Factors Affecting to the Learning Skills in the 21st Century among Mahidol University’s Undergraduates

Abstract

This study comprised quantitative research with the objective of to studying and comparing the learning skills in the 21st Century; and the factors that affect the learning skills in 21st Century among Mahidol University’s undergraduates. The samples are Mahidol University’s undergraduates who studied in the Academic Year 2021. The Taro Yamane method was applied to calculate the sample size from the population number of 21,347 which resulted in 393 subjects randomly selected using the simple random sampling method. Questionnaires were used to collect information which was divided into three parts; - 1) demographic information including gender, year of study, group of the studying subject, cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA), and activity participation, 2) learning support factors including instructor, student, learning process and university support, and 3) the level of the learning skills in 21st Century based on the concept from Partnership for 21st Century Skills. The questionnaire’s reliability was 0.98 as assessed using Cronbach’s alpha-coefficient. The demographic information was analyzed using frequency and percentage, and the levels of the learning skills in the 21st Century were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The study found that the overall learning skills in 21st Century level of Mahidol University’s undergraduates was at the highest level. A comparative study of the learning skills in the 21st Century level with each aspect of the demographic information were analyzed using the t-test and One-Way ANOVA method. Then, the Scheffe Post Hoc Comparison method was applied to analyze the significant differences found. It was found that different years of study, cumulative GPA, and activity participation resulted in different levels of learning skills in 21st Century and was significant at.05. The different gender and group of learning subjects did not affect the learning skills in the 21st Century. The factors that affect the learning skills in the 21st Century were used Stepwise Multiple Regression method found that; student factor, learning process factor and university support factor; were affected to the 21st Century skills and can predict the learning skills in 21st Century of Mahidol University’s undergraduates at 61.8% significantly by the significant at.01 levels.

Keywords

• learning skills in 21st century
• learning support factors
• undergraduate student