Cultivating the 21st-century learners' competencies by considering the education components of the curricula: a step towards realizing sustainable development

Abstract

Purpose

The present study aimed to develop the competencies of 21st-century learners by considering the characteristics of the education element in the curricula.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employed a qualitative research design and a content analysis technique. The research population consisted of 20 curriculum design professors selected via a snowball sampling method until data saturation was reached. The research instrument was semistructured interviewing. The content validity of the interview questions was determined according to 5 curriculum design experts' opinions. Four credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability criteria were used to increase the accuracy of qualitative data. The findings were analyzed using thematic analysis (structural-interpretive) through open, axial and selective coding.

Findings

Education characteristics in competency-based curricula were categorized into knowledge, skills, attitude and educational values. Knowledge includes pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and pedagogical technological knowledge; teaching skills include organization, facilitation, care and flexibility; educational attitudes consist of educational and pedagogical attitudes; and educational values include individual and group-social values.

Originality/value

The present research put three critical dimensions together: the competencies of the new-age learners from the perspective of the curriculum, which is the heart of the education process and is aimed at sustainable development, which is the priority of the countries today.

Citation

Ghorbani, S. and Jafari, S.E. (2023), "Cultivating the 21st-century learners' competencies by considering the education components of the curricula: a step towards realizing sustainable development", Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JARHE-05-2023-0202