Demographic Characteristics and 21st-Century Skills of High School Students: The Example of Konya

Abstract

The 21st-century skills (21CSs) such as Digital Age Literacy (DAL), Inventive Thinking (IT), High Productivity (HP), Effective Communication (EC), and Spiritual Values (SV) encompass various abilities that are essential for adapting to the demands of the modern era and ensuring future success. This research was conducted to determine the developmental levels of high school students' 21CSs and to understand the impact of some demographic characteristics on these skills. Data related to the developmental levels of high school students' 21CSs and some demographic characteristics (gender, financial status of the family, educational status of the mother, educational status of the father, and type of high school graduated) were collected using the 21st-Century Skills Scale (21CSS) adapted into Turkish by Erkılıç (2020). The scale was converted into an online survey shape and administered to 200 high school students studying in some of General, Anatolian, Science, and Vocational High Schools in the Konya province during the 2021-2022 academic year. The statistical analysis of the obtained data was conducted using the SPSS 23.00 software. Descriptive statistical analyses were used for the demographic data, while parametric tests were employed to analyze the relationships between variables. According to the results of the statistical analysis, it was determined that most of the demographic characteristics of high school students did not have a significant impact on the 21CSs of the high school students. On the other hand, it has been determined that there is a statistically significant difference in the development levels of students' Digital Age Literacy and High Productivity skills based on the mother's educational status.

Keywords

• demografik değişkenler
• lise öğrencileri
• 21. yüzyıl becerileri
• akademik başarı
• demographic variables
• high school students
• 21st-century skills
• academic success