ABSTRACT
Zhu Xi’s 朱熹 (1130-1200) standing in the Confucian tradition parallels that of Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) in the Christian tradition. Although Zhu Xi’s educational ideas were written close to a century ago, they remain germane to teaching and learning in the 21st century. No school today would claim that its mission is to indoctrinate its students with facts and deprive them of higher-order thinking skills. Instead, many educational institutions have declared their goal to promote 21st century competencies, which are an assemblage of knowledge, skills and dispositions needed by a person to thrive in a knowledge society. What I aim to do in this chapter is to compare the 21st century competencies with Zhu Xi’s mindful conception of competence. I elaborate on Zhu Xi’s core educational ideas pertaining to mindfulness and a corresponding pedagogical programme. His ideas challenge the predominantly behaviourist and generic conceptions of competence that underpin the major frameworks for 21st century competencies.
