This paper synthesizes research evidence pertaining to several so-called 21st century skills:
critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, metacognition, and motivation. We provide a rationale
for focusing on these five skills and explain their importance as educational outcomes. We then
summarize peer-reviewed research published in education and psychology in order to answer
several questions about these skills: (1) how do researchers define them; (2) how are they related
to one another both theoretically and empirically; and (3) how do researchers traditionally
measure them. We use the answers to these questions to make several recommendations
regarding how best to assess these skills. Briefly, research suggests these skills are inter-related
in complex ways. Researchers have used a number of approaches to measuring these skills,
including (1) self-reports, (2) global rating scales, (3) standardized assessments, both multiple-
choice and performance-based, and (4) observational measures. We recommend several practices
for assessing 21st century skills: incorporating multiple measures to permit triangulation of
inferences; designing complex and/or challenging tasks; including open-ended and/or ill-
structured tasks; using tasks that employ meaningful or authentic, real-world problem contexts;
making student thinking and reasoning visible; and exploring innovative approaches that utilize
new technology and psychometric models.