Investigating 21st Century Learning Skills and Students’ Inquisitiveness in Online Education towards Competence Acquisition during the Covid-19 Situation

Proceedings of The 4th World Conference on Research in Education

Year: 2021

DOI:

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Investigating 21st Century Learning Skills and Students’ Inquisitiveness in Online Education towards Competence Acquisition during the Covid-19 Situation

Angsaya Siepong, Jorrit Alwin van der Woude, Noppadol Kittikachorn and James Pate

 

ABSTRACT: 

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which started in early 2020 and continued into 2021, all teaching and learning at universities in Thailand were required to shift from a physical classroom on-campus setting, to an online learning platform. Among the many challenges of going online, an acute awareness arose for lecturers: How to adapt teaching methodologies for effective online teaching to enhance inquisitiveness and competence among students? Against this backdrop, this study attempts to investigate the three main 21st century learning skills, comprising critical thinking, analytical thinking, and communication and the role of active learning in an online classroom, and how these relate to the acquisition of adaptive competence among students. Data was collected from students enrolled in various business management courses at Stamford International University, Bangkok Thailand, in Trimester 3/2020, (March 2021 – June 2021). This study unravels the findings from data analysis by performing structural equation modelling (SEM). The proposed conceptual framework and the hypothesized relationships were tested. The results reveal significant relationships among the variables of interest. Importantly, the role of active learning was recognized as crucial to reinforce inquisitiveness and acquisition of competence on an online platform. Moreover, this study provides discussion, research implications, and recommendations for future study.

keywords: 21st Century Skills, Active Learning, Adaptive Competence, Online Teaching, Covid-19 Crisis.