Fostering the 21st Century Skills through Scientific Literacy and Science Process Skills

To overcome the challenges of the twenty first century in science and technology sector, students need to be equipped with the 21st century skills to ensure their competitiveness in the globalization era. They are expected to master the 21st century skills apart of just being excelled in their academic performance. Therefore, it is crucial to incorporate 21st century skills in science education. 21st century skills comprised of four main domains namely digital age literacy, inventive thinking, effective communication and high productivity. Scientific literacy is one of the skills required in digital age literacy. It means knowledge and understanding of the scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision-making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity. Scientific literacy is important in our modern society since they are many issues related to science and technology. Basic science process skills include observing, classifying, measuring and using numbers, making inferences, predicting, communicating and using the relations of space and time. While the integrated science process skills consist of interpreting data, operational definition, control variables, make hypotheses and experimenting. Science students have been cultivated by scientific literacy and science process skills through science classes. With these two skills, it is hoped that the science students have developed some skills needed in 21st century skills. This paper will further explain about the 21st century skills, scientific literacy and science process skills. It also explains about the intersection of science process skills and 21st century skills in science education. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.