Abstract:
The existing pedagogies practiced in schools are not successful in developing essential 21st century skills amongst the students. The teachers are focused on completing the curriculum, without focusing on the learning gain of the students. More importantly, in recent years, the need and demand of these skills have increased in the professional sector to cope with the field dynamics and to face challenges of the 21st century.
Technology has become an integral part of every walk of life as it has set the new trends of work in the professional world. Even, In the field of education, technology is integrated in a number of components. The concept of online learning is introduced to accommodate and overcome issues based on accessibility of education. In some school’s content learning is being improved by application and game based lessons in classrooms. Hence, it is evident that positive results can be achieved by using low cost technological tools to foster 21st century skills development among students.
The main objective of this research was to evaluate the 21st century skills of the students by facilitating their learning process by using a technological pedagogical tool i.e. Stop Motion Animation (SMA). It was a mixed research method, in which communication, and collaborative skills were measured multiple times during class activities. The data was gathered through observations, recordings, and in-depth interviews of participants and it was further analyzed to form the results.
The research was conducted in the two public schools of Sialkot, Pakistan with a total sample of 35 students. The students develop Stop Motion Animations on the topics chosen from Literacy and Science learning. They were assessed upon their collaboration and communication skills against pre-defined rubrics adapted from prior research.
The research study found that the group work and integration of the low-cost technological and pedagogical tools helped in developing and improving communication and collaborative skills of the students. Along with these skills, student interest towards the learning was also improved. The intervention can be applied in other schools too, involving different 21st century skills and subjects.
