The Competences from the Perception and Practice of University Students
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
3. Materials and Methods Results
- Evaluate the attitudes of university students regarding competences in a pedagogical design.
- Analyze student ratings regarding their competence skill.
- Verify the importance of certain competences to university students.
- Evaluate the relationship between importance and skill that students emphasize in their training process.
4. Results
4.1. Dimension 1: Importance and Skill of Competences
4.2. Dimension 2: Correlation between Importance and Skill of Competences
4.3. Dimension 3: Qualitative Assessment of the Most Important Competences
5. Conclusions
- University students consider planning skills, higher cognitive skills, quality management and innovation, expression and communication, knowledge society and teamwork important. The research hypothesis (H1) was accepted from the data obtained in dimension 1 and in dimension 3 (i1, i2, i3, i5, i6, i8, i9, i13, i18, i19, i21 and i23).
- Regarding the statement (H2) that university students prioritize planning competences, higher cognitive skills, quality management and innovation, expression and communication, knowledge society and teamwork, from the data obtained, the descriptive research hypothesis was rejected, and the null hypothesis was rejected. However, on the other hand, students emphasized that they prioritize communication and written expression competences, ability to mediate and resolve conflicts, ability to coordinate with the work of others, critical reasoning, competence in the search for relevant information, decision-making, ability to coordinate work groups and communication and oral expression (s8, s9, s13, s14, s18, s21, s23, s24).
- Regarding H3, the greater the importance of the competence, the greater the student’s skill in the competence is. The correlational hypothesis of investigation was rejected, and the null hypothesis was accepted. For this reason, it was concluded that there is no correlation between the importance and skill of the competences from the perspective of the students (dimension 2).
- The students pointed out that the most important and essential competences in the context of higher education are initiative and motivation and planning and organization (dimension 3), which is consistent with the high values obtained in the competences of management and planning in the previous dimensions.
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Dimensions | Indicators | Instruments |
---|---|---|
1. Importance and skill of competences | Management and planning Higher cognitive Quality management and innovation Expression and communication Knowledge society Teamwork | Questionnaire Descriptive analysis |
2. Correlation between importance and skill of competences | Questionnaire correlational research | |
3. Qualitative assessment of competences | Data triangulation Stimulation scale Open questions |
Importance (i) | Skill (s) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Competences | Items | M 1 | M 2 | M 1 | M 2 |
Management and planning | 1. Initiative and motivation | 3.70 | 3.66 | 3.17 | 2.97 |
2. Planning and organization | 3.69 | 3.01 | |||
3. Appropriate management of time | 3.59 | 2.75 | |||
Higher cognitive skills | 4. Analysis and synthesis | 3.43 | 3.55 | 2.89 | 2.94 |
5. Application of knowledge to practice | 3.65 | 2.90 | |||
6. Solving problems in new or unfamiliar environments | 3.54 | 2.8 | |||
7. Creative thinking | 3.47 | 2.86 | |||
8. Critical thinking | 3.63 | 3.12 | |||
9. Decision-making | 3.62 | 3.08 | |||
Quality management and innovation | 10. Monitoring and evaluation of own work or of others | 3.23 | 3.40 | 2.75 | 2.81 |
11. Application of improvement measures | 3.45 | 2.83 | |||
12. Innovation capacity | 3.51 | 2.87 | |||
Expression and communication | 13. Communication and written expression | 3.64 | 3.45 | 3.21 | 2.71 |
14. Communication and oral expression | 3.59 | 3.02 | |||
15. Expression in other languages (with special emphasis on English) | 3.12 | 2.28 | |||
16. Communication and mathematical, scientific and technological expression | 2.99 | 2.35 | |||
Knowledge society | 17. Competence in the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) | 3.42 | 3.33 | 2.96 | 2.96 |
18. Competence in the search for relevant information | 3.54 | 3.10 | |||
19. Competence in the management and organization of information | 3.55 | 2.99 | |||
20. Competence in data collection, management and presentation | 3.44 | 2.80 | |||
Teamwork | 21. Ability to coordinate with the work of others | 3.53 | 3.41 | 3.13 | 3.02 |
22. Ability to negotiate effectively | 3.36 | 2.98 | |||
23. Ability to mediate and resolve conflicts | 3.57 | 3.16 |
Importance | Skill | ||
---|---|---|---|
Importance | Correlation Coefficient | 1.000 | 0.086 |
Significance (two-tailed) | 0.872 | ||
Skill | Correlation Coefficient | 0.086 | 1.000 |
Significance (two-tailed) | 0.872 |
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Sáez-López, J.-M.; Domínguez-Garrido, M.-C.; Medina-Domínguez, M.-d.-C.; Monroy, F.; González-Fernández, R. The Competences from the Perception and Practice of University Students. Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, 34. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10020034
Sáez-López J-M, Domínguez-Garrido M-C, Medina-Domínguez M-d-C, Monroy F, González-Fernández R. The Competences from the Perception and Practice of University Students. Social Sciences. 2021; 10(2):34. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10020034
Chicago/Turabian StyleSáez-López, José-Manuel, María-Concepción Domínguez-Garrido, María-del-Castañar Medina-Domínguez, Fuensanta Monroy, and Raúl González-Fernández. 2021. "The Competences from the Perception and Practice of University Students" Social Sciences 10, no. 2: 34. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10020034
APA StyleSáez-López, J.-M., Domínguez-Garrido, M.-C., Medina-Domínguez, M.-d.-C., Monroy, F., & González-Fernández, R. (2021). The Competences from the Perception and Practice of University Students. Social Sciences, 10(2), 34. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10020034