21st‐century competences: The relation of ICT competences with higher‐order thinking capacities and teamwork competences in university students

Abstract

The Knowledge Society, along with the non‐stop growing technological evolution, entails university students acquiring new competences for them to be successful in society. These are called 21st‐century competences that come as high‐skill competences – higher‐order thinking capacities and teamwork competences – and information and communication technologies (ICT) competences – technological, pedagogical and ethical. This study aims to determine the link between ICT competences and high‐skill competences. A correlational study was conducted whose sample was formed by 983 students studying degrees at the Universidad de Valencia (Spain), selected by non‐probabilistic incidental sampling and collecting information with two questionnaires. The results indicate a positive and statistically significant relation between ICT competences with the other two considered sets: higher‐order thinking capacities and teamwork competences. Moreover, pedagogical competences are more related with the two high‐skill competence sets. This suggests the need for training plans that favour learning 21st‐century competences and for stressing pedagogical competences in ICT.

The Teaching Digital Competence of Health Sciences Teachers. A Study at Andalusian Universities (Spain)

“…This indicates that the analysis of this competence is necessary, because its low dominance has repercussions in a lower and unqualified educational use of ICT by the teacher [ 21 ]. On the other hand, as its mastery has a transversal impact on other competences that the teacher must have, its study and analysis, it becomes more necessary [ 22 ].…”

Measurements of Intercultural Teamwork Competence and Its Impact on Design Students’ Competitive Advantages

“…The TWC-CQ scale also provided "characteristics" for "effective teams" in culturally diverse settings according to Navarro et al's (2017) [16] opinion. Finally, the information and communication contents in the TWC-CQ scale echoed with Almerich et al's (2020) [17] call to accumulate 21st-century competencies. In addition, the TWC-CQ scale covered abilities, such as high levels of specialist knowledge, rapid responses, and adaptability, which Nadal et al (2015) [15] emphasized.…”

“…Nowadays, in academic settings, teachers' perceptions are not the only source of assessment, but also consider other agents involved in teamwork, such as the students themselves through peer ratings and self-evaluations [14]. Teamwork competence in higher education settings was highly valued based on the knowledge from team science, and the characteristics of effective teams of students were gradually generated [16], and it is positively related to 21st-century competence (information and communication technologies) [17].…”

Relationships between ICT competencies related to work, self-esteem, and self-regulated learning with engineering competencies

“…In some jobs, basic ICT skills are not specific to the profession; however, many job profiles in engineering industries increasingly require engineers with good technical expertise [ 6 ] and high-level ICT-Work and cross-functional skill capabilities [ 7 ] to apply specific software in their profession [ 8 ]. Merely possessing basic ICT skills is not sufficient because the labor market in the digital age and in the critical COVID-19 situation requires more technology capabilities and high-skill competencies [ 9 ]. Therefore, engineering students need to have sufficient knowledge and skills in using complex ICT systems for their profession in the labor market and for career development.…”

“…ICT competencies are essential to students in any career field, especially for engineering students, whose subject matter is difficult to study. Studies have reported that ICT competencies in curricula would benefit learning in terms of both cognitive and noncognitive development [ 10 , 11 ], for example, increased higher-order thinking capacities [ 9 , 12 ], self-efficacy [ 13 ], learning processes [ 14 ], academic performance [ 13 , 15 ], and facilitating the development of students’ work skills [ 16 ]. In contrast, a study by Meng, et al [ 17 ] found a significantly negative association between perceived ICT competencies and student achievement in China.…”