The New Palestinian Science and Math Curricula in Light of the 21st Century Skills: A Critical and Enlightening Study

The purpose of this study was to analyze the new Palestinian science and math curricula in light of the skills for the 21st Century to investigate the extent to which these curricula are able to prepare citizens who have a balanced degree of skills they need to live effectively in the 21st Century. The researchers developed a rubric and then used as a general framework for content analysis of the curricula. The rubric consisted of twelve main themes; creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, information literacy, media literacy, information and communications technology literacy, flexibility and adaptability, initiative and self-direction, cross-cultural skills, productivity and accountability, and leadership and responsibility. Findings of content analysis indicated that the existing curricula represent the skills for the 21st century poorly with low focus and insufficient attention on most skills that had been analyzed. In a second section, the paper offers a general conceptual framework with relevant models for reshaping the curricula with relevant authentic tasks that emerge from the Palestinian socio-cultural context in order to enable students to accommodate the 21st century skills, and provide school teachers with tangible mechanisms to enhance students’ skills for the 21st century. The paper concludes with a set of policy recommendations, and suggestions for further research about the relevance and effectiveness of this conceptual framework, and the improvement models in the new Palestinian curricula.