Integration of 21st Century Skills into the Curriuclum of Mongolia
In this case study we review the extent to which 21st century skills have been integrated across the education system in Mongolia so far and take a deeper look at coverage within elements of the curriculum.
We first conducted a needs analysis to review the 10 alignment steps for 21st-century skills integration. We find that there are a few challenges in implementing the changes. First, there is a persisting mismatch between the curriculum, classroom teaching and the assessment of learning outcomes. Second, the skills need to be integrated into pedagogical practice at the classroom level through initial teacher education as well as teachers’ continuous professional development (CPD).
Next, we carried out a skills audit and mapping of English and biology in the grade 9 curriculum. This exercise brings together the information from individual subjects to identify which key skills are already well embedded in the learning area and which skills have been neglected to a greater or lesser extent. The initial skills audit and mapping of the indicators of the learning areas brings several major benefits. The first is identifying that the level of embeddedness varies across the learning areas. It also provides an overview of the skills within the learning areas by identifying deficiencies, excesses and expectations within the learning areas of the syllabus regarding the broader skills and skill aspects.
Last, we brought all the elements of analysis together to form a strategic plan for further integrating skills into the curriculum and the system more broadly. The strategic plan consists of three phases. The first involves finalizing the skills priorities, the second phase plans to conduct skills audit for subjectrelated matters and grade levels and the final step involves organizing a forum with the curriculum team (headed by
MIER) to share the results of the system heat map and skills audit.