Literacy skills: the difference between now and then 

Martin Dobeš

The wider is the definition of literacy skills in a certain country, the higher is the probability this country will be more successful on global market, in all areas, from economy, science, education systems, social and cultural life and others.

Couple of years ago, the meaning of the term “literacy” often referred to the mere ability of reading and writing plus numeracy skills. Today, we all know this is not enough. A person living in a technology-rich environment like the one in all OECD countries is expected to have a much wider set of skills to be able to live and work in our society. Understanding and working with information through various digital tools and using it at all levels of Bloom's Taxonomy (remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating) is something we expect from young generation but also from all adults, regardless of age.

It is not so difficult to predict which country is going to be successful in the future when we look at the trends in PIACC and PISA surveys results. Literacy skills of adult and young population are undoubtedly a key factor for success. Poorer countries, especially in Africa and Asia, have managed to increase the level of basic literacy skills of their population up to unprecedented numbers through just one generation, only to find out the rest of the world has moved to completely different stages. Despite the success, the gap between the developed world and the rest of it remains. Not only that – this gap is bigger than ever before. The speed of technological advances and the impact it has on all aspects of our personal and working lives is so high that the definition of literacy skills (those necessary for happy and successful life) changes almost every year. And it is a task of policy makers to reflect these definition changes into national and trans-national policies.

We say we prepare students for an unknown future, for jobs that do not exist yet. But this sounds like contradiction in itself: how can one be prepared for the unknown?  How can we facilitate learning and teaching if the future of the world changes so rapidly?

The world is complex and we are facing grand societal challenges; climate change, migration, technology. We might have a vague idea of where we are going, but does that reflect where we want to go? Since the future does not exist yet, our predictions and dreams about the future are often based on our own assumptions. We cannot prepare ourselves for something that is unknown, but we can USE the way we relate to the future to gain a sense of ownership of our own fate. Future literacy challenges us to rethink our own assumptions about the future. Since our students will be the change agents of that future, we need to implement these skills in our curriculum and, together, start asking questions that have no easy answer.

A Sydney based strategy company AlphaBeta recently compiled a fascinating report on future literacy skills. They are intended for Australia but might be easily used for any nation. The report accommodates the term “Enterprise Skills”. These are transferable skills that allow young people to be enterprising so they can navigate complex careers across a range of industries and professions. They include problem solving, financial literacy, digital literacy, teamwork, creativity and communications. These are different from technical skills which are specific to a particular task, role or industry. The report stated that jobs of the future will demand enterprise skills 70% more than jobs of the past.

These are the key recommendations:

1. Set the scene with the curriculum – the high demand for enterprise skills underscores the importance of general capabilities being retained and elevated in the curriculum and there are a number of countries around the word who have taken steps to redesign their curriculum and explicitly embed 21st century competencies and enterprise skills like problem solving, collaboration, global awareness and communication skills.

2. Rethink teaching methods – teaching enterprise skills often doesn’t require discrete subject matter but instead requires a change in pedagogy which includes cross curriculum content and team teaching and greater use of inquiry and project based learning

3. Develop teachers – these new inquiry approaches are highly dependent on the knowledge and skills of the teachers engaged in trying to implement them and teachers will need help and support to organise sustained project work

4. Partner with employers – enabling enterprise skills to be developed in work based environments such as work placements or internships. This means that education and employment systems need to be better integrated.

Sources: https://www.fya.org.au/report/the-new-basics/