Factors Influencing the Development of 21st Century Learning Skills among Nursing Students in Nakhon Si Thammarat

Abstract

This mixed-method research aimed to: 1) study the level of development of the 21^st century learning skills among students in a Nursing College in Nakhon Si Thammarat, 2) compare the level of development of those learning skills between classes, 3) study factors influencing the development of 21^st century skills, such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, cultural awareness, digital literacy and autonomy, as well as 4) determine the needs in developing 21^st century learning skills among nursing students. Participants were 225 nursing students from the 1^st year to the 4^th year during the academic year 2017. Stratified random sampling was used. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using questionnaire, and interview, respectively. 28 representatives of nursing students were interviewed. The questionnaire was consisted of 3Rs 7Cs skills. It was validated by three experts. Its index of Items Objectives Congruence (IOC) was higher than 0.67 for each item. And its reliability was tested using Cronbach’s alpha Coefficient, yielding a value of 0.97. Data were analyzed by frequency, percentage, means, standard deviations, One Way ANOVA, Stepwise Multiple Regression, and content analysis.

The finding of this study showed that the  21^st  century learning skills among nursing students was at a high level (=3.88, SD=0.35). The highest skill was in computing and ICT literacy (= 4.18 SD=0.51), while the lowest skills of learning skills was in (w)Riting (=3.33 SD=0.36). The comparison of 21^st century learning skills among nursing students from different years found that there was a significant difference in the development of their 21^st century learning skills (p<.00). The level of the 21^st century learning skills of the 4^th year students was higher than the 3^rd, 2^nd and 1^st year. Main factor that influenced 21^st century learning skills was the age of nursing student, which predicted level of development of 21^st century learning skills at 3.70 percent (p<.002). All students needed to improve 3Rs skills.