Acquisition and Application of 21st Century Skills among Pre-service Social Studies Teachers in Ghana

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that Social Studies can aid students in acquiring essential 21st-century skills. Nonetheless, research on the real-world application of these skills is limited. While some studies have looked at integrating these skills into the Social Studies curriculum and teaching approaches, they have not investigated their use in practical situations. This study aimed to examine how pre-service Social Studies students at the University of Education, Winneba, in Ghana acquire and apply 21st-century skills. A quantitative approach was used with a descriptive survey design. The study included a population of 333 pre-service Social Studies teachers from the Department of Social Studies Education. The respondents were selected through proportionate stratified sampling, and data was gathered using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and a one-sample t-test were used to analyze the data. The results showed a low level of 21st-century skills acquisition among the respondents, with a mean of mean score of 1.9 (SD = 0.9). The one-sample t-test revealed significant findings across all assessed 21st-century skills, with mean scores consistently below the benchmark of 3.0 (p-value = .00). Although the development of 21st-century skills was limited, the participants applied several of these skills in managing the socio-economic aspects of their lives.