Investigating the 21st -Century Skills of Undergraduate Students: Physics Success, Attitude, and Perception

Research Article

Abstract

This study was performed to figure out the relationship between undergraduate students’ 21^st-century skills, physics success, attitudes toward physics, and perceptions of physics teaching and learning. The study was carried out with 329 undergraduate students from Architecture-Engineering, Education, and Health Sciences Faculties. For collecting data of the study, the "Scale of Attitude toward Physics", "Scale of Perception Related to Physics Teaching and Learning" and "Malaysian 21st-Century Skills Instrument" which had been adapted into Turkish, were applied to the undergraduate students. Based on the statistical analysis carried out on the obtained data, a significant relationship wasn’t found between the 21^st-century skills of undergraduate students and their physics success. On the contrary of this result, a significant relationship was determined between undergraduate students’ 21^st-century skills and their attitudes toward physics, and their perception related to physics teaching and learning. Therefore, as it is known that positive attitudes and perceptions toward physics have positive effects on physics course success, it can be stated that undergraduate students' 21^st-century skills indirectly affect the physics success of undergraduate students.