Investigating the Integration of Collaborative Skills and Microlearning-based English Reading Materials for Seventh Graders

Abstract

Collaborative skills are one of the 21st-century skills that must be practiced for seventh graders in English reading materials because they are helpful in accomplishing the learning goals as the characteristics of Kurikulum Merdeka Belajar. However, collaborative skills have not been fully integrated into the English reading materials from the previous curriculum. Moreover, microlearning is the trend of learning method that appears in the English reading materials. This study focused on collaborative skills and microlearning in the reading activities from the English reading materials because the previous studies only focused on collaborative strategies. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the integration of collaborative skills and microlearning-based English reading materials for seventh graders. Content analysis was employed as the method of this study. The English reading materials were analyzed using a collaborative skills framework by The Cambridge Life Competencies and microlearning descriptors by Allela. The findings revealed 5 chapters consisting of 3 to 4 units, and only 4 chapters integrate with collaborative skills, there are seven indicators of collaborative skills (CS); CS 1, CS 4, CS 5, CS 6, CS 7, CS 8, and CS 10. Furthermore, seven components of microlearning (ML) are found in the English reading materials, and they are ML 3, ML 4, ML 5, ML 6, ML 7, ML8, and ML10. In brief, this enhanced understanding will help to improve projections on the outcomes of integrating microlearning and collaborative abilities with other 21st-century skills into English reading materials, leading to a more thorough integration.