Approaches to Assessment of Twenty-First Century Skills in East Africa

Abstract

To address the challenges originating from changes in the global market and with technological progress, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is adopting more holistic education systems that offer lifelong competence for workers in the twenty-first century. This transition requires integration of complex cognitive and social/interpersonal competencies, such as critical thinking, teamwork, cultural and diversity awareness, multilingualism, and the use of digital technologies into the traditional educational curricula. However, the transition from traditional to holistic curricula is complicated. Issues include how twenty-first century skills are defined in SSA, how they can be taught, how they can be integrated into curricula, and how they can be assessed. A review of the literature on assessments was first conducted in order to review approaches and tools used to measure twenty-first century skills in SSA. Five assessment approaches were identified: scenario-based, questionnaire, video recording and direct observation, portfolio, and technology-based. Seven tools that met study criteria were examined along five dimensions: purpose, type or form, target population, context, and specific skills, in order to determine their utility for assessment of twenty-first century skills. Findings indicate that five of the seven assessment tools support summative purposes while two support formative assessment. Further to this, two tools were designed for large-scale assessment and three targeted adolescents. In terms of method, scenario-based and self-report were the most common approaches used to collect information on twenty-first century skills in SSA. Notably, the outcomes of scenario-based assessments provided compelling evidence of proficiencies, demonstrating the method’s efficiency in task creation, analysis, and scoring rubrics that provide clear distinctions across performance levels.