Fostering 21st century skills by teaching sustainable development goals using Skype in the classroom

The study was conducted to see how the incorporating of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using Skype into the tertiary education effectively develops students' 21 st century skills. This paper is comprised of two sections: The first section deals with WHY (i.e, the rationale for integrating 21 st century into the curriculum, for teaching SDGs, and for using Skype as a means to teach SDGs), WHAT (the framework for 21 st century skills and the five SDGs chosen to teach) and HOW 21 st century skills, SDGs were integrated into teaching 30 students in the English language classroom at Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology in Hanoi, Vietnam. The second section deals with the findings on the questionnaires, followed up by a semi-structured interview. The findings show the students' 21 st century skills witnessed a significant development but such skills as critical thinking, collaboration and making local connection were found to be less paid attention to. Project-based learning and criterion-based grading are recommended.