Making the Guide

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Making the Guide

The 21st Century Skills Program is a one-year partnership between UNICEF, Pearson, Mawlamyine University and PointB.

During this program, we used a “co-creation” approach where we worked alongside hundreds of teachers and adolescents from a variety of learning contexts to understand how best to adapt and integrate 21st Century Skills into Myanmar classrooms. Our co-creation processes involve 3 phases: Needsfinding Research, Co-Creation and Design, and Prototyping and Testing. Here is a glimpse of our process:

Needsfinding Research

The goal of our needsfinding research was to deeply understand the needs of teachers, students and elements within the learning system. We spoke with teachers and students in a variety of Myanmar school settings including formal, non-formal, ethnic and private schools systems. Our research methods included in-depth interviews, shadowing and observations and a series of participatory research methods. We also spoke with experts and practitioners of 21st Century Skills in the United States to deepen our understanding of the global shift towards 21st Century Learning.

Co-Creation and Design

In a co-creation process, we bring community members into the creative process by using activities and materials to draw out stories of their personal experiences and expressions of their ideal solutions. In the 21st Century Skills Program, we worked with teachers, students, trainers and school directors from Mawlamyine University, Mon National Education Committee (MNEC), Adventist Development and Relief Agency, the English Access Microscholarship Program, National League for Democracy Education Network and community learning centers in Myanmar. Over the course of six-months, we worked alongside teachers and students to design and test tools, activities and processes for how best to integrate 21st Century Skills into classrooms where adolescents (ages 10-20 years old) currently learn. The outputs of this process have been compiled into A Guide to Becoming a 21st Century Teacher.

Co-Creating with Teachers

Co-Creating with Adolescents

Prototyping and Testing

The last step in our process has been to work together with teachers, students, trainers and school directors to prototype and test A Guide to Becoming a 21st Century Teacher so that we can gather feedback and continue to develop this guide and other resources as we move forward.