Is practical work for school science important for the 21st century skills? This is indeed a good question to be answered, especially towards the future teachers. It is cannot be denied that this practical work is very useful to the future generation. “This practical work is seen as an essential part of teaching and learning physics” said (Abraham & Millar, 2008). Thus in other words, this practical work carried out by students has been seen as an essential feature of science education. As a science teacher, it is our duty to help the students to see and get the linkage between the theory and the scientific phenomena which they see in surrounding or in the experiments. And to make it a realization, this can be done by doing this practical work through either illustrative, exercises, and also investigative activities.
Before go to deep in this practical work, let’s go to the overview of 21st century skills. According to Glossary of Education Reform, the term 21st century skills is referring to a broad of set of knowledge, skills, work habits, and also character traits. Critical thinking, problem solving, reasoning, synthesizing information, research skills and practices, interrogative questioning, creativity, collaboration, information and communication technology (ICT) literacy, media and internet literacy and computer programming is some of the illustrative overview which commonly associated with 21st century. As from my point of view, I strongly believe that this