The Importance Of Literacy Skills In The 21st Century

Skills of the 21st century are a central issue in education and work world. Someone should have this skill to compete well in this century. There are four groups of skills that need attention, namely digital age literacy digital age literacy, inventive thinking, effective communication and high productivity (Assefa, 2012, Demir, 2015 and Sanabria, 2017). In the world of education, students need to be prepared with these skills to ensure their competitive level in this century especially in the field of science and technology (Turiman, 2012; Fadzillah, 2012). Literacy skills are a crucial capital for someone to develop himself, to live satisfactorily, and to participate actively in society (Gavin, 2016). In addition, literacy skills can improve academic performance of students (Afangideh, 2012). Thus, education needs to create and develop literacy skills of students so that they can achieve success both in their learning and everyday life.

The integrated curriculum is an alternative to developing literacy skills of students in the 21st century. In this curriculum, students are involved in learning in an interdisciplinary environment (Drake, 2016; Carmichael, 2014). The main objectives of the integrated curriculum are to make students active, to engage students, to improve student engagement, to improve thinking skills and to improve student interest (Costly, 2015). Moreover, the integrated curriculum has given a positive impact on student achievement (Alghamdi, 2017).