Exploring the practice of 21st-century learning and innovation skills by pre-service English teachers in Türkiye

This research explores the potential gap between theoretical awareness and classroom implementation of 21st-century learning and innovation skills (the 4Cs: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity) among 32 pre-service English teachers in Türkiye. It draws on multiple data sources collected during a compulsory school practicum, including teaching philosophies, lesson plans, classroom observation reports, micro-teaching videos, and reflective papers. Using qualitative content analysis supported by descriptive frequency patterns, the analysis explores how learning and innovation skills become visible across perception-oriented, observation-oriented, and implementation-oriented tasks. The findings indicate that while pre-service teachers demonstrate high theoretical awareness and a strong critical capacity when evaluating external mentor practices, their own implementation is characterized by a functional reliance on technology for engagement rather than deep transformative pedagogy. Although the results seem to indicate a further development in skills through the year, this reflects how different practicum tasks offer distinct opportunities for articulating and implementing 21st-century skills. The study underscores the significance of practicum-based evidence in teacher education and points to the need for structured pedagogical scaffolding that helps pre-service teachers translate conceptual awareness of 21st-century skills into pedagogically grounded classroom practices.