Awareness on 21st century skills two sides of a coin: Prospective teachers of English and teacher trainers of English

With this study, it is aimed to investigate the 21st century skills awareness levels of prospective teachers of English and teacher trainers of English and to examine the perceptions of participants about their awareness on 21st century skills. This study, which was carried out in a mixed design, was carried out with 63 3rd and 104 4th grades, a total of 167, prospective teachers of English studying in English Language Teaching undergraduate program of Necmettin Erbakan University in Konya in the 2022-2023 academic year, and all (8) teacher trainers of English currently teaching in English Language Teaching department at Necmettin Erbakan University. Quantitative data of the research were used by using the '21st Century Skills Efficiency Perceptions Scale for Teacher Candidates' consisting of three sub-dimensions as 'Learning and Renewal Skills', 'Life and Career Skills', and 'Knowledge, Media, and Technology Skills'; qualitative data of the research were collected by using a semi-structured interview including open-ended questions prepared by the researcher by taking and expert opinion in order to validate the quantitative data. Four different focus groups, including five prospective teachers of English in each group, were formed purposely for the interview which was conducted online with 20 prospective teachers of English. Besides, for the interview, which was conducted with teacher trainers of English, 4 teacher trainers of English were randomly selected, and the interviews were conducted online individually. While the quantitative data collected through the scale were analysed through the SPSS 26.0 package program, the qualitative data collected through a semi-structured interview including open-ended questions were analysed using the content analysis method. The results of the study showed that 21st century skills awareness levels of prospective teachers of English were at a moderate level, and there were no significant differences between 21st century skills awareness levels of the prospective teachers of English and gender and monthly income level variables, however, there was a significant difference between 21st century skills awareness levels of the prospective teachers of English and grade levels. That is, the 21st century skills awareness levels of the 4th-grade prospective teachers of English were found to be higher than the 21st century skills awareness levels of the 3rd-grade prospective teachers of English. It was also concluded that 21st century skills awareness levels of teacher trainers of English were at a moderate level.