21st Century Teaching and Learning: Teachers\u27 Perceptions and Practices in Four High Schools of One District

Education needs have shifted from a focus on static skills to the ability to continuously learn in a dynamic environment as information technology rapidly transforms the workplace and classrooms. High schools are searching for instructional practices that will close the achievement gap as well as meet the challenge of ensuring that students are college and career ready upon graduation. Over 50% of jobs by 2020 will be computer oriented yet a small percent of students seek education to qualify for those jobs. Twenty first century skills are essential to prepare students for those jobs (Carnevale & Smith, 2012). The purpose of this research was to identify consensus on what constitutes 21st Century skills, measure teachers’ perceptions of their ability to lead students in acquisition of 21st Century skills and identify teaching practices that enable learning of academic content integrated with appropriate technology. This was a mixed methods study. A perceptual survey accompanied by open-ended questions deepened analysis and understanding. Though perceptual surveys are qualitative in nature, rigorous statistical analysis of survey results lends a quantitative touch. Analysis included parametric and non-parametric statistical analysis. Finally, open-ended question responses were coded, categorized, and analyzed using constant comparison method