Empowering EFL Students with 21st-Century Skills at a Saudi University: Challenges and Opportunities (Published)
Citation: Ahmed Alghamdi (2022) Empowering EFL Students with 21st-Century Skills at a Saudi University: Challenges and Opportunities, International Journal of Education, Learning and Development, Vol. 10, No.3, pp.39-53
This study aims to examine students’ competencies of the 21st century 4Cs skills (Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, and Critical Thinking) among foundation-year students at a Saudi university. A twenty-one-item custom designed questionnaire was utilized to gather quantitative and qualitative data of 379 male and female students. This questionnaire includes two main constructs of self-report and close-ended as well as five open-ended questions. The close-ended questions were analysed through Man-Whitney U on-parametric statistical tests while the open-ended questions were textually analysed for particular themes or shared responses amongst the participants. The findings revealed no statistical significant difference between males and females competencies of the 4Cs skills. However, the frequency analysis of the responses revealed that the participants are still lacking the full potential of the 4Cs skills required to excel in their academic studies and the workplace after graduation. This study has practical implications for curriculum development reforms at higher educational institutions in different contexts to incorporate and integrate designated courses that promote the necessary skills students need to excel during their academic studies and after graduation to achieve current demands of and maintain sustainability in the workplace after graduation.
Keywords: 21st Century Skills, 4Cs Skills, Competencies, Foundation-Year Students, Saudi Context
‘How to Change Things When Change Is Hard’: The Implementation of Pbl in University Of Zawia (Published)
Research indicates that there is a significant gap between the knowledge and skills that college students need for life and in the current state of education in higher education. Educators and researchers agreed that more must be done to prepare students for future jobs. it is clear that the traditional methods of teaching are not going to improve such skills. A growing body of academic research supports the use of project-based learning which has been considered as a teaching method for closing the gap between current students’ learning of knowledge and skills needed for the 21st century. The main objective of this research is to investigate the benefits and the challenges of the implementation of PBL in the higher education institutions in Libya mainly in three colleges at the University of Zawia as a case study. The participants of this study are 6 teachers from different departments in University of Zawia. The data analysis of the gathered data evolved that, the PBL as a teaching method, supports, facilitates and improves the learning process. It also allows students to work collaboratively and enriches their creativity.
Keywords: 21st Century Skills, Project-Based Learning, in-service training