The integration and frequency of use of 21st Century Learning Skills in Agriculture Education

Abstract

The embedding of 21^st Century learning skills is crucial to ensuring that learning prepares learners to tackle complex, dynamic and technologically lit environments. But some evidence suggests that application of these competencies in classroom practice is not always consistent. This study focused on the integration and the use of 21^st Century learning skills in Agriculture education in public secondary schools of Vihiga Sub-County, Vihiga County, Kenya. In particular, the study aimed to identify the level of integration of 21^st Century learning (21CL) skills in Agriculture education, the frequency of their application in the teaching-learning process and the differences observed in the levels of integration and application of some chosen skills. Constructivist Learning Theory was used as the study's guidance and a descriptive cross sectional survey research design was adopted that incorporated a correlational component. The target population was 1100 Form Four Agriculture students, 28 Agriculture teachers and 28 school administrators. A multi-stage sampling process was employed to select 20 schools, 466 students and 20 Agriculture teachers and 20 school administrators. Questionnaire and structured interview schedules were used for data collection and descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were used in data analysis. The results indicated that there was low level of integration and use of 21^st century learning skills. The skills most integrated and used most often were critical thinking and problem solving, with 55.7% of students saying they were integrated and 56.0% saying they were always used. The lowest integration was in collaboration and teamwork with 75.4% of students disagreeing that the skills were integrated. Global and cultural awareness was the least frequently used skill, with 41.6% reporting that it was never used. It can be concluded from the study that Agriculture education has not adopted the wide spectrum of 21^st Century learning skills completely. The study suggests that Agriculture education teachers need to be trained specifically on how to integrate the balanced use of all the 21^st Century learning skills and that Learning and Instructional strategies in Agriculture education should be based on the learner and improved ICT materials should be used to promote such balanced and consistent integration