21st century skills: working on them better thanks to cognitive science

Discover the most effective methods to train your employees in 21st century skills through cognitive science

Who hasn't (yet) heard about 21st century skills? At a time when all knowledge is just a click away, the injunction to develop Soft Skills covers all educational spheres, from secondary and higher education to vocational training. But while everyone agrees on the need to teach them, it remains to be seen how to do it. Despite their apparent novelty, 21st century skills are in fact linked to a scientific object that has been studied for several decades: our own cognition. Anyone who wants to pass on these famous skills will find valuable information in this field of research.

Training in 21st century skills: yes, but how?

Critical thinking, leadership, communication, creativity, creativity, creativity, flexibility, flexibility, flexibility, perseverance, adaptability, empathy, initiative, and collaboration... So much knowledge and skills are essential in the digital age. Because they correspond to the new needs of organizations, they are in demand both in the professional field and in the pedagogical models of higher education training courses. There are therefore many questions that trainers ask themselves about them: which ones should be encouraged? How do you train them effectively? In response, several reports have been published, such as That of the World Economic Forum, to give recommendations on how to transmit 21st century skills.

However, it is clear that the courses of action suggested by these reports are too imprecise to be able to guide the design of training as they stand. To develop the creativity, for example, the World Economic Forum affirms that individuals should be offered “opportunities to create things”. This type of recommendation - which can give rise to a multitude of interpretations - does not really facilitate the task of the teacher or trainer, asking for concrete recommendations that can be applied in their environment.

Fortunately, in order to effectively transmit 21st century skills, the trainer has another ally: the decades of research carried out in cognitive science. Because in fact, each of the 21st century skills corresponds to one or more cognitive functions in action. And regarding these cognitive functions, research gives us information on how to better mobilize and train them.

Behind each skill, well-identified cognitive functions

These major cognitive functions have been identified thanks to numerous studies on the behavior of individuals and their brain functioning. By looking more precisely at the definition of the various skills of the 21st century, we are now able to relate them to the “elementary” cognitive functions from which they derive.

• THEadaptability Proceeds from cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility is a person's ability to change tasks or mental strategies when the need arises. It requires paying attention to the new information that comes in, interpreting it correctly in relation to the current situation, and realizing that the action being taken is no longer relevant and that a new one must be planned.

• La perseverance is linked to the function ofinhibition, which corresponds to our ability not to be distracted by information that is irrelevant to our objective. It also makes it possible not to engage in behaviors that would not serve this objective. These are the main cognitive mechanisms that allow us to stay engaged in the task at hand and therefore to persevere;

• THEinitiative must be attached to the volition. Volition allows us to initiate an action based on external constraints but also on our internal state (belief, conviction, etc.). It guarantees the quality of our initiative by helping us to know when and how to act.

• THEempathy Would be similar to the theory of mind, or our ability to attribute to others thoughts and feelings that are probable in relation to the situation experienced. Understanding each other's feelings and anticipating them allows us to better cooperate with each other.

• THEcritical thinking It also depends on our cognitive flexibility, but applied this time to our mental categories, and not to our strategies. To analyze a concept or a situation, we need to be able to categorize them in several ways, and to choose the most relevant category based on the context and our knowledge. To some extent, it also concerns the ability to modify already established categories to accommodate new information.

• La creativity is also linked to our functions as cognitive flexibility And ofinhibition. Indeed, to find a creative solution to a given problem, we must be able to inhibit our first intuitions (that are still quite traditional) to move on to other more creative paths. Disengaging from them would be the first essential step in moving towards creativity.

• Finally, the capabilities of leadership, collaboration and communication are the result of a mixture between our ability toinhibition (to maintain communication and to behave appropriately with each other), our flexibility (to move from one attitude to another according to need), and the Theory of mind (to understand what our interlocutor is going through and what is waiting for). We could also relate to it our ability to regulation emotional, which helps not to be overwhelmed by the emotions of the moment (during a conflict for example), and simply our verbal skills that help us formulate our ideas clearly.
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Know them better in order to develop them better: the example of creativity

Once these skills are clearly identified, it is then possible to draw a set of specific recommendations to develop them. The research opens up two lines of action: either to give individuals indications on how to better mobilize the skills they already have, or to identify methods to develop this competence.

Let's go back to the example of creativity. What really matters is not the fact of giving the freedom to create, but it is the framework in which this freedom must be exercised. It is often believed that individuals develop their creativity when they evolve in an environment without any constraints. However, research shows us that the reality is quite different. Too much freedom gives too many possibilities and individuals then converge on very traditional solutions. Conversely, the establishment of a framework makes it possible to set a first direction and push the creative process further [1].

If we want to directly develop the creativity of individuals, numerous results suggest thatAnother factor to play on is inhibition. Indeed, it has been shown that people who have a better capacity for inhibition (ability not to be distracted by information that is irrelevant to their objective) are also more creative individuals [2]. Thus, a good way to effectively train creativity would be to implement activities that improve inhibition, such as puzzles or mazes for children [3].

However, be careful: a scientific result shown in a laboratory will not necessarily produce the same results in a more complex environment. Other factors may intervene (motivation, injunction from the hierarchy, etc.) and modulate the impact of the method used. These results do not give ready-made rules that would suffice to apply as they stand. Rather, they indicate a direction to follow, more reliable than a recommendation based on intuition. It is up to the trainer to monitor the effectiveness of what he offers by precisely measuring the educational impact of his training. He will then know if it is effective as it is or if he needs to adjust it.

These recommendations concerning creativity also exist for adaptability and critical thinking (see an example here) and other key skills. It is up to you to take advantage of the research proposed to transmit the skills of the 21st century sustainably and effectively!

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REFERENCES

[1] Lubart, T.I., & Lautrey, J. (1998). Family environment and creativity. In The XVth Biennial Meetings of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development.
[2] Cassotti, M., Agogue, M., M., Camarda, A., Houdé, O., & Borst, G. (2016). Inhibitory Control as a Core Process of Creative Problem Solving and Idea Generation from Childhood to Adulthood. In B. Barbot (Ed.), Perspectives on creativity development. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 151, 61—72
[3] Spierer, L., Chavan, C., & Manuel, A. L. (2013). Training-induced behavioral and brain plasticity in inhibitory control. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 427.