Impact of virtual vs. face-to-face learning on 21st-century skills among pre-service bilingual teachers

Abstract

The so-called ‘twenty-first century skills’ (Hockly et al., 2014) have been identified as essential literacies for the young generation, who must use creativity and innovation, collaboration and teamwork, critical thinking, problem-solving, autonomy, flexibility, and lifelong learning to function effectively. Bilingual pre-service teachers are entitled to develop these skills for both their own education and that of their future students (Savage & Barnett, 2015). This research analyses the opinions of 45 bilingual pre-service teachers on the development of their twenty-first century skills through either online or face-to-face teaching. Quantitative and qualitative data are scrutinized using mixed-methods research, which throws light on participants’ perceptions of better development of such skills. Findings demonstrate that student teachers perceive that some of these skills are better developed with a face-to-face modality of learning (e.g., teamwork and collaboration), whereas others (e.g., autonomy and innovation) develop better through online learning. Twenty-first century literacies push the educational boundaries of bilingual teachers, who are entitled to have a repertoire of communication skills that make us, teacher educators, pursue academic rigour regarding teacher and updated training.