A Study On Developing Middle School Students 21st Century Skills In Teaching Science English ——A Case Study Of A Science English Class At Shanghai Changning District Student Activity Center

Almost 20 years into the 21 st century,the world is changing rapidly.The way of learning is also changing and acquiring knowledge alone is not enough to meet the needs of students and to help them adapt to today’s highly global society.Students need to acquire critical skills such as critical thinking,problem solving,innovation,communication and collaboration to adapt to the future.Teachers should develop instruction in the classroom that is appropriate for the 21 st century social environment.The author has been a teacher of the Science English program at Shanghai Changning District Student Activity Center since 2018,and has organized several practical activities and competitions in science English covering primary,middle and high school levels.Due to the influence of the competitions,some teachers,students and parents have a utilitarian mentality in learning science-based English.In the teaching of science English in and out of school,teachers tend to emphasize vocabulary teaching and reading training,and even adopt the teaching strategy of "filling the classroom" and "memorizing and writing" in order to cope with the competition,ignoring the cultivation of students’ ability.This obviously runs counter to the needs of the 21 st century society.In fact,compared with the English texts in traditional textbooks,popular science English is authentic,cutting-edge,interesting,and has a wide range of topics,which is an excellent vehicle for developing students’ comprehensive abilities and 21 st century skills（debating,communication,creativity,globalization,etc.）.The author hopes to incorporate the development of students’ 21 st century skills in the teaching of English for Science into the teaching objectives,using corresponding teaching strategies and classroom activities to help students master the vocabulary and knowledge of English for Science while developing the necessary skills to adapt to 21 st century life.In this paper,the author explores how to develop middle school students’ 21 st century skills in the teaching of science English classroom and summarizes some effective teaching strategies.The author studied books and literature related to 21 st century skills and the teaching of science-based English,learned how American schools implement the development of 21 st century skills,what kind of teaching strategies or models they have,and analyzed some common models of teaching science-based English and their pros and cons to carry out her own research based on existing studies.The author has prepared a series of teaching designs for teaching science-based English with the goal of developing students’ 21 st century skills,and has conducted teaching practices in two parallel classes to compare students’ development of 21 st century skills before and after the course.The author will observe the students’ classroom performance.The designed instructional activities will observe students’ performance in critical thinking,collaboration,and imagination,and whether these skills change during the pre-and post-course periods.The author designed scales to guide students to self-assess their 21 st century skills before and after the teaching practice,and interviewed some of the students about their experiences around teaching activities in English for science,21 st century skills improvement,and participation in researchThe author summarized and analyzed the findings of the literature study,as well as the situation in teaching practice,and concluded some proven strategies for teaching English in science and technology that can help students improve their 21 st century skills.