The examination of 21st century skills in teacher education within the framework of English pre-service teachers' views

The purpose of this study was to investigate the English pre-service teachers' competence perceptions of the 21st century skills, their views on the importance of the 21st century skills and the reflections of the 21st century skills in the courses offered in pre-service teacher education. As a survey, the study was carried out with 223 senior pre-service English teachers enrolling public universities in Ankara in the 2017-2018 academic year. The data collection instrument of the study was "The 21st Century Skills Form for Pre-service English Teachers" which is the combination of three different data collection instruments, namely, "The 21st Century Skills Competence Perception Scale", "The Survey on the Importance of 21st Century Skills" and "The Survey on the 21st Century Skills in Faculty of Education Courses" developed by the researchers. The data were analysed with descriptive statistical methods. According to the findings, the pre-service English teachers felt themselves competent "intercultural skills", "learning and innovation skills", "career skills" and "life skills" respectively. In the findings related to the importance of having 21st century skills, the pre-service English teachers attached importance to have "learning and innovation skills", "life skills", "intercultural skills" and "career skills" respectively. In addition, pre-service English teachers stated that they found pre-service education inadequate for the acquisition of 21st century skills. Based on these results, it is suggested that the 21st century skills should be integrated into English pre-service teacher education program by forming a desirable and deliberate learning experiences considering all the components.