Abstract

The tremendous change in the 21st century is the emerging nature of a new set of economic and social indicators which eventually capture the changes in structural transformation, technological advance, and competition in the job market. This paper aims to discuss the development and validation process of the Malaysian 21st century skills instrument (M-21CSI) to be used within the teaching and learning of science processes. The M-21CSI consists of five distinctive elements which are: i) Digital age literacy; ii) Inventive thinking; iii) Effective communication; iv) High productivity; and iv) Spiritual value. Through an extensive review of the literature and group discussion, constructs that represent the Malaysian 21st Century Skills were identified and further refined by Two Round Delphi Studies. Subsequent to that, items representing each construct were then drawn up. In order to justify the validity of this instrument, the questionnaire built has been tested its validity by face validity, language and content validity. This then was followed by factor analysis. The reliability of each construct was justified in terms of its internal consistency by means of Cronbach Alpha. Findings of this study confirmed the validity and reliability of the M-21CSI and thus indicated that it is a useful instrument to evaluate the mastery of Malaysian students towards 21st century skills.

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