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2
A Preliminary Classification
of Skills and Abilities
T
his chapter presents an initial classification of skills and abilities,
including various terms used to describe "21st century skills." The
committee found this preliminary classification scheme useful in ad-
dressing each question in the study charge, and the scheme is used to vary-
ing degrees throughout the report. At the same time, the committee hopes
that the preliminary scheme proves useful for further research to develop
shared definitions of these skills.
THREE DOMAINS OF COMPETENCE
As a first step toward describing 21st century skills, the committee
identified three domains of competence: cognitive, intrapersonal, and
interpersonal. These three domains represent distinct facets of human think-
ing and build on previous efforts to identify and organize dimensions of
human behavior. For example, Bloom's 1956 taxonomy of learning objec-
tives included three broad domains: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor.
Following Bloom, we view the cognitive domain as involving thinking and
related abilities, such as reasoning, problem solving, and memory.1 Our
intrapersonal domain, like Bloom's affective domain, involves emotions and
feelings and includes self-regulation--the ability to set and achieve one's
1In Bloom's taxonomy of the cognitive domain, knowledge is at the lowest level (or "order"),
with comprehension and application of information above. The higher orders include analysis
and synthesis, and the highest level is evaluation (Bloom, 1956). The influence of the taxonomy
is seen in current calls for schools to teach "higher-order skills."
21
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22 EDUCATION FOR LIFE AND WORK
goals (Hoyle and Davisson, 2011). The interpersonal domain we propose
is not included in Bloom's taxonomy but rather is based partly on a recent
National Research Council (NRC) workshop that clustered various 21st
century skills into the cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal domains
(National Research Council, 2011a). In that workshop, Bedwell, Fiore, and
Salas (2011) proposed that interpersonal competencies are those used both
to express information to others and to interpret others' messages (both
verbal and nonverbal) and respond appropriately.
Distinctions among the three domains are reflected in how they are
delineated, studied, and measured. In the cognitive domain, knowledge and
skills are typically measured with tests of general cognitive ability (also re-
ferred to as g or IQ) or with more specific tests focusing on school subjects
or work-related content. Research on intrapersonal and interpersonal com-
petencies often uses measures of broad personality traits (discussed further
below) or of child temperament (general behavioral tendencies, such as at-
tention or shyness). Psychiatrists and clinical psychologists studying mental
disorders use various measures to understand the negative dimensions of
the intrapersonal and interpersonal domains (Almlund et al., 2011).
Although we differentiate the three domains for the purpose of un-
derstanding and organizing 21st century skills, we recognize that they are
intertwined in human development and learning. Research on teaching and
learning has begun to illuminate how intrapersonal and intrapersonal skills
support learning of academic content (e.g., National Research Council,
1999) and how to develop these valuable supporting skills (e.g., Yeager and
Walton, 2011). For example, we now know that learning is enhanced by
the intrapersonal skills used to reflect on one's learning and adjust learn-
ing strategies accordingly--a process called "metacognition" (National
Research Council, 2001; Hoyle and Davisson, 2011). At the same time
research has shown that the development of cognitive skills, such as the
ability to stop and think objectively about a disagreement with another per-
son, can increase positive interpersonal skills and reduce antisocial behavior
(Durlak et al., 2011). And the interpersonal skill of effective communica-
tion is supported by the cognitive skills used to process and interpret com-
plex verbal and nonverbal messages and formulate and express appropriate
responses (Bedwell, Fiore, and Salas, 2011).
A DIFFERENTIAL PERSPECTIVE ON 21st CENTURY SKILLS
To address our charge to define 21st century skills and describe how
they relate to each other, we turn to the research in differential psychology.
This research has focused on understanding human behavior by examining
systematic ways in which individuals vary and by using relatively stable
patterns of individual differences as the basis for structural theories of
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A PRELIMINARY CLASSIFICATION OF SKILLS AND ABILITIES 23
cognition and personality. Much of this work is rooted in efforts to iden-
tify and define skills and competencies through a process of measurement,
with inferences drawn about the significance and breadth of a construct by
analyzing patterns of correlations.
We view 21st century skills as knowledge that can be transferred or ap-
plied in new situations. This transferable knowledge includes both content
knowledge in a domain and also procedural knowledge of how, why, and
when to apply this knowledge to answer questions and solve problems.
The latter dimensions of transferable knowledge (how, why, and when to
apply content knowledge) are often called "skills." We refer to this blend
of content knowledge and related skills as "21st century competencies." In
Chapter 4, we propose that deeper learning is the process through which
such transferable knowledge (i.e., 21st century competencies) develops.
Our use of "competencies" reflects the terminology used by the OECD
in its extensive project to identify key competencies required for life and
work in the current era. According to the OECD (2005), a competency is
more than just knowledge and skills. It involves the ability to meet com-
plex demands, by drawing on and mobilizing psychosocial resources (in-
cluding skills and attitudes) in a particular context. For example, the
ability to communicate effectively is a competency that may draw on an
individual's knowledge of language, practical IT skills, and attitudes to-
wards those with whom he or she is communicating. (OECD, 2005, p. 4)
Differential psychology has traditionally focused on identifying charac-
teristics of individuals, including general cognitive ability and personality
traits, that are thought to persist throughout an individual's life. In contrast,
the committee views cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal competen-
cies as malleable and subject to change in response to life experience, educa-
tion, and interventions. In the cognitive domain, for example, the view of
intelligence as a single, unitary ability that changes little over a lifetime has
been superseded by research indicating that intelligence includes multiple
dimensions (Carroll, 1993) and that these dimensions change over time.
Horn (1970) found that fluid intelligence (a construct that includes verbal
and quantitative reasoning abilities) decreases from adolescence to middle
age, while crystallized intelligence (accumulated skills, such as verbal com-
prehension and listening ability) increases over the same period. McArdle
et al. (2000) observed similar patterns of change, finding that fluid intel-
ligence tended to peak in very early adulthood and then to decline, while
crystallized intelligence tended to increase over the life cycle. Findings from
a series of studies conducted over four decades, summarized by Almlund et
al. (2011), indicate that how well individuals perform on intelligence tests is
influenced not only by cognitive abilities but also by how much effort they
exert, reflecting their motivation and related intrapersonal competencies.
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24 EDUCATION FOR LIFE AND WORK
This growing body of evidence showing that dimensions of intelligence
are malleable has important implications for teaching and learning. Recent
research on interventions designed to increase motivation has found that a
learner who views intelligence as changeable through effort is more likely
to exert effort in studying (Yaeger and Walton, 2011; see further discussion
in Chapter 4).
In the intrapersonal and interpersonal domains, Roberts, Walton, and
Viechtbauer (2006) found that both the intrapersonal competency of con-
scientiousness (sometimes called self-direction or self-management in lists of
21st century skills) and the interpersonal competency of social assertiveness
increase with age. Srivastava et al. (2003) analyzed data from the "big five"
personality inventories completed by a large sample of over 130,000 adults,
finding that both conscientiousness and the interpersonal skill of agreeable-
ness increased throughout early and middle adulthood. The authors also
found that neuroticism declined with age among women, but not among
men. Reflecting on these various patterns of change, Srivastava et al. (2003)
concluded that personality traits are complex and subject to a variety of
developmental influences.
In contrast to the prevailing view of personality traits as fixed, some
researchers have argued that individual human behavior demonstrates no
consistent patterns and instead changes continually in response to various
situations (e.g., Mischel, 1968). Based on a review of the research related
to both points of view, Almlund and colleagues concluded that "although
personality traits are not merely situation-driven ephemera, they are also
not set in stone," and suggested that these traits can be altered by experi-
ence, education, parental investments, and targeted interventions (Almlund
et al., 2011, p. 9). They proposed that interventions to change personality
are promising avenues for reducing poverty and educational disadvantage.
With this view of malleability in mind, the committee reviewed lists of
21st century skills included in eight recent reports and papers (see Appendix
B). We selected reports and papers for review if they built on, synthesized,
or analyzed previous work on 21st century skills. For example, we included
a report that reviewed 59 international papers on 21st century skills and
found that the skills most frequently referred to were collaboration, com-
munication, information and communications technology (ICT) literacy,
and social or cultural competencies (Voogt and Pareja Roblin, 2010). We
selected a white paper commissioned by the Assessment and Teaching of
21st Century Skills project that synthesized many previous lists of 21st
century skills and organized them into a taxonomy of skills (Binkley et al.,
2010). We also included a document from the Hewlett Foundation that
lists 15 skills based on previous research by the OECD (Ananiadou and
Claro, 2009). In addition, we included papers commissioned by the NRC
to more clearly define 21st century skills (e.g., Finegold and Notabartolo,
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A PRELIMINARY CLASSIFICATION OF SKILLS AND ABILITIES 25
2010; Hoyle and Davisson, 2011) and a list of college outcomes developed
by Oswald and colleagues (2004) based on an analysis of college mission
statements.
The reports and papers on 21st century skills used different language to
describe the same construct, an instance of the "jangle fallacy" (Coleman
and Cureton, 1954). Early in the history of mental measurement, Kelly
(1927) observed that investigators sometimes used different measures--and
the names associated with these measures--to study and describe a single
psychological construct or competency. This problem, which he referred
to as the "jangle fallacy," caused waste of scientific resources, as multiple
tests were used to study the same construct, and investigators who used one
measure to study the construct sometimes ignored the research results of
other investigators who used other measures to study the same construct.
Today measurement experts continue to struggle with the question of
whether various constructs represent different names for the same underly-
ing psychological phenomenon or are truly different dimensions of human
competence. A 2002 paper, for example, addressed the question of whether
separate measures of self-esteem, neuroticism, locus of control, and gener-
alized self-efficacy were in fact focusing on a single core construct (Judge
et al., 2002). The committee identified the "jangle fallacy" in reports that
listed, for example, both teamwork and collaboration and both flexibility
and adaptability as individual 21st century skills (see Appendix A).
To address this problem, the committee clustered various terms for 21st
century skills around a small number of constructs, creating a preliminary
taxonomy that may be useful in future research. To identify this small num-
ber of constructs, we turned to extant taxonomies of human abilities that
have a solid basis in the differential psychology research. Research-based
taxonomies are available covering both cognitive (Carroll, 1993) and non-
cognitive (Goldberg, 1992) competencies. Based on a content analysis, we
assigned different 21st century skills from the recent reports into domains
within those taxonomies. In addition, we compared the recent reports with
earlier reports on workplace skill demands, including the Secretary's Com-
mission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) report (1991) and the Oc-
cupational Information Network (O*NET) report (Peterson et al., 1997).
Skills as Latent Variables and Two Kinds of Latent Variables
It is useful to differentiate between a construct, such as a competency,
and its measurement. Social scientists and human resource managers rou-
tinely measure a competency, such as leadership, in a variety of ways, rang-
ing from a self-report Likert scale to a workplace performance appraisal
or an inbox test. Separating the construct from its measurement is valuable
conceptually because a construct may be important even if its measurement
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26 EDUCATION FOR LIFE AND WORK
is poor. In psychometric modeling, constructs viewed as separate from their
measures are referred to as latent (as opposed to observed or measured)
variables. There are two types of latent variables: reflective latent variables
and formative latent variables (see Figure 2-1).
Following a concept proposed by Spearman (1904, 1927), a reflective
latent variable is identified based on correlations among scores from a
set of tasks. Differential psychologists discover reflective latent variables
using factor analysis and related methods to identify the patterns of cor-
relations among a set of "indicator variables"--scores on tests and rating
instruments used to measure cognitive and noncognitive competencies. A
reflective latent variable--such as general cognitive ability or one of the
"big five" personality factors (McCrae and Costa, 1987)--is thought to
reflect the essence of, or the commonality among, the various competencies
measured. In psychometric modeling, a reflective latent variable (also called
a factor because it is discovered through factor analysis) is said to cause
the relationships among the set of indicator variables (see Figure 2-1). For
example, extraversion, a personality factor, is thought to cause relatively
high scores on instruments measuring warmth, gregariousness, and asser-
tiveness. Within a reflective latent variable, the importance or weighting of
an individual indicator variable is a function of how highly that particular
indicator variable correlates with other indicator variables for the reflective
latent variable (Bollen and Lennox, 1991).
Reflective Formative
FIGURE 2-1 Casual structures in reflective and formative latent variables.
SOURCE: Stenner, Burdick, and Stone (2008). Reprinted with permission.
Figure 2-1
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A PRELIMINARY CLASSIFICATION OF SKILLS AND ABILITIES 27
A formative latent variable is very different from a reflective latent
variable in that the direction of causality runs from the observed indicator
variable to the formative latent variable. The indicator variables may be
positively correlated, uncorrelated, or even negatively correlated, and pat-
terns of correlations among them are not used to identify formative latent
variables. Instead, experts identify formative latent variables through a
variety of other means, such as through consensus opinion or traditions
in a field. Formative latent variables can be thought of as a "stew"--a
mixture of elements that might or might not be related. The various lists of
21st century skills that have been proposed to date are formative variables,
identified by consensus opinion and through reviews of earlier reports and
standards documents (e.g., Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary
Skills, 1991; American Association of School Libararians and Association
for Educational Communications and Technology, 1998).
Reflective Latent Variables:
Taxonomies of Cognitive and Noncognitive Competencies
Because reflective latent variables (factors) are based on empirical re-
search, they provide a strong framework for organizing the formative vari-
ables included in lists of 21st century skills. Taxonomies of reflective latent
variables are available for both cognitive (Carroll, 1993) and noncognitive
(Goldberg, 1992) competencies.
Cognitive Abilities Taxonomy
Carroll (1993) conducted a secondary analysis of over 450 correlation
matrices of cognitive test scores that had been produced between 1900 and
1990. He sought to identify a common structure to characterize the pattern
of correlations among tests and thereby to identify the factors of human
cognition. He found that the data were consistent with a "three stratum"
hierarchical model with a general cognitive ability factor at the top, eight
second-order abilities (factors) at the middle level, and 45 primary abilities
at the bottom of the taxonomy. The second-order factors identified were
as follows (with the corresponding primary abilities shown in parentheses):
· Fluid intelligence (reasoning, induction, quantitative reasoning,
and Piagetian reasoning, a collection of abstract reasoning abilities
described in Piaget's 1963 theory of cognitive development, such as
the ability to organize materials that possess similar characteristics
into categories and an awareness that physical quantities do not
change in amount when altered in appearance)
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28 EDUCATION FOR LIFE AND WORK
· Crystallized intelligence (verbal comprehension, foreign language
aptitude, communication ability, listening ability, and the ability to
provide missing words in a portion of text)
· Retrieval ability (originality/creativity, the ability to generate ideas,
and fluency of expression in writing and drawing)
· Memory and learning (memory span, recall by association, free
recall, visual memory, and learning ability)
· Broad visual perception (visualization, spatial relations, speed
in perceiving and comparing images, and mental processing of
images)
· Broad auditory perception (hearing and speech, sound discrimina-
tion, and memory for sound patterns)
· Broad cognitive speediness (rate of test taking [tempo] and facility
with numbers)
· Reaction time (computer) (simple reaction time to respond to a
stimulus, reaction time to choose and make an appropriate re-
sponse to a stimulus, and semantic retrieval of general knowledge)
We focused the content analysis on the first three factors--fluid intel-
ligence, crystallized intelligence, and retrieval ability--because the primary
abilities they included were most closely related to the 21st century skills
discussed in the reports and documents. It is important to note that our
content analysis did not address how valuable any of the 21st century
skills may be for influencing later success in employment, education, or
other life arenas. To carry out the content analysis we simply took lists of
competencies that other individuals and groups have proposed are valu-
able and aligned them with research-based taxonomies of cognitive and
noncognitive competencies. In the following chapter, we discuss research
on the relationship between various competencies and later education and
employment outcomes.
Personality Taxonomy
For the past two decades, the "big five" model of personality has been
widely accepted as a way to characterize competencies in the interpersonal
and intrapersonal domains (McCrae and Costa, 1987; Goldberg, 1993).
It is based on the lexical hypothesis, which suggests that language evolves
to characterize the most salient dimensions of human behavior, and so by
analyzing language and the way we use it to describe ourselves or others
it is possible to identify the fundamental ways in which people differ from
one another (Allport and Odbert, 1936). Based on a review of English
dictionaries, psychologists identified personality-describing adjectives and
developed many instruments to measure these characteristics. Multiple,
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A PRELIMINARY CLASSIFICATION OF SKILLS AND ABILITIES 29
independent factoranalytic studies of scores on these instruments, using
different samples, converged on five personality factors (Almlund et al.,
2011).
This taxonomy has been replicated in many languages, yielding ap-
proximately the same five dimensions,2 defined as follows (American Psy-
chological Association, 2007):
· Openness to experience: the tendency to be open to new aesthetic,
cultural, or intellectual experiences
· Conscientiousness: the tendency to be organized, responsible, and
hardworking
· Extroversion: an orientation of one's interests and energies toward
the outer world of people and things rather than toward the inner
world of subjective experience
· Agreeableness: the tendency to act in a cooperative, unselfish
manner
· Neuroticism: a chronic level of emotional instability and proneness
to psychological distress. The opposite of neuroticism is emotional
stability, defined as predictability and consistency in emotional
reactions, with absence of rapid mood changes.
Reflecting the fact that they were derived from factor analysis, the five
factors are intended to be orthogonal, or uncorrelated with one another.
Each can be broken down further into personality facets, which are sets of
intercorrelated factors. Facets are not as stable across cultures as the major
five dimensions are, but they nevertheless prove useful ways to characterize
individual differences more precisely (Paunonen and Ashton, 2001). When
various proposals for facets are combined with the five factors, the result is
a hierarchical taxonomy. Although no clear consensus has emerged on ex-
actly which facets should be used to further characterize the five personality
dimensions, the facets suggested by Costa and McCrae (1992) are widely
used and are presented here to illustrate the range of individual character-
istics encompassed by each of the five factors:
· Conscientiousness (competence, order, dutifulness, achievement
striving, self-discipline, deliberation)
· Agreeableness (trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance,
modesty, tender-mindedness)
· Neuroticism (anxiety, angry hostility, depression, self-consciousness,
impulsiveness, vulnerability)
2Some languages identify a sixth factor related to honesty (e.g., Ashton, Lee, and Son, 2000).
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30 EDUCATION FOR LIFE AND WORK
· Extroversion (warmth, gregariousness, assertiveness, activity, ex-
citement seeking, positive emotions)
· Openness to experience (fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions, ideas,
values)
To the facets of the neuroticism/emotional stability factor proposed
by Costa and McCrae (1992) we added "core self-evaluation," based on a
proposal by Judge and Bono (2001). This additional proposed construct is
based on empirical findings of correlations between measures of self-esteem,
generalized self-efficacy, locus of control,3 and emotional stability. Almlund
et al. (2011) also found that self-esteem and locus of control are related to
emotional stability.
The five major factors provided a small number of research-based con-
structs onto which various terms for 21st century skills could be mapped.
The facets helped to define the range of skills and behaviors encompassed
within each major factor to serve as a point of comparison with the various
21st century skills.
Formative Latent Variables: Occupational Skills and Other Examples
Unlike reflective latent variables that are discovered, formative latent
variables are constructed. Relationships between variables do not constrain
the development of formative latent variables; rather, formative latent vari-
ables can be whatever a person or community defines them to be. Classic
examples appear in economics, such as the consumer price index; in health,
such as the stress index; and in business research, such as leadership or posi-
tive experience with a product (Jarvis, Mackenzie, and Podsakoff, 2003).
One set of formative latent variables that may be particularly relevant
for defining 21st century competencies was identified through expert con-
sensus in the O*NET project (Peterson et al., 1999). O*NET is a large
database of information on 965 occupations that is organized around a
"content model," which describes occupations along several dimensions,
including worker characteristics (abilities, interests, work values, and work
styles) and requirements (skills, knowledge, and education). The skills in-
cluded in the O*NET content model are similar to those in current lists of
21st century lists, as shown in Table 2-1.
3In differential psychology, locus of control refers to the extent to which individuals believe
that they can control their own lives (an internal locus of control) or that outside influences
control what happens (an external locus of control), as measured by the Rotter scale (Rotter,
1990). The "locus of control" construct has been criticized as being too general, and most
researchers currently differentiate beliefs about causality as delineated in attribution theory.
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A PRELIMINARY CLASSIFICATION OF SKILLS AND ABILITIES 31
TABLE 2-1 Skills in the O*NET Content Model
Basic Skills
Content Skills Process Skills
Active listening Active learning
Reading comprehension Learning strategies
Writing Monitoring
Speaking Critical thinking
Mathematics
Science
Cross-Functional Skills
Complex Problem Solving Social Skills
Complex problem solving Social perceptiveness
Coordination
Persuasion
Negotiation
Instruction
Service orientation
Technical Skills Systems Skills
Operations analysis Systems analysis
Technology design Judgment and decision
Equipment selection making
Installation Systems evaluation
Programming
Quality control analysis
Operation monitoring
Equipment maintenance
Troubleshooting
Repairing
Resource Management Skills
Time management
Management of financial resources
Managing material resources
Managing personnel resources
SOURCE: Adapted from Peterson et al. (1997). Copyright 1999 by the American Psychologi-
cal Association. Reproduced with permission. The use of APA information does not imply
endorsement by APA.
Aligning Lists of 21st Century Skills with Ability and Personality Factors
As a first step toward aligning various lists of competencies included
in the reports and documents on 21st century skills with ability and per-
sonality factors, the committee compared the eight reports and documents
mentioned above, identifying areas of overlap and differences. Another
useful step was to divide the various competencies into the three domains
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2-2 Clusters
TABLETABLE of 21st
22 Clusters Century
of 21st Competencies
Century Competencies
32
Terms Used for 21st Main Ability/
Cluster Century Skills O*NET Skills Personality Factor
Critical thinking, problem System skills, Main ability factor:
solving, analysis, process skills, fluid intelligence (Gf)
Cognitive Processes reasoning/argumentation, complex problem-
and Strategies interpretation, decision making, solving skills
adaptive learning, executive
function
Information literacy (research Content skills Main ability factor:
using evidence and recognizing crystallized intelligence
COGNITIVE Knowledge bias in sources); information and (Gc)
COMPETENCIES communications technology
literacy; oral and written
communication; active listening
Creativity, innovation Complex problem- Main ability factor:
Creativity solving skills general retrieval ability
(idea generation) (Gr)
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Terms Used for 21st Main Ability/
Cluster Century Skills O*NET Skills Personality Factor
Flexibility, adaptability, artistic [none] Main personality factor:
and cultural appreciation, openness
personal and social
Intellectual responsibility (including cultural
Openness awareness and competence),
appreciation for diversity,
adaptability, continuous
learning, intellectual interest and
curiosity
Initiative, self-direction, [none] Main personality factor:
INTRA- responsibility, perseverance, conscientiousness
PERSONAL productivity, grit, Type 1 self-
COMPETENCIES Work Ethic/ regulation (metacognitive skills,
Conscientious- including forethought,
ness performance, and self-
reflection), professionalism/
ethics, integrity, citizenship,
career orientation
Type 2 self-regulation (self- [none] Main personality factor:
Positive monitoring, self-evaluation, self- emotional stability
Core Self- reinforcement), physical and (opposite end of the
Evaluation psychological health continuum from
neuroticism)
33
continued
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TABLE 2-2Continued
34
Terms Used for 21st Main Ability/
Cluster Century Skills O*NET Skills Personality Factor
Communication, collaboration, Social skills Main personality factor:
teamwork, cooperation, agreeableness
Teamwork and coordination, interpersonal
Collaboration skills, empathy/perspective
taking, trust, service orientation,
conflict resolution, negotiation
INTER-
PERSONAL
COMPETENCIES
Leadership, responsibility, Social skills Main personality factor:
assertive communication, self- (persuasion) extroversion
Leadership presentation, social influence
with others
SOURCE: Created by committee.
SOURCE: Created by the committee.
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A PRELIMINARY CLASSIFICATION OF SKILLS AND ABILITIES 35
of cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal competence. Using this ap-
proach we found that some of the documents that dealt with 21st century
skills focused primarily on one category. For example, Conley's 2007 list
of college readiness skills deals mainly with cognitive competencies, while
Hoyle and Davisson's 2011 analysis of self-regulation focuses on intraper-
sonal competencies.
Next, the committee conducted a content analysis, comparing the vari-
ous competencies included in the eight documents with the reflective latent
variables at the top of the cognitive abilities and personality taxonomies.
Based on the comparative content analysis, we aligned the various 21st
century skills with each other and with the two taxonomies. In addition, we
also aligned O*NET skills and additional noncognitive competencies with
the two taxonomies. Through these steps we created clusters of closely re-
lated competencies within each of the three broad domains (see Table 2-2).
Each competency cluster contains the main factor (personality or ability)
and the associated 21st century skills and O*NET skills. The result is a
preliminary taxonomy of 21st century competencies, which we offer as a
starting point for further research.
Based on the committee's content analysis, some of the competencies
that appeared in the eight documents and reports were not included in any
of the clusters. These included life and career skills (Binkley et al., 2010),
social and cultural competencies (Voogt and Pareja Roblin, 2010), study
skills and contextual skills (Conley, 2007), and nonverbal communication
and intercultural sensitivity (Bedwell, Fiore, and Salas, 2011). These par-
ticular competencies were excluded because they did not align well with
any of the clusters, rather than because of any judgment that they were less
valuable for later life outcomes. In the following chapter, we discuss the
question of whether various competencies predict success in education, the
workplace, or other areas of adult life.
We offer the proposed taxonomy of competency clusters as an initial
step toward addressing the "jangle fallacy." It provides a starting point for
further research that may more clearly define each construct and establish
its relationship with the other constructs. However, research to date on the
importance of 21st century competencies uses a variety of terms for these
skills, coined by investigators in the different disciplines. Our review of this
research in the following chapter reflects this variety of terms.
SUMMARY
Although many lists of 21st century skills have been proposed, there is
considerable overlap among them. Many of the constructs included in such
lists trace back to the original SCANS report (Secretary's Commission on
Achieving Necessary Skills, 1991), and some now appear in the O*NET
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36 EDUCATION FOR LIFE AND WORK
database. Aligning the various competencies with extant, research-based
personality and ability taxonomies illuminates the relationships between
them and suggests a preliminary new taxonomy of 21st century competen-
cies. Much further research is needed to more clearly define the competen-
cies at each level of the proposed taxonomy, to understand the extent to
which various competencies and competency clusters may be malleable,
to elucidate the relationships among the competencies, and to identify the
most effective ways to teach and learn these competencies.
