Meta-skills development needs assessment among undergraduate students

Abstract

Needs assessment is the process of measuring the gaps between current and desired states. It plays a vital role in the development of an individual's meta-skills in preparing students for the future. The objectives of this study were 1) to study the students' desired and current meta-skills and 2) to identify the priority needs in developing the meta-skills of undergraduate students. The sample consisted of 400 undergraduate students enrolled in public universities in Bangkok during the first semester of the 2020 academic year selected by multi-stage random sampling. The research instrument was the Meta-skills Development Needs Assessment Questionnaire for Undergraduate Students. Mean, standard deviation, dependent samples t test, and the Modified Priority Needs Index analysis were carried out on the data. The results showed that the mean scores of the desired major components were higher than those of the current ones at a significance level of .05. Moreover, the undergraduate students needed to develop creative problem-solving the most (PNImodified = 0.32), followed by resilience (PNImodified = 0.21) and self-awareness (PNImodified = 0.16), respectively. The results of this study can be used to design and develop programmes or policies to foster the meta-skills that are needed by students in this era of change. © 2022 The Author(s)