Inclusion of 21^st century skills in teacher preparation programs in the light of global expertise

The present study aims to explore global expertise of including 21st century skills in teacher preparation programs and the reality of including (information and communication, thinking and problem solving, as well as interpersonal and self-directional) skills in these programs. It also highlights the differences in the reality of including 21st century skills in teacher preparation programs according to specialization, years of experience, and academic qualification. The author adopted the analytical-descriptive approach and applied a questionnaire to a randomly selected sample of 50 in-service teachers in Saudi Arabia. The results showed that the arithmetic means of the information and media literacy, critical and systematic thinking, self-direction, accountability and adaptability, and social responsibility skills were moderate. They were moderate and low in the communication, problem identification and solution formulation, and interpersonal and collaborative skills. The arithmetic means were low in creativity and intellectual curiosity. Moreover, there were no statistically significant differences in all domains due to specialization, years of experience, and academic qualification. The study recommends conducting training courses and workshops on 21st century skills for in-service teachers.