The investigation of the 2018 life studies curriculum and practices to provide students with 21 st century skills

Abstract

The present study examined the 2018 Life Studies curriculum (LSC) and its practices, which have been in implementation in Turkey, in terms of developing students‟ 21st century skills. For this purpose, the 2018 LSC curriculum was scrutinized together with the Life Studies text books recommended by the Ministry of National Education for the first, second, and third graders in the 2020-2021 academic year. The study adopted document analysis, one of the qualitative research methods, and employed descriptive analysis in analysing research data.Partnership21 framework was used as the frame of reference in addressing research data. As a result, it was determined that the 2018 LSC learning outcomes and the activities included in the Life Studies coursebooks and workbooks are mostly aimed at improving the students‟ learning and innovation skills.Additionally, learning outcomes and activities are focused on developing critical thinking and problem solving to the most, and collaboration to the least among that cluster. The learning outcomes and activities included in the curriculum and books attempt to promote information literacy among the information, media, and technology skills, and the flexibility and adaptability among life and career skills.However, the curriculum ignores improving media literacy. Moreover, the coursebooks do not include activities to improve media literacy, productivity, and responsibility skills. It has also been found that there is a harmony between the learning outcomes in the curriculum and the activities in the textbooks in developing 21st century skills.Most of the learning outcomes in the curriculum are aimed at improving students‟ 21st century skills.However, there isa limited number of practices for the development of those skills in coursebooks and workbooks. Thus, it is recommended to enrich the coursebooks and workbooks with activities aimed at improving students‟ 21st century skills.