in a form of field experience, student teaching, or mentoring programs In this period, pre-service teachers act relatively independently under the guidance of a mentor or supervisors from a university or college of education Teaching practicum, therefore, can be understood as a multidimensional activity which involves pre-service teachers, university supervisors, cooperating teachers, administrators, and students Practicum can take place in diverse educational environments although public schools are common options In this thesis, the practicum happens in both private educational institutions and public schools During the teaching practicum, student teachers will gain substantial benefits from lesson observations and the constructive feedbacks from the cooperating teacher, university supervisors, and their peer teachers (Gan, 2014) Besides, pre-service teachers are given opportunities to creatively and flexibly apply their learned professional teaching techniques into real teaching contexts

However, practicum is not plainly an easy journey with student teachers They also encounter a myriad of challenges, namely the stress about the way they are assessed, extra workload of writing lesson plans, time limits about completing the task, and inadequate/late feedback (Allen, 2011) These struggles may cause poor teaching practice performance and negative evaluation by the cooperating teachers (Le, 2014)

Therefore, in order to support pre-service EFL teachers for their more effective performance, it is necessary to study their practice of innovative teaching skills in real teaching situations during their practicum and their difficulties when implementing the aforementioned skills so that educators and policy makers can offer practical support for student teachers

2.2 Theoretical framework

2.2.1 The 21st century skills framework (6Cs Framework)

Massive growth in economy, technology and industries has created profound effect on education The problem is although our society has changed a lot, our education has not Hierck (2014) stated that our 21st century kids were being taught

by 20th century adults, using 19th century curriculum and techniques on an 18th century calendar It challenges educators and policy-makers to be more innovative and critical to synchronously prepare our next generation with necessary skills and knowledge that serves the demand of our current society

Many frameworks of necessary skills for this century have been researched and proposed to guide and support educational institutions and teachers in better educating students Some of the most cited frameworks are compiled below:

Digital age literacy (basic, scientific, economic, technological, visual, information, multicultural literacy, global awareness), inventive thinking (adaptability, managing complexity, self- direction, curiosity, creativity, risk taking, higher-order thinking and sound reasoning), effective communication (teaming and collaboration, interpersonal skills, personal, social and civic responsibility, interactive communication), high productivity (prioritizing, planning and managing for results, effective use of real world tools, ability to produce relevant high quality products)

OECD (DeSeCo) (2005)

Using tools interactively (language, symbols, texts, knowledge, information, technology), interacting in heterogeneous groups (relate well to others, co-operate, work in teams, manage and resolve conflicts), acting autonomously (act within the big picture, form and conduct life plans and personal projects, defend and assert rights, interests, limits and needs)

European Parliament and Council (2006)

Communication in the mother tongue, communication in foreign languages, mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology, digital competence, learning to learn, social and civic competences, sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, cultural awareness and expression

Learning and motivation skills: creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, Information, Media and Technology Skills: information, media, communication and technology literacy

Life and Career skills: flexibility, adaptability, initiative and self-direction, social and cross-cultural skills, productivity and accountability, leadership and responsibility

ATC21S (2012)

Ways of thinking (creativity and innovation, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, metacognition), tools for working (information literacy, ICT literacy), ways of working (communication, collaboration) and ways of living in the world (local and global citizenship, life and career, personal and social responsibility, cultural awareness)

UNESCO (LMTF, 2013)

Physical well-being (physical health and hygiene, food and nutrition, physical activity, sexual health), social and emotional skills (social and community values, civic values, mental health and well-being), culture and the arts (creative arts, cultural knowledge, self and community identity), literacy and communication (oral fluency and comprehension, reading fluency and comprehension, receptive and expressive vocabulary, written expression and composition), learning approaches and cognition (persistence and attention, cooperation, autonomy, knowledge, comprehension, application, critical thinking), numeracy and mathematics (number concepts and operations, geometry and patterns, mathematics application), science and technology (scientific inquiry, life science, physical science, earth science, awareness and use of digital technology)

Figure 3: Most cited 21st century skills framework (Arenti, 2018)

There have been many frameworks as displayed above However, considering the research purposes and target population, the framework introduced by P21, which comprises two main skill groups: “learning and motivation skills” and “life and career skills”, is the most suitable because of it is not only condense enough to fit in the scope of this research but also broad enough to cover the most cited skills in other popular frameworks Among skills mentioned in this framework, there are four most important and desirable ones, better known as The Four Cs Framework This framework focuses on four dominant skills, namely collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and communication that we are in dire need (AMA/P21 2010 Critical Skills Survey) The description of each skill is illustrated as below:

Figure 4 The 21st century skills four Cs framework (P21)

However, in this era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, students need more than the basic aforementioned 4Cs to succeed in their future jobs Besides communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity, students need to possess emotional intelligence, determination, great desire to learn, to name but a few Therefore, Fullan (2014) extended the previous framework of 4Cs into 6Cs by adding another 2Cs standing for citizenship and character development

By mentioning character development as one element of the proposed framework, Fullan (2014) refers to a set of personal qualities that one need to be personally effective in the future complex world These characteristics, according to

the author, include “grit, tenacity, perseverance, resilience, reliability, and honesty”

Besides, citizenship in the 6Cs framework illustrates the mindset of a global citizen, which means learners have deep understanding of global issues and have ability to engage with others to solve complex problems emerging

After researching these frameworks and the way they had been developed, the researcher decided to adopt and implement the 6Cs framework into designing questionnaire and interview questions for this paper

2.2.2 Framework for teachers’ 21 st century skills development

Although the 21st century skills have received special attention and been discussed in various education platforms, P21 and OECD, to name but a few, most studies on fostering these skills through professional development are for in-service teachers Very few publications focus on over one or two elements of 21st-century skills in pre-service teachers (Pamuk, 2011; Hagevik, Aydeniz, & Rowell, 2012; Jones & Jones, 2013; Dong, Chai, Sang, Koh, & Tsai, 2015) There has also been a scarcity of existed studies addressing how pre-service teachers should perceive these skills and the process of facilitating this skill-set in different teaching contexts Therefore, it is of necessity to figure out one model to clearly guide pre-service teachers’ perceptions of skills they need to develop both from coursework and field experiences, then apply these skills in their future teaching One of very few models

as such is proposed by Michaels, Roshandel, Truesdell, and Urbani (2015), composing of three stages as illustrated below:

Figure 5: Teachers’ 21st century skills development process

▪ Personal development stage: pre-service teachers are able to understand and apply the 21st century skills, specifically creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration and information media & technology skills in multiple contexts, not limited to educational settings

▪ Applied development stage: pre-service teachers continue to develop individual capacity while facilitating the skill development during supervised teaching and practicum

▪ Fieldwork professional development: as in-service teachers, they continue to develop and sharpen these skills with students, colleagues, parents, and administrators

The researcher is to base on and adapt this model to design questionnaire, research interview and analyze collected data to examine pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the 21st century skills training and their application in their practicum

2.3 Research gap

Despite the recognized advantages of the integration of the 21st century skills into real teaching contexts, there still exists nagging doubt about its efficiency and feasibility because of the failure to measure its impact on learners (Nayamkhuu & Morohashi, 2019) Also, since the GCSE curriculum has not changed much in decades, students are still assessed through the abilities of rote learning, memorizing

or writing within a time limit (Huddleson, 2018) This antiquated view of education casts a lingering doubt on the potential and practical meaning of these skills in education However, decisive firm actions are taken to better implement these skills

in education Organizations such as UNESCO and Brookings Institution on the regional initiative Optimizing Assessment for All (OAA) collaborated to support countries’ improvement of assessment, teaching, and learning of 21st century skills With these firm first steps, more countries will soon be supported to strengthen knowledge on the interface among curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment systems, which facilitates the acquisition of 21st century skills

Literature review showed that there existed various studies on the 21st century skills development and their application in different educational contexts, namely in

Turkey, Finland, America, and Singapore However, there had been a scarcity of research on this field in Asian countries, especially in Vietnam

Moreover, most of studies on this area focused on defining what the 21st skills are and how to measure these skills for learning Very few studies addressed perceptions of participants of these innovative skills training and their utilization in teaching scenarios

Last but not least, regarding research participants, the majority of current studies targeted at in-service teachers and K-12 students’ 21st century skills development, some of which were studies carried out by Jones & Jones, 2013; Dong, Chai, Sang, Koh, & Tsai, 2015; Yadav, Aman; Hong, Hai; Stephenson, Chris, 2016,

to name but a few Only few studies examined the development of these skills in service teachers, but as mentioned above, these publications adopted case study and have not yet approached pre-service teachers in the context of Vietnam

pre-Therefore, in order to fill this research gap in literature review, the objectives

of this study are to analyze the perceptions of pre-service teachers of the 21st century skills training and investigate whether they can apply these skills into their teaching practicum using the model of 21st century skill development for teacher education programs (Michaels, Roshandel, Truesdell, & Urbani, 2015)

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides readers with information about research methodology, which includes description of participants, research instrument, coupled with procedures of data collection and analysis

According to the statement of Johnson et al, mixed methods study is the combination of elements between qualitative and quantitative approaches, which is of great help to strengthen the research conclusions; hence, contributes to the research literature The initial stage to create a successful mixed methods research is to

“determine whether a mixed designed is appropriate” (Johnson, R B &

Christensen, L.) This research approach is stated to provide “integrated knowledge

that best informs theory and practice” (Johnson, R B & Christensen, L.,) This

characteristic; hence, greatly supports the research purpose Acknowledging the importance of innovative teaching techniques in this era of technology, within this paper, the researcher aims to examine how effectively the current education training program equips EFL pre-service teachers with the 21st century skills, both from theoretical and practical perspectives This purpose requires not only qualitative but also quantitative data to be achieved Firstly, the research questions in this paper aim

to explore the perceptions of EFL pre-service teachers of the 21st century skills training Therefore, it is necessary to adopt the questionnaire as research method The quantitative data collected from this research method facilitate the description of participants’ perceptions and the wide audience approach to enhance the external degree of validity and ensure the representation level of the sampling Moreover, this

research method can surmount the problem of limited time and access to participants due to the Covid-19 epidemic during the research time with online survey Secondly, this paper aims to explore how the training program equips pre-service teachers with the 21st century skills and to analyze to what extent pre-service teachers apply these skills into their practicum Therefore, it is important to collect qualitative data from investigating the course guides of the major subjects in the curriculum and interviewing student-teachers about their application of these skills in teaching scenarios These aforementioned reasons are justifiable to apply mixed methods approach in this paper

It is also worth selecting a mixed research design and mixed sampling design (Johnson, R B & Christensen, L.) This paper was qualitative-driven and exploratory sequential design was adopted According to Creswell and Plano Clark (2011), in this research design, the first stage of qualitative data collection and analysis is followed by the collection of quantitative component to examine or generalize the initial qualitative results This design practice aligns with the research purpose, which is examining how effectively the current teacher training program equips EFL pre-service teachers with the 21st century skills by investigating the qualitative data from course guides of majored subjects in the training program then analyzing the quantitative data from the questionnaire to test pre-service teachers’ evaluation of the initial qualitative results In this paper, the researcher decided to develop the research design by conducting interview on how pre-service teachers apply learned 21st century skills into their practicum The interview was conducted after the questionnaire

3.1.2 Research sites

This research was conducted at six research sites: University A, three educational institutions teaching English for students below 15 years old (Centre B), English for students from kindergarten to high school (Centre C); communicative English for adults (Centre D) and two high school (School E and school F)

University A was founded in the mid-twentieth century and since then, it has developed itself into a prestigious research-oriented university It offers undergraduate and graduate in pedagogy, linguistic studies in different languages,

coupled with English and international studies Students graduating from this university are generally competent language users as they are selected basing on their competence of language before receiving admission and are systematically trained in the duration of four years Each year, this university educates several pre-service EFL teachers, a large number of whom have limited teaching experience, let alone applying innovative skills in teaching Therefore, it is of utmost importance to investigate how pre-service teachers in this university perceive the 21st century skills and to what extent the university has been equipping its students with these skills so that practical solutions can be proposed to improve the current training program

Founded in 1996, centre B is among the most prestigious English language centre for students ranging from 5 to 15 years old in Hanoi With the purpose of creating a friendly, funny, yet practical learning environment for its students, this centre recruits foreign English teachers with TESOL/TEFL certificates and Vietnamese teachers with pedagogy degrees In a wider scale, centre C is an English centre with 100% native teachers Its educational credo is “learner-centered approach” This centre provides English course for students from kindergarten to high school students, besides IELTS training course and communicative English course Centre D, on the other hand, provides communicative English course for adults only This centre strives to create friendly and social learning environment through the learning model Class-Club-Tour and by recruiting both foreign and Vietnamese teachers with TESOL/TEFL certificates All aforementioned centers allow several pre-service teachers from university A to carry out their practicum there with the guidance and support of a supervisor These three education institutions were chosen because three pre-service teachers joining this study in interview part taught there in their practicum

School E (founded in 1960), school F (founded in 2002) and school G (founded in 1955) are among top high schools in Hanoi with recognized performance

in training their students to not only achieve high academic results but also develop exemplary behaviors Every year, these three schools welcome pre-service teachers from university A to carry out their practicum there with the supervision of a professional teacher The performance of pre-service teachers is evaluated and

improved by their supervisor at school These three high schools were selected because four out of five pre-service teachers participating in this research in interview part taught there during their practicum

3.1.3 Participants

3.1.3.1 Sampling methods

In order to generalize the findings to the population, it is of great importance

to investigate representative samples Therefore, the researcher decided to use both stratified sampling method and purposive sampling

The researcher adopted a calculation service named Creative Service System

to determine the sample size According to the report from the faculty administrator, the population in this research is 334 With the expected confidence level being 95% and confidence interval being ±5%, it was calculated that the sample size of this research should be 179 students to generalize the whole population accurately

Because of the diverse characteristics of the population, such as its training program or the professional opportunities offered, it is necessary to select sample items that reflect these aforementioned characteristics appropriately Consequently, proportional stratified sampling is used to decide the number of each sample item In the total number of 334 senior pre-service teachers, there are 43 in the honored program (HP), 291 in the mainstream program (MP) With the proportions of training programs: 14.9% HP and 85.1% MP, the sample items should be 26 from HP, 153 from MP Within each sub-group, simple random sampling is adopted to select the participants to secure the most objective results as possible

To select participants for further interview, this study selected purposive sampling, which is a purposeful selection of participants considering their attributes (Etikan, Musa, & Alkassim, 2016) To be more specific, in this research, the attributes on which participants were selected were their sufficient knowledge of the researched topic - the 21st century skills Purposive sampling was adopted as it facilitated easy and cost-effective sampling within time constraint and resources of this research (Sharma, 2017)

3.1.3.2 Description of sampling participants

The participants in this paper are seniors majoring in Pedagogy in a faculty of English teacher education The researcher decided to choose seniors for her paper because pre-service teachers in this academic year have finished most of the major subjects relating to teaching techniques and they are offered the opportunities to apply these skills in their practicum Hence, the findings from this study will reflect the application of innovative teaching techniques into the practicum more accurately

Out of 179 participants, 5 participants who carried out their practicum in five different educational institutions and public schools with different target learners,

were purposively sampled This choice was made because of The Learning by Doing

Project (LBD) (2018-2020), which facilitated the diverse practicum environment; for

examples, English centers, tutoring or educational organizations, apart from high schools

The research subject of this paper is the perception of pre-service teachers of the 21st century skills training and their application into the practicum

The population size of this thesis as well as the total number of seniors majoring in English education is 334 (according to the students list from the administration) Because they are from the same faculty and have the same career orientation, they share the same specialization in English teaching, which is the most substantial common characteristic

3.2 Research instrument

3.2.1 Questionnaire

3.2.1.1 Rationale for using questionnaire

According to Johnson, R B & Christensen, L, questionnaire is defined as “a self-report data collection instrument filled out by research participants” This instrument enables researcher to efficiently collect data on a large scale basis and it is also practical to gather information that is not normally available from production data, such as people’s belief, motivation or perceptions on a specific topic Because

of its unprecedented advantages in terms of research resources, namely time and finance, coupled with the large amount of information gathered within limited time, questionnaire has been widely used in the literature, namely Urbani, J., Roshadel, S., Michaels, R & Truesdell, E (2017); and Tican, C & Denis, S (2018) This research

is no exception Among three types of questionnaires, which are factual, behavioral, and attitudinal (Dornyei, 2003), this paper adopted attitudinal questionnaire with a view to analyzing pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the 21st century skills The

data collected from this instrument is to answer the second research question: “To

skills in the program?”

In “writing the questions” stage, it is of necessity to consider the number of questions and the time required to complete the questionnaire because responding to

a questionnaire is a cognitive burden for the participants when they need to read questions, think intently and respond (Burgess, 2001; Fink, 2013) Therefore, a questionnaire with appropriate length assists in encouraging participants’ effective engagement in the questionnaire After estimating the length of the questionnaire, the researcher reviewed the alignment between the questionnaire and the research purposes, as illustrated as below This stage, according to Kaplan and Saccuzzo (2013), assists to identify whether the questionnaire collects the desired or not

Figure 6: The review of questionnaire purposes

In order to increase the validity, questions were drafted basing on P21 Framework definition (P21 Framework, 2009) These questions elicited the needed information determined during the alignment review stage The drafted questions then were formatted and organized before sending for the expert review The questionnaire was revised according to the supervisor’s comments and then was sent for a pilot study with a pre-service EFL teacher who possessed the desired conditions

of a research participant A pilot study is defined as “mini versions of a full-scale study (also called 'feasibility' studies), as well as the specific pre-testing of a

particular research instrument such as a questionnaire or interview schedule” (Social Research Update, University of Surrey, 2001) This type of study was necessary when conducting questionnaire as it allowed identifying whether there were any confusions or limitations in the research tool so that the researcher could adapt for better data collection In reality, after piloting the questionnaire, the researcher realized that there was an unclear question in the evaluation part which might cause confusion for the participants Specifically, in the initial questionnaire, question 14

and 15 were merged into one as follow “You find subjects in group B and group D

highly supportive in fostering your creativity” However, according to the pilot study,

it caused the participant’s confusion to decide because she only thought subjects in group B helped develop her creativity Therefore, the researcher divided this question into two questions with separate subject groups

The questionnaire used in this paper is attached in Appendix I of this thesis

3.2.2 Interview

3.2.2.1 Rationales for using interview

Considered as one of the most widely-used qualitative research methods, interview is a conversation to gather information describing the [life-world] of the interviewees (Klave, 1996) According to McNamara (1999), this type of research method is particularly helpful to explore stories behind each experience of participants and gather profound insights into one discussed topic For that reason, interview was held in this research to collect information for further investigation on pre-service teachers’ practice of the 21st century skills in teaching scenarios Among three main types of interview: structured, semi-structured and unstructured, the researcher adopted semi-structured interview because it enabled flexibility and depth

to be gained when offering opportunities “on the part of the interviewer to probe and expand the interviewee's responses” (Rubin & Rubin, 2005: 88)

3.2.2.2 Interview protocols design

When designing the interview protocol, the researcher consulted P21 Framework (2009) to construct questions that assisted in exploring participants’ perceptions of the 21st century skills and their applications in practicum The questions were drafted and reviewed with the purposes of the interview before sending to one expert in TESOL for consultation After revised basing on the

supervisor’s feedback, the interview protocol was piloted with one random service EFL teacher who possessed desired identities as a research participant before applying with the selected participants

pre-The interview protocol used in this thesis is attached in the Appendix II of this paper

3.3 Data collection procedure

The data collection procedure lasted for one month Multiple methods were applied to collect data for this research In order to collect data to answer the first

question,“How does the teacher education program at FELTE equip pre-service EFL

curriculum of teacher training program were collected and the course objectives as

well as course description were summarized To answer the second question, “To what

program”, questionnaire method was employed To obtain data for the third question,

their practicum”, interview was utilized The data collection procedure is as illustrated

as follow:

Figure 7: Data collection procedure

In the first stage, course objectives and course description of major subjects in the training programs were collected to set the foundation for questionnaire development and to answer research question one

Questionnaire

•Pilot study

•Online individual interview

Interview

In the second stage, after being piloted, the questionnaire was spread out to

179 participants to collect data of their perceptions on the 21st century skills training Due to the Covid-19 epidemic that caused the university and schools to close for long time, this questionnaire was converted into Google Document form then was spread and done online via social network, emails and messages Although this method could surmount the problem of inaccessibility of the participants, its response rate was relatively low comparing to on-paper surveys, at around 32.6% (according to Watt et al., 2002) or 47% (according to Dommeyer et al., 2004) In order to improve this problem, the researcher made use of multiple online channels to spread the survey, including sending private reminder messages to each participant with the view to increasing the response rate as high as possible However, only 104 valid responses were successfully collected, which was equivalent to 58% at the response rate

Further interview was conducted with five participants that demonstrated their thorough understanding about these innovative skills to further investigate their perceptions of these skills and how they integrated these skills into their practicum The interviews were conducted online and individually Before the interview, these participants were sent a letter explaining the purposes of the research, the data collection procedure and a consent form to consider and ask the researcher if they had questions When the participants agreed and the consent forms were signed, arrangement and negotiation of time for the interview was discussed

The participants were interviewed individually The interview was conducted to examine the participants’ perceptions of the 21st century skills and how they integrated these skills into their practicum This interview lasted for approximately 30 minutes The interviews were taped for further analysis with the participants’ consent

The interviewees’ background was as illustrated as below:

To protect participants’ identity, from now on, the researcher will address them by pseudo names as specified below

Pseudo

name Gender Scores

Place of internship

Target learners

Duration of practicum (up to the data collection time)

Table 3.1 Interviewees’ background

The five interviewees above were selected based on their result of the questionnaire examining their background knowledge of the 21st century skills Apart from the 4 female interviewees who gained the highest scores, the researcher selected one male interviewee whose result also demonstrated good understanding of these skills to analyze whether the difference in gender causes any distinctions in the application of the 21st century skills during their practicum The factor of diverse target students during participants’ practicum was also taken into consideration to further examine whether there were any different difficulties EFL pre-service teachers might encounter with different age groups when applying the 21st century skills in teaching scenarios At the data collection time, these interviewees were all seniors at their university and shared the same training course In addition, these interviewees conducted their practicum in diverse places and for different duration,

up to the data collection time

The table below described the details of the interview, including date and duration of each participant:

Name of interviewees Date of interview Duration

Table 3.2 Interview details

3.4 Data analysis procedure

The data analysis procedure included three stages

Firstly, data collected from the course guide of majored subjects in teacher training curriculum was summarized in table and then coded for the foundation of the questionnaire and further analysis

Next, data collected from the questionnaire was calculated using SPSS software The obtained data were processed according to descriptive statistics to investigate EFL pre-service teachers’ perceptions, specifically their comprehension

of the 21st century skills and how the current teacher education training equips themselves with these skills

Finally, the interview was recorded and then transcribed, analyzed and quoted

as research proof to further explore participants’ background knowledge of the 21st century skills, how they apply these skills in teaching scenarios and the difficulties they might encounter during teaching process However, the whole interview was in Vietnamese, only noteworthy responses were noted down, translated into English and coded for further analysis All the data collected cooperated to support the researcher

to achieve a comprehensive overview of the research issues and devise practical solutions

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

This chapter includes two sections, which are research results and discussion

In result section, both quantitative data from the questionnaire and qualitative data from the interview are presented In discussion section, data obtained are explained and analyzed in light of research questions

4.1 Research question 1: How does the teacher education program at FELTE

In order to answer research question 1, course objectives and course descriptions of major subjects in teacher education training program were collected and compiled In these two documents, students’ expected outcome and integrated skills that students were trained during the course were clearly described Therefore,

by analyzing the collected information, the researcher aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the integration of the 21st century skills in the teacher training program

As mentioned in the literature review chapter, the researcher adapted Shulman’s classification of teachers’ professional knowledge , which was

“Teacher’s professional knowledge base categories” (Adopted from Shulman, 1987, p.8), to divide the majored subjects included in the teacher training program into groups for analysis as below:

Pedagogy

Knowledge

of educational contexts

An understanding of the socio-cultural and institutional dynamics

communities and

Administration of Education and Training, Intercultural Communication,

Fundamental Geography, British-American Countries

Category Definition Subjects

cultures Studies, Literature of English

Speaking Countries, Language and Media, Technology in Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages General

pedagogical knowledge

Command over the main principles,

strategies needed for effective teaching and learning

Pedagogy

Knowledge

of learners

An understanding of learners’ cognitive, psychological and effective

characteristics, behaviors, interests and developmental stages

Psychology, An introduction

to English Teaching Methodology

A comprehension of the syllabus, topics, and instructional materials designed for and expected in the teaching of a particular subject

Syllabus design, Lesson Planning and Material Adaptation

Subject matter or content knowledge

Academic comprehension of both the content and the structure of a subject

Teaching English for Special

Assessment, English Linguistics 1, English Linguistics 2, English Linguistics 3

Category Definition Subjects

Pedagogical content knowledge

A combination of content and pedagogy that helps teachers makes a subject comprehensible to others

An introduction to English Teaching Methodology, English Language Teaching Techniques and Practices

Table 4.1 The classification of major subjects

In order to analyze the data compiled from the course guide, the researcher utilized two types of coding, which were suggested by Johnson and Christensen (Educational research, p.776) The first type of coding was inductive coding, which “are generated by a researcher by directly examining the data” The table below provides an example of this type of coding

Use lesson plans to

facilitate lessons appropriately

and flexibly, creating positive

learning environment to help

students achieve lesson targets

Communication and Creativity

Inductive code

Table 4.2 Inductive coding

The second type of coding was in vivo codes, which was defined as “the words of research participants” In this case, it referred to the exact words used in the course guide Below is the table providing an example of this type of coding

In terms of skills:

students develop logical and

critical thinking;

problem-solving skills in particular

teaching situations

Critical thinking skills

In vivo code

Table 4.3 In vivo coding

4.1.1 The integration of the 21 st century skills in seven subject groups (according to Shulman’s classification)

Before discussing the findings, the researcher begins by reporting which 21stcentury skills integrated in each subject group, according to Shulman’s classification

Knowledge of education (group 1) and General pedagogical knowledge (group 3)

Pedagogy is the only subject in these two groups According to the course guide, this subject provides opportunities for students to develop critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and character development, among which critical thinking is still the dominant skill because of the multiple learning activities that support the critical thinking development in this course Below are some extracts from the course guide that illustrate the integration of aforementioned skills:

Evaluate the roles of pedagogical

theory and educational theory in

teacher training

Analyze and distinguish objects,

goals, structures, motivation, logic

of pedagogy process and education

process

Communicate, make plans and

effectively collaborate and

teamwork with others

Express beliefs and love for

pedagogical careers; positive

attitude towards pedagogical

careers

Critical thinking

Critical thinking

Communication Collaboration Character development

Inductive code

Inductive code

In vivo code

Inductive code

“General pedagogical knowledge” groups

Knowledge of educational contexts (group 2)

This subject group includes seven subjects which are Administration of Education and Training, Intercultural Communication, Fundamental Geography,

British-American Countries Studies, Literature of English Speaking Countries, Language and Media, Technology in Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages This group is the only subject group that provides students with all six 21st century skills according to the 6Cs model Below are some representative extracts from the course guide that describe six 21st century skills integrated in this subject group

coding Administration

and Training

(…) students are offered opportunities to film a report in an educational institution to investigate their learned knowledge in reality

Creativity, critical thinking,

citizenship and collaboration

communication and the context of constant change and find ways to address them

Citizenship and communication

Collaboration

Character development

to certain literary works with their peers and instructors

Communication In vivo code

Language and

Media

Develop discipline in thinking and creating; be enthusiastic in discussion;

be thoughtful in analyzing media texts

Character development, creativity and critical thinking

Design learning resources

in language teaching and learning

Critical thinking

Creativity and collaboration

In vivo code

Inductive code

“Knowledge of educational contexts” group

Knowledge of learners (Group 4)

This subject group composes of two subjects which are Psychology, and An introduction to English Teaching Methodology According to the description from the course guide, four out of six 21stcentury skills are integrated in these two subjects, which are communication, critical thinking, creativity and character development Below is the table summarizing the integrated skills in these two subjects :

coding

Types of coding

communication with students

of different age groups

(…) desired personalities and skills of teachers are also analyzed through illustrative realistic examples

Communication

Character development and critical thinking

in their profession and working environment

Character development and creativity

Inductive code and in vivo code

Curriculum knowledge (group 5)

This subject group includes two subjects which are Syllabus design and Lesson Planning and Material Adaptation These two subjects integrate five out of six 21stcentury skills in teaching and learning activities, which are collaboration,