The Extent to Which Students of the University of Science and Technology – Aden Possess 21st-Century Skills from Their Own Perspective

Abstract

The study aimed to know the extent to which the students of the University of Science and Technology, Aden, possess the skills of the twenty-first century from their point of view. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researchers used the descriptive approach and constructed a questionnaire consisting of (50) paragraphs distributed over five main skills: (creative thinking, critical thinking, communication, cooperation and participation, and information culture) as a study tool. After verifying the validity and reliability of the tool, it was distributed to a stratified random sample consisting of (307) third and fourth level students in the faculties of: (Administrative and Human Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Engineering and Computers) at the University of Science and Technology. The study showed the following results: - That the students of the University of Science and Technology - Aden - possess the skills of the twenty-first century to a large extent from their point of view; with an overall arithmetic mean of (4.03 out of 5), and the skills were ranked in terms of the degree of possession as follows: First place: cooperation and participation skills (with an average of 4.09), and “information culture” in second place with an average of (4.07), followed by the skill of “critical thinking” in third place with an average of (4.02), followed by the skill of “communication and contact” in fourth place with an average of (4.02), and finally the skill of “creative thinking” came in fifth place with an average of (3.95). - There were no statistically significant differences in skill acquisition attributable to gender or academic level. There were no statistically significant differences in general attributable to colleges, although there was a statistically significant difference in the "creative thinking skills" axis, favoring students from the College of Administrative Sciences over students from the College of Medical Sciences. - The researchers recommend integrating 21st century skills into all curricula in Yemeni universities in accordance with the nature of the courses and the type of skills.