4 c's communication collaboration critical thinking and creativity

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The 4 Cs: Collaboration, Creativity, Communication and Critical Thinking

Since Empower Generations’ beginning, we have been committed to helping learners develop into well-rounded, lifelong learners empowered to lead in an ever-changing world. That’s why we focus on the four Cs of 21st-century learning:

• Collaboration: Learners are able to work effectively with diverse groups and exercise flexibility in making compromises to achieve common goals.
• Creativity: Learners are able to generate and improve on original ideas and also work creatively with others.
• Communication: Learners are able to communicate effectively across multiple media and for various purposes.
• Critical thinking: Learners are able to analyze, evaluate, and understand complex systems and apply strategies to solve problems.

These skills enhance the academic growth of Empower Generations’ learners and prepare them to succeed in life.

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Communication Skills | 21st Century Skills

What Are the 4 C's of 21st Century Skills?

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March 26th, 2024 | 9 min. read

Brad Hummel

Coming from a family of educators, Brad knows both the joys and challenges of teaching well. Through his own teaching background, he’s experienced both firsthand. As a writer for iCEV, Brad’s goal is to help teachers empower their students by listening to educators’ concerns and creating content that answers their most pressing questions about career and technical education.

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As a middle or high school career readiness teacher, you likely need to teach 21st century skills as part of your curriculum.

While all twelve of those skills are necessary to teach, the "four C's" are often considered to be the most important. 

The four C’s of 21st Century skills  are:

• Critical thinking
• Collaboration
• Communication

These four skills are essential for modern students to succeed in school and the workplace.

They often make the biggest impact in terms of setting your students apart when applying for positions and starting their careers.

In this article, you'll discover what each skill entails and why they are so important to teach.

You'll also be able to download a free guide on how you can teach the 4 C's of 21st Century skills in middle or high school courses.

1. Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is the practice of solving problems, among other qualities.

In addition to working through problems , solving puzzles, and similar activities, critical thinking also includes an element of skepticism.

This is important in the 21st Century because it’s harder than ever to verify accurate information (mostly thanks to the internet).

Critical thinking empowers students to discover the truth in assertions, especially when it comes to separating fact from opinion.

With critical thinking, students don’t just learn a set of facts or figures. Instead, they learn how to discover the facts and figures for themselves.

Through asking questions, learners become engaged in the world around them. Then they can help spread their knowledge to their peers, helping others to think critically, too. Students sharing the knowledge they've mastered with others might be the most important aspect of developing critical thinking skills.

Whether they learn how to think critically from spending time online or simply asking “Why?” in everyday life, this skill prepares students for a life of independence and purposeful thought.

Still, critical thinking is just one of the four C’s in 21st Century skills.

It works just fine when students use it alone. But when students combine it with the   next   skill, the sky is the limit to what they can achieve. 

2. Creativity

Creativity is the practice of thinking outside the box.

While creativity is often treated like a you-have-it-or-you-don’t quality, students can   learn   how to be creative by solving problems, creating systems, or just trying something they haven’t tried before. 

That doesn’t mean every student will become an artist or a writer. Instead, it means they’ll be able to look at a problem from multiple perspectives — including those that others may not see.

Creativity allows students to embrace their inner strengths from big-picture planning to meticulous organization . As students learn about their creativity, they also learn how to express it in healthy and productive ways.

More importantly, they also become   motivated   to share that creativity with others. Just like with critical thinking, that makes creativity contagious.

When a student creates an interesting or innovative  solution to a problem , the next student can become inspired to try something similar.

That’s not to say every single creative endeavor will be a ringing success. Students will fail at some point, and some of their ideas simply won’t work. But that’s okay.

The point of creativity is to encourage students to think differently than convention demands. They don’t have to do things the way they’ve always been done. Instead, they can figure out a better way.

Students don’t have to embrace their creativity alone, either. In fact, creativity works best when combined with the next 21st Century skill .

3. Collaboration

Collaboration   is the practice of working together to achieve a common goal.

Collaboration   is important because whether students realize it or not, they’ll probably work with other people for the rest of their lives.

Virtually every job requires someone to work with another person at some point, even if it’s for something as simple as what to get for lunch.

Practicing collaboration and teamwork helps students understand how to address a problem, pitch solutions, and decide the best course of action.

It’s also helpful for them to learn that other people don’t always have the same ideas that they do. In fact, as students practice collaboration more and more, they’ll learn that they have almost   none   of the same ideas that others do.

This can affect students in one of two ways. First, it could discourage them since nobody seems to agree with them that often. Second, it could embolden them because they realize they’re bringing something unique to every conversation.

As a teacher, it’s crucial that you encourage students to look at themselves through that second lens. That way, students learn that they should speak up when they have an idea.

Even when their ideas aren't the best suited to the problem, speaking up and sharing their solutions can help them when collaborating with others.

4. Communication

Communication is the practice of conveying ideas quickly and clearly.

Communication   is often taken for granted in today’s society. After all, if you say something, that means you conveyed an idea, right?

But in the age of text-based communications — including texting, emails, and social media — it’s never been more important for students to learn how to convey their thoughts in a way that others can understand them.

That’s because text-based communications lack   tone , which is critical to understanding the context of someone’s words.

Still, even in situations where vocal tone is available, students need to learn how to communicate effectively. That includes minimizing tangents, speaking directly to an idea, and checking other participants to make sure they’re engaged.

Reading an audience — even if it’s just two other people in a group discussion — lets students determine whether they should keep expanding on an idea or wrap up their point. Their audience could even be their family at Thanksgiving dinner.

The point is that as students practice communication, they become better at efficiently conveying an idea without losing their point—or their audience.

When they master the art of effective communication, students can streamline their ideas and make a positive impression on those around them.

Still, it’s important to note that communication isn’t enough on its own to help students with 21st Century skills. To really succeed, students need to use all four of these skills together.

How Do the Four C’s Work Together?

The four C’s of 21st Century skills work together as a system to help students comprehensively understand subjects and navigate living and working in the 21st century.

Because each of the four C's are general skills that help students throughout their personal and professional lives, they are essential qualities that people need to succeed in a wide range of situations.

Each of the four C's cover interrelated concepts paramount to being an educated person:

• Critical thinking teaches students to question claims and seek truth.
• Creativity teaches students to think in a way that’s unique to them.
• Collaboration teaches students that groups can create something bigger and better than you can on your own.
• Communication teaches students how to efficiently convey ideas.

Combined, the four C’s empower students to be discerning people capable of expressing themselves and working with others to find insightful solutions to everyday challenges.

When working together, learners who have mastered the four C's of 21st century skills have ability to make a profound impact on both their professional workplaces and their communities.

How Do You Teach the Four C's of 21st Century Skills?

Now you know what the four C's of 21st Century skills are and why employers want new hires to have them.

So now you're probably wondering how to teach 21st Century skills in your daily middle and high school classes.

Click below to get your free guide on teaching  critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication!

What Are The 4 C’s of The 21st Century?

Have you heard of the 4 C’s of 21st century skills? Do you know what they are? Communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity are considered the four c’s and are all skills that are needed in order to succeed in today’s world.

Not only are these skills important to have on their own, but by combining all of these skills, students are empowered to solve their own problems, work together, and come up with solutions.

It is important to encourage development in all of these areas to help set your child up for success in school and their future workplace. So what are the four C’s and how can we teach them to our kids?

1. Communication: sharing thoughts, ideas, and questions.

Teaching children that communication can come in many ways is important. It is not just speaking verbally with someone to communicate but can also be non-verbal cues such as hand gestures and facial expressions. Now that we live in such a digital world, it is also important to teach children how to navigate digital spaces with responsibility.

2. Collaboration: working together to reach a common goal.

Most career paths require people to work together in some capacity. It is important for kids to start learning how to problem solve and tackle issues in which the bigger picture involves more than just themselves. It can be difficult for younger children to see the side or stance from someone else’s point of view. This is a skill that takes lots of time practicing.

3. Critical Thinking: looking at problems in a new way.

Part of critical thinking is problem solving, working through things like puzzles that challenge the brain, and simply asking “Why?”. But in today’s world where we can get information at the click of a button, a large part of critical thinking is being able to look at information and decide if it is credible or not.

4. Creativity: trying new approaches to solve problems.

Being creative is often thought of when students are artistic or musical, but it is so much more than that. Creativity simply just means to think outside the box and that can be in any area. Creativity can be taught and fostered by encouraging children to try new things and by creating a safe space for them to express themselves.

Why are these skills important?

The 4 C’s go hand in hand with each other and children need to be equipped with the skills in all four areas to help them succeed in their future. Hiring mangers and employers seek out candidates with these skills, so it’s important to instill them in our youth early on. That is why it is called “ 4 c’s of 21st century skills “.

At Engineering For Kids, our programs allow students to explore these concepts through any of our classes and camps. Students work together, come up with solutions to real work problems, and communicate with each other to come up with a creative solution. Learn more about our classes and camps by finding your closest location.

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Lessons for 21st-Century Learners

Three ideas for fostering collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and creativity with easy-to-use apps and tools.

Collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and creativity are the 4 Cs of a 21st-century learner, according to the Partnership for 21st Century Learning . Given that technology use continues to expand in schools, it’s worthwhile to think of how that technology can function in assignments designed to develop the skills our students need.

Communication and Creativity: Personal Narrative Podcast

Stories are a powerful learning tool in the classroom. For an 11th-grade narrative unit, I asked students to analyze classic narrative essays such as George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” and Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” using the traditional plot diagram and paying attention to literary narrative devices. Next, they explored contemporary personal narratives from NPR’s This I Believe series and chose three essays to read based on their interests. Then I asked them to compose their own personal narratives to share an important event in their lives.

Most of my students were not familiar with podcasts, so as a class we explored a few episodes from NPR’s This American Life series—listening to them together and then discussing oral storytelling techniques. Students then individually chose several This I Believe audio clips to further their knowledge of storytelling.

After becoming familiar with the world of podcasting, students used GarageBand to create their own podcasts, integrating elements such as sound effects and music. (I’ve given the names of the tools we used in my class, but there are a lot of others you can use with these kinds of assignments.) Some students chose to work together on interview-style podcasts, while others worked individually to create dramatic renderings of their personal events.

The stories students told were highly engaging and ranged from grieving over a lost grandmother to being surrounded by lions while in a tent on a safari to competing in a swim meet event for the first time. Through creativity and communication, students were able to share a personal event that enriched their lives, and that sharing further connected them as a classroom community.

Critical Thinking and Creativity: Visual Interpretation of Poetry

Like many teachers, I’ve found over the years that students are hesitant to explore poetry. However, doing so is an excellent way to develop critical thinking skills. For a 10th-grade poetry unit, I had students read traditional poems such as Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” and Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death,” and analyze the poetic devices in them.

To add a visual element, I had students watch selected contemporary poems from the Poetry Foundation’s Poem Videos  series, which we then discussed as a class. I left some time at the end of the lesson for students to explore some of the videos on their own.

They then chose a poem to use in creating a visual interpretation using iMovie or other video-making platforms of their choice. They were elated to be able to choose their poems, selecting texts that were meaningful to them. The only requirement for the video was that it should include an explicit interpretation of the theme or message of the poem.

The videos the students created were representative of their personal interpretations and varied in format from live action to photographic images to personal drawings to stop motion. Giving students agency to choose and analyze a poem resulted in engaging videos that reflected their burgeoning critical thinking and creative skills.

Collaboration: Group Research Paper

While collaborative work is a necessary skill in the 21st century, students are often hesitant to work in groups, fearful of being stuck with all of work. I addressed that fear in an 11th-grade unit on The Merchant of Venice by having students divide an assigned research question into three or four subtopics depending on the number of people in the group—each individual had his or her own responsibility as the groups explored the cultural and contextual background of the play and then wrote a collaborative research paper.

Using NoodleTools , a virtual collaboration environment, groups created a shared project accessible through their individual student accounts. They shared their projects with me, so I was able to monitor group participation and answer any questions they had right there within the project.

Each individual was responsible for creating one virtual source card and three virtual note cards on his or her subtopic. The source and note cards are individually tracked, but are compiled together by groups online, so students were able to easily share and view each other’s work in the virtual environment.

Each group then created and shared a Google Doc through NoodleTools, and students wrote individual sections on one group document. Each group wrote an introduction together and created a reference page in MLA format together. The result for each group was a single research paper with both individual and collaborative input. My students found NoodleTools incredibly easy to use, and no one reported feeling frustrated at having to submit group work that was created by only one or two individuals.

These are just some of the ways the 4 Cs can be developed through technology in the secondary classroom. The beauty of technology nowadays is that there are many variations on how it can enhance student learning and motivation.

Enhancing the 4Cs among college students of a communication skills course in Tanzania through a project-based learning model

• Open access
• Published: 10 November 2022
• Volume 28 , pages 6269–6285, ( 2023 )

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• Musa Saimon   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4758-8270 1 , 3 ,
• Zsolt Lavicza 1 &
• Thierry (Noah) Dana-Picard 2  

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The development of technology has changed the way people communicate in academic contexts as well as working places, for example from print messages to screened messages, and from face-to-face classroom and office meetings to virtual classes and offices. This has prompted the shift from traditional teaching practices to student-centered in which students are guided by their teachers to develop skills for 21st Century careers through the Project-Based Learning model. However, in Tanzania colleges, the teaching of a Communication Skills Course perpetuates traditional teaching practices, which could reduce the chance for students to participate in global democratic activities. Consequently, the present study aimed at exploring how to enhance the 4 C’s (critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativ ity) among the college students of the Communication Skills Course in Tanzania through the Project-Based Learning model. Qualitative participatory action research with two cycles was adopted. Data from ten students, one teacher, and the curriculum were collected through observation, document analysis, and reflective journals. Data were analyzed thematically. Findings show that current teaching practices for Communication Skills Course in Tanzania colleges hardly enhance the development of the 4 C’s among students. It was also observed that the implementation of PBL resulted in enhancing the 4 C’s among college students in Tanzania colleges. However, large class sizes, poor technological infrastructure, and lack of facilities are among the challenges experienced during the implementation of PBL in enhancing the 4Cs. The study recommends the reformation of current teaching practices, to focus on developing skills needed to cope with students’ real-life contexts, instead of focusing on content knowledge. Also, the study calls for the adoption of PBL in Tanzania colleges in teaching Communication Skills to develop necessary skills for the 21st Century. To cope with any potential challenges, the study suggests that there should be collaborative efforts among education stakeholders.

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1 Introduction

The influence of technology on what and how to teach students cannot be overemphasized (Alismail & McGuire, 2015 ; Eaton, 2010 ; Trilling & Fadel, 2009 ). As Eaton ( 2010 , p.7) notes,

Skills beyond language skills are needed in job markets. Today’s job market requires more than a knowledge of another language. In the twenty-first century, a comprehensive essential skill set is needed for employment. This includes competence in areas beyond languages such as numeracy, thinking skills, computer use (and) the ability to work well with others.

Consequently, there has been a high need for a rethinking of teaching and learning practices to help learners accommodate new communication demands. Research shows that communication skills teaching practice that focused on enabling the learner to speak appropriately and write essays, is no longer the needed competence for the 21st century (Alismail & McGuire, 2015 ; Trilling & Fadel, 2009 ). Instead, teaching practices should focus on imparting innovative skills on how to communicate using technology (Alismail & McGuire, 2015 ). The report from the survey conducted by Partnership for 21st Century Skills ( 2009 ) shows that all classrooms should integrate critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration, together with communication, which bore the abbreviation 4Cs. The rationale for integrating the four skills is attributed to the challenging nature of communication contexts in a way that requires a combination of numerous skills for one to communicate effectively (Eaton, 2010 ; Halverson, 2018 ; Keane et al., 2016 ; Trilling & Fadel, 2009 ). Therefore, arguably, if Colleges are to sustain learners and future career professionals they have no choice but to enhance 4Cs among learners.

Responding to the need to impart new skills in the Communication Skills Course implies the need at least in part to abandon traditional teaching practices such as lecture methods and subject-content-based practices. Such practices fail to enhance new skills such as critical thinking because they promote rote learning through which the role of the students is to memorize what is given by the teacher. In this way, the students will not develop critical thinking because they lack a challenging environment in which they can construct new knowledge and develop necessary skills. As a result, Project-Based Learning (PBL) among other student-centered approaches came in place to promote learners’ active environment for the potential development of 4Cs (Budiarti et al., 2021 ; Chu et al., 2017 ; Guo et al., 2020 ; Keane et al., 2016 ). This resulted in PBL becoming a popular teaching approach in various disciplines including language teaching.

However, Tanzania colleges have been hardly adopting these new approaches to enhance 4Cs among students. Experience and research show that traditional teaching of communication skills in Tanzania is centered on passing semester examinations. Komba ( 2015 ) reports that in Tanzania universities the teaching practices of communication skills are not relevant to the communication competencies needed since they are dominated by traditional teaching approaches that focus on linguistic knowledge rather than communication competencies. Komba & Mohamed ( 2016 ) went further noting that in contexts where technology is integrated into the classroom it is only for teachers to display notes, which means that students are denied opportunities to use it. Such practices could be damaging to the sustainability of students in academic contexts as well as their future careers. Therefore, to rescue the situation, the present study explored how to enhance the 4Cs of 21st Century skills among students of Communication Skills Course in Tanzania colleges. Specifically, the study focused on:

assessing the current teaching practices for enhancing of 4Cs in the 21st century education among students of Communication Skills Course in Tanzania colleges;

evaluating the implementation of the PBL model to enhance the 4Cs of the 21st century among students of Communication Skills Course in Tanzania colleges;

determining challenges associated with enhancing the 4Cs of the 21st century among students of Communication Skills Course in Tanzania colleges. Therefore, the study intended to answer the main question: how teachers can adopt PBL to enhance 4Cs of the 21st Century skills among students of Communication Skills Course in Tanzania Colleges. Subsidiary questions included (a) What are the current teaching practices for enhancing of 4Cs in the 21st century education among students of Communication Skills Course in Tanzania colleges? (b) How effective is the implementation of the PBL model to enhance the 4Cs of the 21st century among students of Communication Skills Course in Tanzania colleges? (c) What are the challenges associated with enhancing the 4Cs of the 21st century among students of Communication Skills Course in Tanzania colleges?

The structure of this article is: Sect.  2 presents a conceptualization of 4Cs and their pedagogical implications. Section  3 covers the conceptualization of Project-Based Learning and its applicability in enhancing 4 C’s in language classrooms from a global perspective. Section  4 , presents a methodology for the present study. Section  5 , presents findings and discusses them in Sect.  6 .

2 Conceptualization of 4 C’s and pedagogical implications

4 C’s represent a set of four essential skills namely Communication, Collaboration, Critical thinking, and Creativity. This set was developed in 2002 by Partnership for 21st Century Skills as a result of an investigation on skills that students need to excel beyond school contexts (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2009 ). Despite their essential role, educational researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners hesitate to integrate them into the curriculum because of the overfocus on exams and also a lack of clear concept of what each of them means and what could be good classroom practices for each of them (Pollard, 2012 ). Based on this, in this section we explain the meaning of each of the 4 C’s and highlight pedagogical implications as follows:

2.1 Communication

Communication entails the ability to access, evaluate and comprehensively share information using both traditional and new media such as print-based text and digital texts (Kolk, 2022 ; Pardede, 2020 ; Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2009 ; Trilling & Fadel, 2009 ). Eaton ( 2010 ) argues that knowing a language alone is not enough in the 21st century to make someone an effective communicator unless it is accompanied by other skills such as computer and numeracy skills. Such a need could be attributed to the development of technology that is transforming traditional communication channels and communication codes. As a result, communication ability in both traditional and digital media becomes imperative. In addition, fake news and information overload are part of the complexities of communication practices in the 21st century (van Laar et al., 2017 ). As van Lar et al. (2016) note

The current workplace requires highly skilled workers faced with increasingly complex and interactive tasks. Such workers are expected to efficiently select knowledge from the amount of available information and effectively apply such knowledge, both in their professional and personal lives.

This, in turn, requires the ability to filter information instead of taking everything for granted to avoid falling into the trap of misleading information. Therefore, developing communication skills among students goes beyond teaching language productive and receptive skills.

Strategies to facilitate communication skills in the classroom include providing a technology-rich learning environment that allows students to achieve certain communication goals (Keane et al., 2016 ; Kolk, 2022 ; Pardede, 2020 ) suggests that such an environment should be rich enough to allow students to communicate using various media according to various purposes and to diverse audiences. Furthermore, tasks should be induced by the interest of students rather than a decision by the teacher. Dana-Picard & Hershkovitz ( 2020 ) argue that students’ interest is important and could be a source of inspiration.

2.2 Collaboration

Collaboration means the ability to work as a group to achieve a common goal (Erdoğan, 2019 ; Kolk, 2022 ; Pardede, 2020 ; Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2009 ; Trilling & Fadel, 2009 ). It is premised on the commitment to value and respect others because group tasks involve people with diverse abilities and perspectives (Erdoğan, 2019 ). Furthermore, Kolk ( 2022 ) notes that during collaboration one has to take his/her weakness as a learning opportunity thus being flexible in changing his/her perspective. The potential of collaboration cannot be overemphasized. The world has been witnessing how for instance, the collaboration between researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers is working in transforming the world (Moshtagh et al., 2021 ). Another recent example that the need for joint efforts is the Covid-19 pandemic whose control depends on every member of the society to take responsibility. Therefore, collaboration is all about developing a feeling of being part of the community and responsible for serving it.

Creating a classroom learning environment, allowing students to share their ideas and get feedback from others is important for developing collaboration. Studies suggest that when students are used to being listened to by others and listening to others while working on a certain task, they internalize the value of collaboration (Erdoğan, 2019 ; Kolk, 2022 ). However, it should be noted that activities that could make students value collaboration are those that connect to their interests and connected to a real-life context (Kolk, 2022 ; Lai, 2011 ). Therefore, to develop collaboration skills, teachers should create an environment for learners to work in groups while ensuring that the tasks are connected and interest all learners.

2.3 Critical thinking

Critical thinking implies the ability of an individual to make informed or reasonable decisions. Critical reflection involves making judgments that are supported by evidence instead of emotions (Erdoğan, 2019 ; Kolk, 2022 ; Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2009 ; Trilling & Fadel, 2009 ). Literature suggests various aspects that indicate the use of critical thinking such as analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing various issues, information, arguments, claims, and beliefs among others (Kolk, 2022 ; Trilling & Fadel, 2009 ). Therefore, critical thinking is associated with an individual ability to cope with certain situations through reflection.

The pedagogical implications for critical thinking include creating an environment where students have to make an evaluation, analysis, and synthesis of various real-life aspects of their interest (Erdoğan, 2019 ; Kolk, 2022 ). Asking students to engage in tasks that involve classification, prediction, justification, and evaluation of diverse issues is a good example of an effective environment for developing critical thinking among learners (Kolk, 2022 ; Erdogan, 2019 ).

2.4 Creativity

Creativity is the ability to produce something useful, original, or novel, transfer and adaptation of ideas (Kolk, 2022 ; Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2009 ; Sinclair et al., 2006 ). Initially, creativity was associated with individual talent in the sense that only a few people can be creative. However, studies reveal that creativity is teachable (Smith, 2005 ). The reason for this is that recently creativity has been more associated with the process of deviating from the norms leading to the production of valuable ideas or artifacts for the society (Pollard, 2012 ). Therefore, developing creativity implies cultivating the spirit of risk-taking among learners through which they can keep trying new ways of making things better than before.

For teachers to develop creativity in the classroom, they should create a learning environment that requires learners to develop new solutions, useful ideas, and original tangible objects in their respective fields (Erdoğan, 2019 ; Kolk, 2022 ; Trilling & Fadel, 2009 ) notes that sometimes learners might fear engaging in creative tasks because of fear of failure in what they do. To deal with this the teacher has to encourage students to take risks and ensure that they are working on issues that are valuable to their real-life contexts. Therefore, developing creativity in the classroom requires open tasks that allow learners to solve problems in diverse ways while at the same time are relevant to their interests.

However, it should be noted that the 4 C’s exist in a complementary manner rather than competitive: the student will not develop one without developing the others. For example, collaboration requires communication. Similarly, to collaborate effectively one has to analyze and evaluate others’ perspectives, which involves critical thinking. In addition, collaborating involves and induces the creation of new ideas and useful solutions to whatever task one engages in. Kolk ( 2022 ) illustrated the strong relationship among the 4 C’s by linking potential activities for developing each skill as shown in Table  1 . Kolk ( 2022 ) went further suggesting the adoption of the Project-Based Learning approach since it facilitates learners’ engagement in a collaborative inquiry on various issues of their interest in a real-life context. This is because PBL allows learners to use knowledge and skills from various disciplines as they solve a problem at hand. Therefore, teachers must learn how to use PBL effectively if they are to enhance 4 C’s in their classrooms.

3 Integrating the 4 C’s in a language classroom through project-based learning

PBL is a student-centered approach through which students work in groups to solve real-life problems while linking the needed skills to their curriculum (Krauss, 2013 ; Larmer et al., 2015 ). The main focus of PBL is to help learners gain an in-depth understanding of the subject matter rather than a breadth of understanding (Krauss, 2013 ; Larmer et al., 2015 ). Since the approach requires learners to be creators of knowledge, the role of the teacher is to facilitate them. While facilitating learning through PBL the teacher should consider the following principles: (a) students’ interests should be respected in the sense they should be given a chance to choose the project that they wish to work on. This helps them to feel the ownership of the project and thus develop intrinsic motivation to accomplish; (b) the task should be involving knowledge and skills from various disciplines to help learners learn how to connect and use knowledge and skills they acquire from different disciplines; (c) the problem that students solve in PBL should be of value to the community to help them develop the feeling of being responsible to others; (d) the end product of the students’ collaborative work should be shared with the global community to bring about recognition of their efforts; and (e) the teacher should dedicate time and energy to support students throughout their engagement in the project (Krauss, 2013 ; Larmer et al., 2015 ).

Unlike mathematics and science classrooms, PBL is not popular in language classrooms. In contrast, Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) has been a popular approach in language teaching. This approach requires the teacher to create tasks that enable learners to develop communicative competencies (Nunan, 2010 ). However, the approach is more language learning, which makes it less effective in the 21st century where students have to learn using skills from diverse disciplines. Consequently, PBL emerged as the potential approach for teaching relevant skills in language classrooms including the 4 C’s (Rodriguez, 2022 ). Guo et al., ( 2020 ) conducted systematic literature in which they noted that PBL in higher learning enables learners to develop knowledge and skills from various disciplines. On the other hand, Badr (2021) implemented PBL for secondary school language learners in Egypt for blended programs in which he recorded positive views from learners. Such findings support the potential of PBL in developing 4 C’s. However, since the project was conducted in a non-regular classroom, the studies leave unanswered questions on whether that could be possible in the regular classroom or not. This prompts other projects like ours to answer these questions.

Studies conducted by Karyawati & Ashadi ( 2018 ) and Puspitasari ( 2020 ) involving students of English drama and pre-service teachers of English classes respectively in Indonesia demonstrate how effectively PBL supports the development of 4 C’s among learners. While Karywati and Ashadi ( 2018 ) centered the PBL around the analysis of movies and performing drama, Puspitasari ( 2020 ) centered PBL around various issues connected to teaching careers. However, in all contexts, students developed the 4 C’s. This implies that the implementation of PBL could differ based on the available resources yet it can be productive if teachers adhere to its core principles. To this end, college classrooms in Tanzania, being different contexts from the one in which the integration of 4Cs is reported, could require different considerations to integrate the 4Cs. As a result, generalization from the previous studies from different contexts was not feasible. Therefore, the study focused on exploring how to integrate 4 C’s of the 21st Century among students of Communication Skills Course in Tanzania colleges.

4 Methodology

4.1 context of the study.

The study was conducted among one hundred twenty students who were in the first-year of certificate programs at one of the Colleges in Tanzania. These students were enrolled in various programs such as Accountancy, Procurement, Business Administration, Marketing, and Information Technology. Communication Skills course is taught to all students in their first semester as one of the strategies to prepare them to meet studying demands as well as career demands College of Business Education -CBE ( 2017 ). All students from various programs are taught in one class.

4.2 Research design

Since the aim was to make interventions to improve teaching and learning practices in the communication skills course classrooms, a qualitative Participatory Action Research design was adopted. Qualitative research deals with human experiences in their natural settings (Berg & Lune, 2017 ; Creswell & Creswell, 2018 ). On the other hand, Participatory Action Research is associated with improving certain conditions in the community through collaboration between the researcher and the member of the respective community (Berg & Lune, 2017 ; Burns, 2009 ; Kemmis et al., 2014 ; Tomal, 2003 ). In the classroom context where the teacher engages in the Action Research, the teacher reserves the roles of an investigator, the teacher, and the participant (Burns, 2009 , p.2) underscores, “So, in AR, a teacher becomes an ‘investigator’ or ‘explorer’ of his or her teaching context, while at the same time being one of the participants in it” Other participants may vary from administrators, parents or students depending on the focus of the Participatory Action Research.

4.3 Sampling techniques and data collection methods

Data were collected through observation and self-reflective journals from ten students who were selected purposively. Purposive sampling was used because selected learners were only those who participated in the project. However, the number of participants was determined by the data saturation point. We also collected data through reflection and document analysis. The target document for document analysis was the curriculum for the Communication Skills Course.

4.4 Data analytical procedures

Data from the present study were analyzed thematically. The thematic analysis framework proposed by Miles & Huberman ( 1994 ) was adopted because of its potential to facilitate rigorous analysis. Based on the adopted analytical framework, we involved three key sets of activities namely data reduction, data display, and drawing conclusion and verification.

4.5 The implementation of the participatory action research through PBL

We implemented PAR in two cycles in one semester (four months). The adoption of the two cycles of PAR was attributed to the limited time for teaching the course. Table  2 presents the implementation process.

5 Research findings

The present study was guided by three specific objectives namely (a) to assess the current teaching practices for enhancing 4Cs of the 21st century among students of Communication Skills course in Tanzania colleges; (b) to evaluate the implementation of the PBL model to enhance 4Cs of 21st century among students of communication skills’ course in Tanzania colleges; (c) to determine challenges associated with enhancing of 4Cs of 21st century among students of communication skills’ course in Tanzania colleges. This section presents the findings based on themes drawn from each objective.

a) Current Teaching Practices for Enhancing 4 C’s of the 21st Century in Communication Skills Course in Tanzania Colleges .

Data analysis indicated that current teaching practices for Communication Skills Course in college hardly enhance the development of the 4 C’s among students. Data from the teacher’s reflections and document analysis showed that the current teaching practices were dominated by teaching students to memorize content knowledge that is tested through tests and examinations. For instance, the curriculum suggested related tasks for enhancing the use of technology in communication reads “(a). Explain various computer uses in business communication (b). Describe attachment processes of documents in the personal/company e-mail account to communicate business information (c). Explain problems of the internet in business communication” ( Document Analysis ) These proposed tasks focus on knowledge rather than practices, which could lead to students memorizing the process of attaching documents in a personal email without being capable of doing it. Therefore, this shows the lack of promotion of 4 C’s in the teaching practices of Communication Skills Course in Tanzania colleges.

b) Implementation of PBL to Enhance 4 C’s of the 21st Century in Communication Skills Course in Tanzania Colleges .

Data analysis indicated that the implementation of PBL was successful in enhancing 4 C’s among college students in the Communication Skills Course in Tanzania. Data from observation showed that students developed communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. Data indicates learners’ communication skills improved as they progressed with their project. For instance, data from observations show that students’ presentations from time to time changed in terms of their ability to express themselves and prepare Google slides. Furthermore, the creation of WhatsApp groups to simplify their communication is an indicator of students’ realization of the power of technology to facilitate effective communication.

Data also indicated that collaboration skills were enhanced through their engagement in their project. In one of their reflective journals, the students identified the unit as among the factors that facilitated success in their group. Also, in reflecting on how to do better in the future projects, one student reflected,

If I get the chance to participate in another project according to my position, I ensure that: To be responsible for all activities and actions of my group. To follow all advice from another person also my member. Participating in when we need to be together. To ensure I follow regulations and principles. Also, to respect all members and others ( Reflective Journal 2 ).

Similarly, student 5 reflected on what to do in the future project to be even more successful, “listening to opinions or ideas of each other” ( Reflective Journal 5 ). This shows how much students have internalized the value of collaboration for achieving a certain goal.

Furthermore, engagement in the classroom project helped learners to develop critical thinking. Analysis of data from observation revealed that students were able to change their plans time after time especially when there is a likelihood that the first plan could not materialize. This is also vivid from students’ reflective journals where students were able to analyze the strength and weaknesses of their group and propose the way forward to improve their performance. For instance, on the question of the strength and the weakness of the group, student 5 mentioned time management as the strength of their group and being dominated by a single religious/cultural perspective as one of the weaknesses of their group. However, on how to improve their performance in the future project, student 5 proposed, “listening opinions or ideas of each other” ( Reflective Journal 5 ). Therefore, it is clear that the implementation of PBL enhances learners’ critical thinking.

Moreover, data reveals that students developed creativity through engaging as they were working on their projects. The analysis of data from observation indicates that they were able to create new ideas and ways of doing things. For instance, when they failed to get enough time for practices, members of the singers’ group created a WhatsApp group where every member was sharing a voice note for his/her part for others to critique. This was also observed from the football group who organized themselves to train at 8.00 pm every day after finding that the football pitch was occupied by the college team at their usual training time. Likewise, the dancing group collected various hit songs, cut them, and merged to get only a part of the melody from each and merged them to get just a single melody. They also combined various dancing styles from different songs to appear once in their dancing project. Apart from observation, data from students’ reflections indicate their ability to develop a new solution for solving the problem at hand. For instance, student 7 while reflecting on how to improve the performance of his group in the future, reflected, “For me, I think to get more exercises …and to get the coach for teaching me and my group members.” ( Reflective Journal 7 ) Therefore, one can argue that the implementation of PBL opened the room for students to develop and exercise their creativity.

c) Challenges Associated with Enhancing of 4Cs of the 21st Century among Students of Communication skills’ course in Tanzania Colleges .

Data analysis indicates that large class size, lack of training facilities, and poor technological infrastructure are the main challenges associated with enhancing the 4 C’s in Tanzania colleges. Data from observation shows that it was challenging for the teacher to manage to provide timely feedback to all groups created from 230 students. This led to some groups receiving delayed feedback and thus delaying the progress of their project.

Since the groups were based on students’ interests and talents, some groups such as swimming and dancing groups needed training facilities such as dancing halls and swimming pools, all of which are not accessible at the college. Data from students’ reflections show that this was one of the major challenges as they engaged in their projects. for instance, on what could be needed for future improvement, student 8 reflected, “All the participants of swimming group should have access to tools that are needed for swimming such as swimming pants, swimming pool and air gas” ( Reflective journal 8 ) This shows how lack of facilities hindered students from achieving their project goals as they would have wanted to.

The question of poor technological infrastructure involved a lack of enough computers in the computer labs and the absence of reliable internet. Data from observation reveals that during the project, it was observed that students who had no smartphones lacked access to computer labs because most of the computers were occupied by other students. On the other hand, those with smartphones could not submit their progress in time because there was no internet access. At other times, this forced the teacher to share with students his internet. Furthermore, this was clear from students’ reflections where they proposed strengthening internet access as the best way to support their engagement in using technology for learning. Therefore, arguably technological infrastructure prevented students from using technology effectively to achieve their project goals to their standards.

6 Discussion

As presented in Sect.  5 , one of the findings from this study is that the current teaching practices in the Communication Skills Course in Tanzania colleges hardly enhance the development of the 4 C’s of the 21st Century among students. This implies that students in Tanzania colleges could be at risk of failing to participate in various global democratic activities such as economic and political activities. Studies have indicated that the 4 C’s are essential for surviving in today’s world (Eaton, 2010 ; Trilling & Fadel, 2009 ). As trilling and Fadel ( 2009 , p.8) underscore,

The world of Knowledge Age work requires a new mix of skills. Jobs that require routine manual and thinking skills are giving way to jobs that involve higher levels of knowledge and applied skills like expert thinking and complex communicating.

This means failure to facilitate the 4 C’s among learners is to prepare them to risk their survival in the competitive global markets. Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve the current teaching practices in Communication Skills Course in Tanzania colleges.

The findings correspond to those reported by Komba ( 2015 ) and Komba & Mohamed ( 2016 ) in Tanzania contexts and some parts of Africa such as Ghana and South Africa where the focus on teaching communication skills is more on linguistic knowledge rather than contextual relevant competencies. This could be attributed to the perpetuation of colonial inherited education whose main focus had been on certification rather than relevant competencies. Therefore, reforming the education system could be one of the best solutions to education challenges facing African countries.

Furthermore, it was found that the implementation of the PBL model enhanced the development of the 4 C’s among the students. This means that in their effort to enhance the 4 C’s among learners in Communication Skills Course, colleges should adopt PBL as the main teaching-learning model. This is also alluded to by Rodríguez-Peñarroja ( 2022 ) who argues that the potential of PBL to allow learners to develop knowledge and skills from various disciplines makes it a feasible and reasonable teaching model for developing the 4 C’s in a language classroom. Therefore, arguably PBL when implemented effectively has the potential to enhance 4 C’s among learners.

This finding is similar to the findings reported by Karyawati & Ashadi ( 2018 ) and Puspitasari ( 2020 ) in Indonesia in which PBL was found effective in developing 4 C’s among pre-service teachers of English language and English drama students. It also aligns with what was observed by Abdelfattah Badr ( 2021 ) that PBL could enhance 4 C’s among students in the non-regular classroom of secondary schools in Egypt. The similarities could be attributed to the potentialities of the PBL project to provide a wide range of learning knowledge and skills to learners when implemented effectively regardless of the classroom context. Kolk ( 2022 ) argues that there are no single classroom resources that are useful for implementing PBL but teachers should ensure they use any available resources that relate to students’ interests and real-life situations. Therefore, students should be encouraged to explore available resources that could facilitate the implementation of PBL to enhance the 4 C’s in their classroom.

Moreover, large class size, lack of training facilities, and poor technological infrastructure were found to be the challenges associated with the implementation of PBL to enhance the 4 C’s among students in Tanzania colleges. This implies that the effective transformative process of the teaching practices in colleges requires the whole organizational approach rather than the effort of an individual teacher. This is because the experienced challenges require college community action including administrative action. For instance, at some point, teachers could collaborate to work with large-size classes but the issue of improving infrastructure such as the internet requires administrative action. This has been alluded to by Trilling & Fadel ( 2009 , p. xxix) who encapsulate,

Parents, teachers, school administrators, and policymakers require a clear vision of what our children now need to learn to be successful. Everyone who cares about education and our future needs a new road map to help guide our explorations and journeys to an approach to learning geared for our times.

Therefore, there is a need for collaborative efforts to transform the teaching practices to enhance the 4 C’s among students in Tanzania colleges.

7 Conclusions and recommendations

The present study aimed at exploring how to enhance the 4 C’s in Communication Skills Course in Tanzania colleges through PBL. Findings show that the current teaching practices hardly facilitate the development of the 4 C’s among learners. The implementation of PBL in the Communication Skills Course resulted in the development of the 4 C’s among college students in Tanzania. However, large class size, lack of training facilities, and poor technological infrastructure are the observed setbacks towards effective enhancement of the 4 C’s. Based on these findings, the study calls for the urgent reformation of current teaching practices by harmonizing the curriculum goals, learning environment and teacher training to enhance learners to develop 21st century skills. Also, colleges should adopt PBL as the main teaching-learning model by allowing students to engage in their interesting projects through the teacher’s support to develop desirable skills. Furthermore, practitioners and policymakers should collaborate to improve the teaching resources and infrastructures in Tanzania. This can be done by developing policies that support access of technological infrastructure and teacher training by policymakers, and utilizing effectively available resources by practitioners.

Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Appendix 1: Teaching and learning plan for communication skills description of the teaching-learning approach

1.1 objectives.

The adoption of this approach was motivated by the following needs:

To enable students to connect classroom experience to informal experience and vice versa.

To develop self-learning as a way to achieve lifelong learning.

To facilitate creativity, communication skills, Collaboration and critical thinking among students.

To engage students in reflective practices.

To enable them to internalize the value of the community of practice in learning (collaborative learning).

To enable students to grow positive self-image in solving problems.

1.2 Teaching-learning activities

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Saimon, M., Lavicza, Z. & Dana-Picard, T. Enhancing the 4Cs among college students of a communication skills course in Tanzania through a project-based learning model. Educ Inf Technol 28 , 6269–6285 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11406-9

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What are the 4 C's?

The 4 C’s of 21st Century skills are:

• Critical thinking
• Collaboration
• Communication

Communication  is about sharing thoughts, questions, ideas, and solutions.

Collaboration  is about working together to reach a goal and putting talent, expertise, and smarts to work.

Critical thinking  is looking at problems in a new way and linking learning across subjects and disciplines. 

Creativity  is trying new approaches to get things done, innovation, and invention.

These four skills are essential for modern students to succeed in school and the workplace. In this article, you’ll discover what each skill entails and why they are so important to teach.

1. Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is the practice of solving problems, among other qualities.  Critical thinking   is a term used by educators to describe forms of learning, thought, and analysis that go beyond the memorization and recall of information and facts.  C ritical thinking occurs when students are analyzing, evaluating, interpreting, or synthesizing information and applying creative thought to form an argument, solve a problem, or reach a conclusion.

It empowers students to discover the truth in assertions, especially when it comes to separating fact from opinion. With critical thinking, students don’t just learn a set of facts or figures. Instead, they learn how to discover the facts and figures for themselves. They ask questions. They become engaged in the world around them. They help  others  think critically, too. That might be the most important part of critical thinking. Once one student has it mastered, it quickly spreads to their peers.

It works just fine when students use it alone. But when students combine it with the  next skill, the sky is the limit to what they can achieve.

Learn more about Critical Thinking by clicking here

What does that mean for our students?

Today’s students need to develop Critical Thinking skills by learning to:

• Use different kinds of reasoning, such as deductive and inductive, to understand a situation.
  
• Analyze complex systems and understand how their interconnected parts support the systems.
  
• Gather relevant information.
  Ask important questions that clarify points of view and help solve problems.
  
• Make decisions by selecting appropriate criteria and identifying alternatives to make reliable choices

2. Creativity

Creativity is the practice of thinking outside the box.  It is equally important as a means of adaptation. This skill empowers students to see concepts in a different light, which leads to innovation. Creativity is the ability to produce new, diverse, and unique ideas. Thinking creatively means looking at things from a different perspective and not be restricted by rules, customs, or norms

While creativity is often treated like a you-have-it-or-you-don’t quality, students can  learn  how to be creative by solving problems, creating systems, or just trying something they haven’t tried before.  It means students will be able to look at a problem from multiple perspectives — including those that others may not see.

This 21st-Century Skill allows students to embrace their inner strengths from big-picture planning to meticulous organization. They learn about their creativity and also learn how to express it in healthy and productive ways. More importantly, they also become  motivated  to share that creativity with others.

Just like with critical thinking, that makes creativity contagious. One student creates an interesting or innovative solution to a problem. Then, when they share it, the next student can become inspired to try something similar.

The point of creativity is to encourage students to think differently than convention demands.

To build effective Creatively Skills students must learn to:

• Use a wide range of idea creation techniques (such as brainstorming)
  
• Create new and worthwhile ideas (both incremental and radical concepts)
  
• Elaborate, refine, analyze and evaluate their own ideas in order to improve and maximize creative efforts
  
• Act on creative ideas to make a tangible and useful contribution to the field in which the innovation will occur

3. Collaboration

Collaboration   is the practice of working together to achieve a common goal.

This 21st- Century Skill, is about working together to reach a goal and putting talent, expertise, and smarts to work. Just like with communication, technology has made collaboration easier. Technology takes this skill a step farther, making types of collaboration possible that weren’t before technology. Just like with communication though, the same breakdowns can happen. The number of choices can get overwhelming, and the actual collaboration can get lost while we pay too much attention to the tool we’re using to collaborate. As the world goes more interconnected, the collaboration will become a more and more essential skill than it already is, which is why it makes the list of the  4 C’s for 21st Century skills .

Collaboration  is important because whether students realize it or not, they’ll probably work with other people for the rest of their lives. Practicing collaboration and teamwork helps students understand how to address a problem, pitch solutions, and decide the best course of action. It’s also helpful for them to learn that other people don’t always have the same ideas that they do.

To build good Collaboration Skills, students must learn to:

• Work effectively with different groups of people, including people from diverse cultures.
• Be flexible and willing to compromise with team members to reach a common goal.
  
• Demonstrate responsibility as a team member working toward a shared goal.

Communication is a requirement for any company to maintain profitability. It’s crucial for students to learn how to effectively convey ideas among different personality types. That has the potential to eliminate confusion in a workplace, which makes your students valuable parts of their teams, departments, and companies.

4. Communication

Communication is the practice of conveying ideas quickly and clearly.  It is expressing thoughts clearly, crisply articulating opinions, communicating coherent instructions, motivating others through powerful speech.

To build effective Communication Skills students must learn to:

• Communicate using digital media and environments to support personal and group learning
• Share information efficiently and effectively using appropriate digital media and environments.
• Communicate thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively to different audiences using various media and formats

How Do the 4 C’s Work Together?

The four C’s of 21st Century skills let students create a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

Critical thinking  teaches students to question claims and seeks truth.

Creativity  teaches students to think in a way that’s unique to them.

Collaboration  teaches students that groups can create something bigger and better than they can on their own.

Communication  teaches students how to efficiently convey ideas.

Combined, the four C’s empower students to become one-person think tanks. Then, when those students get together, they can achieve almost anything!

Learn more about 21st-Century Skills by clicking here​

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• Azerbaijani

4 C's: Communication, Collaboration, Creativity and Critical Thinking

Participants will learn different ways and methods to foster their students to become creative and critical thinkers as well as collaborators and problem solvers. All for that to create the learning contexts that facilitate the atmosphere where students can develop and explore confidently. The course involve the knowledge and management of cognitive, intrapersonal and interpersonal skills.

Description

• communication,
• collaboration,
• creativity,
• and critical thinking

Learning objectives

• Feel more motivated and excited about their day to day professional work, spreading this positive attitude to the rest of the teaching community.
• Improve the perspectives and development opportunities of each student.
• Promote group work and long-term projects to provoke changes with benefit effects and impact on the learning process and more satisfying and stimulating climate at schools.
• Keep abreast of the times.
• Verify and develop their pedagogical and communication skills.

Methodology & assessment

Certification details, pricing, packages and other information.

• Price: 400 Euro
• Package contents: Course

Additional information

• Language: English
• Target audience ISCED: Early childhood education (ISCED 0) Primary education (ISCED 1) Lower secondary education (ISCED 2)
• Target audience type: Teacher School Psychologist Teacher Educator
• Learning time: 25 hours or more

Upcoming sessions

Vocational subjects

Key competences, more courses by this organiser.

Creative and Critical Mind

Next upcoming session  27.05.2024 - 31.05.2024

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