New vision for education: fostering social and emotional learning through technology

In 2015, the World Economic Forum published a report that focused on the pressing issue of the 21st-century skills gap and ways to address it through technology (New Vision for Education: Unlocking the Potential of Technology). In that report, we defined a set of 16 crucial proficiencies for education in the 21st century. Those skills include six 'foundational literacies', such as literacy, numeracy and scientific literacy, and 10 skills that we labelled either 'competencies' or 'character qualities'. In our current report, we follow up on our 2015 report by exploring how these competencies and character qualities do more than simply deepen 21st-century skills. Together, they lie at the heart of social and emotional learning (SEL) and are every bit as important as the foundational skills required for traditional academic learning. Although many stakeholders have defined SEL more narrowly, we believe the definition of SEL is evolving. We define SEL broadly to encompass the 10 competencies and character qualities. As is the case with traditional academic learning, technology can be invaluable at enabling SEL.

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