A SURVEY OF 21ST CENTURY SKILLS ACQUISITION AMONG THE PRESERVICE TEACHERS OF TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS

: 21st-century skills are essential in teaching learners in a changing society. The role of educators is not just to transmit knowledge in the four corners of the classroom but also to change the lives of many people in the community where they live in. Hence this study was conducted to determine the 21st-century skills acquisition among preservice teachers. A total of one hundred thirty-three (133) respondents from the seven (7) programs of the Department of Teacher Education in the University of Mindanao, Digos College participated in the survey. Results show that respondents have a very high level of 21st-century acquisition in digital literacy, collaboration, social skills, creativity, while communication, critical thinking skills, and leadership show only a high level of acquisition. The overall result indicates that preservice teachers of the institution have a very high level of 21st-century skills. However, when analyzed by profile, overall 21st-century skill acquisition of preservice teachers shows no significant differences. These results can also be attributed to various factors associated with the acquisition of 21st-century skills.


Introduction
21st Century education requires innovative and adaptive teachers with lifelong skills to promote 21st-century skills among learners.Teachers with strong perceptions towards problem-solving, critical thinking, cooperation, strong communication skill, and creativity are more capable of delivering 21st-century skills to the learners (Anagün, 2018).Hence, education alone cannot create a responsible, goal-oriented, and healthy society.Therefore, the promotion of 21st-century skills among learners who are the next Adoption and Implementation of the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers) focuses the Content Knowledge, pedagogy, critical thinking skills, and higher-order thinking skills (Scoular, 2020).To cope with the changes in basic education, higher education also changes the curriculum of offered programs; this is done by implementing the new General Education courses (CHED, 2013) aside from the specialized courses offered.These initiatives of the Philippine government implicate that the country is promoting 21st-century skills among learners and teachers.
Further, monitoring the 21st-century skills among preservice teachers becomes crucial with the emergence of the 4th industrial revolution and the 21st-century generation of learners.This issue becomes a global concern, especially to higher education institutions offering teacher education programs to produce teachers who can promote the necessary competencies in the changing world.Monitoring includes checking the competencies of each preservice teacher if they acquire the essential 21stcentury skills before and after graduating.Conducting programs based on weak skills could support the holistic development of future teachers.Higher education institutions should monitor the overall aspects of students, not just focusing only on academic growth.

Objectives of the Study
This study aimed to determine the 21 st -century skill acquisition among the preservice teachers of University of Mindanao, Digos Branch.Specifically, this study sought to explore the following queries: 1) Determine the level of 21 st -century skills of preservice teachers in terms of: 1.1) Collaboration Skill, 1.2) Critical Thinking Skill, 1.3) Creativity, 1.4) Communication, 1.5) Digital Literacy, 1.6) Social Skill, 1.7) Leadership.2) Determine the level of 21st-Century skills acquisition of preservice teachers when analysed by: 2.1) Program, 2.2) Gender.

Context
This study was conducted in the University of Mindanao, Digos Branch, Philippines, under the Department of Teacher Education (DTE).The department has eleven (11) programs; however, only seven (7) programs have preservice teachers during the span of this study.The other four (4) programs were newly offered and do not have preservice teachers yet.The current seven programs with preservice teachers are Elementary Education -Generalist, Physical Education, Technical Education for Food Service Management, and Secondary Education specializing in English, Mathematics, Science, and Filipino teaching.

Respondents
Respondents of this survey were preservice students of the institution who were officially enrolled in the academic year 2021-2022.A total of one-hundred thirty-three (133) respondents answered the survey.The distribution of the respondents is reflected in Table 1.

Data Collection
The data were collected in the academic year 2021-2022 (Philippines) following the new school calendar of the university (start in August).This study aims to examine the 21 stcentury acquisition of the preservice teachers of the university.In employing the research's main objective, the researchers first secure an approval letter to the Department of Teacher Education program heads to allow them to implement the survey.
A Google form was used in obtaining the respondent's data and 21 st -century skill acquisition.After approval, the google form was sent to the class via the university's Learning Management System (LMS).After the data had been sufficed, the researcher then interpreted the result.

Research Instrument
The research instrument consists of two parts.The first part is for the profile of the respondents, and the second part is intended for the variables associated with 21 stcentury skill acquisition.Among the twelve (12) identified 21 st -century skills, only seven (7) skills were used in the survey: collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, communication, digital literacy, social skills, and leadership.Results were interpreted under the following Likert-type scale:

Data Analysis
The data gathered were analyzed using the mean to determine the level of 21st-century skill acquisition among the preservice teachers, the Kruskal Wallis Test as a statistical tool to identify if there is a significant difference in the level of 21 st -century skill acquisition among the preservice teachers when analyzed by program, and Mann-Whitney U test for the differences in terms of sex.

Level of 21st-Century Skills Acquisition Among Preservice Teachers in Terms of Program
Table 3 shows the results of a Kruskal-Wallis Test indicating that there is no significant difference in the level of 21st-century skills acquisition when grouped by the respondents' program,  2 =5.099, p>.01.Moreover, this result is also true for all the indicators of the variable.

Discussion
Acquisition of 21 st -century skills is essential in the ever-changing society, where educators play a multi-role in harnessing students' holistic development and as a part of the community.The study shows that preservice teachers in the University of Mindanao, Digos City (AY 2021-2022) have a very high acquisition of digital literacy, collaboration, social skills, creativity, and increased acquisition of communication, critical thinking skills, and leadership.The overall mean score (x ̅=4.03,SD=.510) indicates that the 21 stcentury skills acquisition among preservice teachers is very high.Also, among the indicators, digital literacy skill shows the highest level of acquisition, indicating that the preservice teachers recognize the importance of ICT in education.Buckingham (2006) argues that media literacy provides the connection of classroom and ICT that could increase students' performance in the classroom.This notion becomes important especially in the transition of the education sector towards online-blended learning due to uncontrolled events/phenomena such as the COVID-19 pandemic.With the emergence of various ICT tools, teachers become more prepared in teaching and adaptive in the classroom.However, on the contrary, leadership skill receives the lowest acquisition, though data shows the skill acquisition is still high; however, teachers' role as the leaders in the classroom and the community (Valcks, Vanderlinde, & Devos, 2020) shows how significant is the result.Lynch (2016) noted that all teachers must develop and acquire leadership skills to become better teachers in their respective institutions.
Based on the result of the Kruskal Wallis test on differences, both programs ( 2 =5.099, p>.01) (including each indicator) and sex (Mann-Whitney U=1745.000,p>.01) show no significant differences.This means that program and gender are not associated with 21st-century skill acquisition.However, results revealed that different programs acquired different levels of 21 st -century skills.This result can be associated with the preferences of learners in learning the 21 st -century skills (Ching Sing, Liang, Tsai, & Dong, 2020), learner's soft skills (Yan, Yinghong, Lui, Whiteside, & Tsey, 2019), and learner's attitude (Soh, Arsad, & Osman, 2010).Moreover, the result can also be associated with teachers' preparedness in each program in terms of their assessment and methods of teaching (Griffin & Care, 2014), perceptions (Anagün, 2018), and teaching skills (Saavedra & Opfer, 2012).Additionally, there were differences seen on the indicators of critical thinking, communication, and leadership where female preservice teachers have higher levels on these aspects than males, following the results of Tican and Deniz (2019).Together with the learning environment factor (Pearlman, 2010), these factors contribute to the 21 st -century skills acquisition among the preservice teachers of the institution.

Conclusion
21st-century skills are very important to acquire and develop among the preservice teachers to be prepared to teach learners in the changing world.The current study examines the acquisition of selected 21 st -century skills indicators to add new knowledge regarding the status of 21 st -century skills of preservice teachers.Though there are various factors to be considered in learning and acquiring 21 st -century skills, the need to monitor and assess the status of acquisition must be conducted by higher education institutions offering teacher education programs to better prepare future educators in the field of teaching.It is also very important to examine the changing role of teachers in the classroom and community as part of 21 st -century skills.However, the modality of learning should also be considered when assessing the 21 st -century skill acquisition of preservice teachers since it could highly affect the level of acquisition.Thus, it is imperative to consider the role of various factors in acquiring these skills to properly acquire the set of skills for the holistic development of the preservice teachers.

Recommendation
In light of the findings of the study, the following recommendations are drawn: First, Higher Education offering Teacher Education Programs should conduct a separate study about the 21 st -century skills acquisition of their pre-service teachers.
Second, using the result, an enhancement program should be developed and implemented for preservice teachers to be prepared when they become teachers in the future.
Lastly, monitoring of 21 st -century skills acquisition should be implemented in all year-level of teacher education programs.
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Table 1 :
Characteristics of 133 incoming preservice teachers included in the study

Table 2 :
Level of 21 st Century Skills Among the Preservice Teachers

Table 3 :
Kruskal-Wallis test on the differences in the level of 21 st -century skill acquisition analyzed by program

Table 4 :
Kruskal-Wallis test on the differences in the level of 21 st -century skill acquisition analyzed by sex