Influence of Lecturers’ Perception, Attitude and Awareness on application of 21st-Century Skills on Students’ Civic Competence among Public Universities in South-South, Nigeria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64348/zije.2026434Keywords:
21st-century skills, lecturers’ perception, lecturers’ attitude, lecturers’ awareness, civic competence, university educationAbstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the application of 21st-century skills and students’ civic competence in universities in South-South Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. Three hypotheses guided the study and were tested at a 0.05 level of significance. The population comprised 114 Social Studies lecturers in universities in South-South Nigeria. A census sampling technique was adopted, meaning that all 114 lecturers were used as respondents for the study. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire titled Application of 21st-Century Skills and Students’ Civic Competence Questionnaire (ATCSSCCQ) developed by the researcher. The instrument consisted of items rated on a four-point Likert scale of Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (D), and Strongly Disagree (SD). Face and content validity were established by three experts from the University of Delta, Agbor, Nigeria. Reliability was determined using the test–retest method with 25 lecturers from a university outside the study area, yielding a Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficient of 0.82. Data were analyzed using simple linear regression analysis at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that teachers’ perception, attitude, and awareness of the application of 21st-century skills significantly influence students’ civic competence in universities in South-South Nigeria. The study concluded that lecturers’ perception, attitude, and awareness are important determinants of students’ civic competence development. The study recommended that university authorities and policymakers should organize regular training programmes to enhance lecturers’ perception, attitude, and awareness of 21st-century skills, encourage lecturers to adopt positive instructional dispositions, and strengthen awareness campaigns to promote effective application of 21st-century skills in teaching.
References
Alsaeedi, Z. S. A. (2023). The relationship between reading attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and reading habits among UTHM undergraduates (Master’s thesis, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia).
Ayanwoye, O. K., Falebita, O. S., Salami, O. O., Ogunjobi, A. O., Ajewole, I. P., Oyegbami, G. A., et al. (2025). Students’ and lecturers’ awareness, knowledge, and usage of extended reality technology in Nigerian universities. The International Journal of Technologies in Learning, 32(2), 141. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18848/2327-0144/CGP/v32i02/141-167
Azim, M. F., & Kusuma, M. I. A. (2025). 21st century skills-based civic engagement: An analysis of civics textbooks in elementary schools. International Civic Engagement Studies, 1(1), 33–43.
Bari, M. J., Banerjee, P., Sardar, P., & Sardar, D. (2024). Empowering futures: Biotechnology education in Bangladeshi high schools. International Journal of Recent Research Aspects, 11(1), 12–22.
Bilgin, R. (2024). Exploring students’ perceptions towards 21st century skills through novel applications: A comparative study among EFL learners in Iraq. Arab World English Journal, 15(1). https://ssrn.com/abstract=4779722 DOI: https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol15no1.18
Celume, M. P., & Maoulida, H. (2022). Developing 21st century competencies among youth through an online learning program: BE a global citizen. Education Sciences, 12(3), 148. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12030148
Coutinho, I. C. (2024). Attracting students to pursue chemistry in higher education: Overcoming the challenges. In ICERI2024 Proceedings (pp. 3183–3192). IATED. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21125/iceri.2024.0823
Damayanti, S., & Khairunisa, W. (2024). Building legal awareness of citizens through civic participation competence in civic education. Abjad Journal of Humanities & Education, 2(2), 91–99. DOI: https://doi.org/10.62079/abjad.v2i2.34
Eroğlu, E., Aydemir Dev, M., & Dalgın, K. (2026). Exploring the moderating role of university environmental performance in shaping students’ environmental awareness and behaviors. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 27(2), 461–478. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-05-2024-0323
Handayani, W. P. P. (2023). The UTAUT implementation model in defining the behavioral intention of mobile banking users. Jurnal Manajemen Bisnis, 14(2), 361–377. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18196/mb.v14i2.18649
Hidayah, Y., Septiningrum, L., & Arpannudin, I. (2024). Application of the collaborative learning model to improve 21st-century civic skills. Journal of Education and E- Learning Research, 11(3), 456–463. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20448/jeelr.v11i3.5753
Jayadiputra, E., Karim, A. A., Sapriya, S., & Rahmat, R. (2023). The Pancasila and civic education curriculum model at 21st century. Jurnal Civics: Media Kajian Kewarganegaraan, 20(1), 65–74. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21831/jc.v20i1.49455
Kabatiah, M., Batubara, A., Ramadhan, T., & Rachman, F. (2024). Pedagogical competence of civic education teacher in 21st century: A systematic literature review. Jurnal Kewarganegaraan, 21(2), 139–150. https://doi.org/10.24114/jk.v21i2.53446 DOI: https://doi.org/10.24114/jk.v21i2.53446
Lituhayu, D., Rahman, A. Z., Muluk, M. R. K., & Huda, M. N. (2023). Anti-corruption education policy outputs for combatting corruption in Indonesia: Applying the theory of planned behaviour. Journal of Contemporary Governance and Public Policy, 4(2), 195–214. DOI: https://doi.org/10.46507/jcgpp.v4i2.230
Medne, D., Lastovska, A., Lāma, G., & Grava, J. (2024). The development of civic competence in higher education to support a sustainable society: The case of Latvian higher education. Sustainability, 16(6), 2238. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su16062238
Muir, M. D. (2022). Informal teacher mentorship in diversity, equity, and inclusion over Instagram: A qualitative study (Doctoral dissertation, California Lutheran University).
Oktam, M. G., Rustam, N. D., Bakhtiyo, T. N., & Husniddin, I. F. (2025). Enhancing professional-pedagogical readiness of higher education students: Mechanisms for effective teacher preparation. Indonesian Journal of Multidiciplinary Research, 5(1), 213–222. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17509/ijomr.v5i1.82708
Oluwagbohunmi, M. F., & Alonge, R. A. (2023). 21st century skills and its applicability to Social studies. Asian Journal of Education and Social Studies, 41(3), 37–43. DOI: https://doi.org/10.9734/ajess/2023/v41i3896
Ribau, I. (2025). An exploratory study into how students perceive chemistry at a cutting-edge science and technology higher education school. Run.UNL. https://run.unl.pt
Saleh, M., Komalasari, K., Sapriya, S., & Masyitoh, I. S. (2022). Students’ perceptions of civic engagement in ICT skills-based citizenship education learning. European Online Journal of Natural and Social Sciences, 11(4), 1363.
Saputra, S., & Abdulkarim, A. (2022). Analysis of civics textbooks in framework of the 21st century learning. In Annual Civic Education Conference (ACEC 2021) (pp. 453–458). Atlantis Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220108.082
Yulin, N., & Danso, S. D. (2025). Assessing pedagogical readiness for digital innovation: A mixed-methods study. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.15781
