Relationship among necessity, importance of creative teaching methods, and strengthening core competencies

Abstract

This study was conducted to find out the relationship between the perception of the necessity and importance of creative teaching methods and core competencies in universities. A total of 142 people who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study were selected and surveyed using the Naver online questionnaire. It was found that the necessity and importance of creative teaching methods was related to the sub-factors of core competencies such as practical field competency, problem-solving competency, convergence competency, communication competency, job ethics, community consciousness. University education should actively introduce and apply creative teaching methods such as action learning and PBL, focusing on improving core competencies, which are actual abilities to be performed in the field.

본 연구는 대학에서 창의적 교수법의 필요도와 중요도에 대한 인식과 핵심역량과의 관련성을 알아보고자 실시하였다. 네이버 온라인 설문지를 이용하여 자발적으로 연구 참여에 동의한 총 142명을 최종 연구대상자로 선정하여 조사하였다. 창의적 교수법의 중요도, 핵심역량의 하위요인인 현장실무역량, 문제해결역량, 융복합역량, 의사소통역량, 직업윤리, 공동체의식과 창의적 교수법 필요도와 관련성이 있는 것으로 나타났다. 대학교육은 현장에서 실제 할 수 있는 능력인 핵심역량 향상에 초점을 맞추어 액션러닝, PBL 등과 같은 창의적 교수법을 적극적으로 도입하여 적용해야 할 것이다.

I. Introduction

The World Economic Forum report stated that th e Fourth Industrial Revolution fundamentally chang ed the nature of universities, such as an explosive increase in the total amount of knowledge and acce leration of knowledge convergence[1]. In addition, t he Global Industry-Academic Cooperation Forum, h osted by the Ministry of Education, emphasized the need for creative talents with self-learning and pro blem-solving skills[2].

According to the trend of the times, university ed ucation should cultivate the talent needed in the in dustrial field. Since uniform memorization educatio n cannot respond to the era of the Fourth Industria l Revolution, it is necessary to focus on education t hat develops the power of thinking and problem-sol ving skills. At this point, educating talented people with future capabilities has become an important d uty of universities[3], and universities are expandin g learner-centered class operations such as project learning that emphasize student participation and c ommunication.

Competency-based education in preparation for t he 4th Industrial Revolution is an education that str engthens the connection with the highly socially sui table vocational field and can teach students integr ated future competencies so that students can solv e problems in specific situations[4].

Since creative teaching methods are learner-cente red education, they can actively draw students' learni ng and increase their learning effects in terms of acad emic achievement and problem-solving approaches compared to cramming methods. In university educat ion, it is necessary to identify and analyze what core competencies are required by the industry, and to cul tivate future talents by applying appropriate teaching methods.

In order to help students perform their duties pe rfectly in the industrial field of their major, thinkin g and practicing creative teaching methods that ca n improve learning motivation and learning compete ncy has become essential in the educational field[5].

In creative teaching methods, action learning refer s to the process in which participants as a whole tea m or a individual form a learning team to draw a solu tion of existing task that one must solve with a learni ng coach and learn the content of the task and task solving process through knowledge acquisition, ques tioning, feedback, and reflection[6].

Problem-based Learning(PBL) is one of the small group-level cooperative learning that learners clari fy the difference between necessary knowledge and the knowledge one already possessed to solve the p roblem by activating the knowledge already had an d attempts to solve problems through critical thinki ng[7].

The difference between action learning and probl em-based learning is that action learning is based on current problems for educational and managem ent purposes, and learners choose problems thems elves, but problem-based learning (PBL) is for stud ent education purposes only, so professors constru ct real problems or hypothetical problems and prov ide them to learners[8].

Recently, in the field of health majors, interest in the necessity and importance of creative teaching methods is increasing[9], and learner-centered teac hing methods are being studied as a way to effectiv ely acquire and improve the quality of learning. In order to strengthen their capabilities, activity class es that strengthen students' active participation act ivities and interactions are needed. It has to be wit h teaching methods that can promote creative thin king and critical thinking with curiosity. To do thos e activity classes well, it is necessary to diagnose st udents' prior knowledge and needs, design systema tic and clear educational content, and develop vari ous teaching methods.

In future education, it was emphasized that comp etencies such as creativity, problem-solving skills, critical thinking skills, collaboration skills, and com munication skills should be cultivated[10].

Considering these points, it is necessary to explore the necessity and importance of the operation of cre ative teaching methods to strengthen core competencies. And how to teach these competencies is more important in universities.

Until now, many case studies have been conduct ed on class satisfaction[11], analysis of the needs of change to enhance competency[12][13] applied to s ubjects in relation to creative teaching methods, bu t not many studies have explored the need and imp ortance of creative teaching methods to strengthen core competencies. Considering that creative teachi ng methods can have a significant impact on stude nts' competency content, it is necessary to study th e relationship between recognition of the necessity and importance of creative teaching methods and c ore competencies.

In addition, research on the necessity of creative teaching methods and relevance between sub-factors of core competencies such as practical field compete ncy, problem-solving competency, converg ence competency, communication competency, occu pational ethics, community consciousness and creati ve teaching methods, should be conducted.

This study aims to investigate the relationship betw een core competencies and the perception of the nece ssity and importance of creative teaching methods to strengthen students' problem-solving skills and core competencies. Focusing on improving core competen cies required by industries, creative teaching method s such as action learning and PBL are actively applied to analyze the effects on students' problem-solving ability and self-directed learning ability, and review the expansion and application of creative teaching me thods through research results.

II. Study Methods

1. Study Subjects

The study used convenience sampling method for students and graduates from some universities in D aegu. In the Naver form online questionnaire, the p urpose of the study was posted to the subjects, and only the subjects who voluntarily agreed to particip ate in the study filled in questionnaire by self-writing method

The survey was conducted from 31 March to 13 April 2021, using G*power 3.1.3 (Faul, Erdfelder, La ng, & Buchner, 2007) based on Cohen's Power Anal ysis, and the minimum sample size required under the condition of 5% significance level(both sides), p ower 95%, and effective size 0.05 was 138 people, b ut the total 150 questionnaires was distributed. For the final analysis, 142 copies were finally analyzed, excluding the questionnaire where the answer to th e questionnaire was omitted.

2. Research method

A structured self-entering questionnaire was use d to collect the data of this study, and the general characteristics were composed of three questions: gender, grade, and age.

The creative teaching method questions were six questions: whether problem-solving learning (PBL) and action learning teaching methods were recogni zed, whether they had experience and class satisfac tion taught with creative teaching methods, and effi cient subjects and teaching methods.

In addition, the need and importance of creative education, and 8 questions of strengthening six core competencies were allowed to be answered on the Lik ert 5-point scale, and the higher the score, the higher the need and importance, and the higher the score of the core competency reinforcement.

In the cronbach's α coefficient of this study, the necessity and importance of creative education was 0.945 and the core competency reinforcement was 0.977.

3. Data analysis

The study used the SPSS version 26.0(IBM Crop, Armonk, USA) statistical program, and the significa nce level was tested at 0.05. Frequency analysis an d descriptive statistical analysis were used for the g eneral characteristics and the awareness and exper ience of creative teaching method of the subject, a nd X²-test were conducted on the relationship betw een variables.

In addition, t-test, one way ANOVA were used for differences in the need and importance of creative teaching methods, differences in help of core comp etency reinforcement, and the post-test was analyz ed by Scheffe test. Correlation analysis was used to confirm the necessity, importance, and relationship with core competency reinforcement of creative tea ching methods.

III. Results

1. Recognition and experience of creative teac hing methods according to general characteris tics

<Table 1>shows the results of PBL cognition, acti on learning cognition, class experience, efficient su bjects, and class methods according to the general characteristics of the study subjects. There was a s ignificant difference in the grade(t=7.908, p<05) for PBL recognition.

There was a significant difference in the age for whether they have experience in creative teaching methods or not(t=19,552, p<.001). In addition, there was a significant difference in an efficient subject, according to grade (t=25.776, p<.001), age (t=9.186, p<.05), in an efficient teaching method, according t o grade (t=17.864, p<.01), age (t=12.489, p<.01).

Table 1. Creative Teaching Awareness and Experience According to Demographic Characteristics n=142

**Statistically significant differences by x2-test at α=.05

2. The satisfaction, necessity, and importance of creative teaching methods and strengthening cor e competencies according to general characterist ics

<Table 2> shows the results of satisfaction, neces sity, and importance of creative teaching methods and core competency enhancement according to th e general characteristics of the study subjects. In t he grade, graduates showed the highest results in t he need and importance of creative teaching metho ds(p<.01), and as a result of post-analysis, there wa s a statistically significant difference in graduates t han in the second grade. Depending on the age, it was found that the lower the grade, the less import ant it was to the importance of creative teaching m ethod(p<.05).

Table 2. Satisfaction, Need, Importance of Creative Teaching Methods and Help in Strengthening Core Competencies According to General Characteristics n=142

** Statistically significant differences by t-test or one-way ANOVA test at α=.05

3. The necessity, and importance of creative te aching methods and strengthening core compe tencies according to the recognition of creativ e teaching methods and teaching experience

<Table 3> shows the results of the necessity, and importance of creative teaching methods and stren gthening core competencies according to creative t eaching method recognition and teaching experienc e. Knowing PBL, the need and importance of creati ve teaching methods were high(p<.001), as for core competency reinforcement, it was found that creati ve teaching methods were helpful in the group that knew PBL(p<.005).

Table 3. Recognition of Creative Teaching Methods, the Need and Importance of Creative Teaching Methods, Reinforcing Core Competencies

In addition, the group that knows action learning showed high results, showing significant differences in the class satisfaction(p<.05), the need for creative teaching methods(p<.001), the importance for creativ e teaching methods(p<.001), and help in core compet ency reinforcement(p<.01). For a group with experie nce in taking creative teaching classes, there was a significant difference in the need(p<.001) and import ance(p<.01) for creative teaching method, core comp etency reinforcement(p<.01), showing high results.

4. Relationship among necessity, importance of creative teaching methods, and strengthening co re competencies

The correlation results with the necessity, importanc e of creative teaching methods, and core competency reinforcement are shown in <Table 4>. Importance of creative teaching method(r=.896, p<.01), field practice (r=.680, p<.01), troubleshooting(r=.629, p<.01), converg ence(r=.621, p<.01), communication (r=.619, p<.01), professional ethics(r=.580, p<.01), com munity(r=.523, p<.01) among the sub-factors of core competencies. They were related to the need for creativ e teaching methods.

Table 4. Relationship Between the Need and Importance of Creative Teaching Methods and the Degree of Assistance in Strengthening Core Competencies

**p<0.01 The data were analyzed by person correlation coefficient

In other words, there was a positive (+) relationship with the necessity of creative teaching in university education to strengthen the importance of creative teaching methods and the six core competencies, whi ch means that creative teaching methods are necessa ry in university education.

 

IV. Conclusions

As the recent paradigm shift in university educati on and the rapid change in university education du e to the COVID-19 situation, the education of vocati onal colleges faced a new educational environment. Universities need innovation and change to respond to rapidly changing internal and external environments. The representative educational innovation eff orts of universities can be said to be a transition fr om traditional teaching methods to learner-centere d creative teaching methods.

Universities are attempting to apply various teac hing methods to foster talented people with core co mpetencies required by the industrial field, reflectin g changes in the educational environment through the new teaching method. Therefore, this study was conducted to find out the relationship between the perception of the necessity and importance of creat ive teaching methods in universities and core comp etencies.

The results of this study are summarized as follo ws.

First, the results of satisfaction, need, and impor tance of creative teaching methods according to th e general characteristics of the study subjects show ed the highest scores in graduates, and the importa nce of creative teaching methods was lower as the age was lower. These results are believed to show t he graduates’ high perception of creative teaching methods that can cultivate comprehensive thinking skills, recognizing that they need comprehensive co ping skills that are not just knowledge in the proces s of experiencing and solving various problems in t he actual industry.

In the effect of employee training of a company, action learning is a key factor in improving job pro blem solving ability[11], and it is reported that it has the effect of recognizing a problem clearly and tr ying to find a solution for oneself[12].

In a study of social workers, it was proposed to intr oduce a PBL teaching method that fosters the ability to solve various problem situations and learns the val ue of critical thinking, communication, respect, and cooperation[13].

In this study, the results of this study can be sup ported in that the perception of creative teaching methods is positive, in that the results were derived by applying creative teaching methods centered on PBL and action learning teaching methods.

Second, if you have the perception of creative te aching methods such as action learning and PBL a nd have teaching experience, it is said that it helps to strengthen the need, importance of creative teac hing methods, and core competencies.

In a study verifying the effectiveness of action lear ning in college, it was called action learning as a way to improve the core competencies required for emplo yment after graduation[17]. In addition, it was said th at university classes applying action learning can be a new method as a teaching and learning method of a competency-based curriculum[18]. And PBL prove d its effectiveness by presenting empirical results tha t it is an effective teaching-learning method for enha ncing problem-solving ability, which is a core compe tency in the future[19]. It was said that the PBL teachi ng method had a positive effect on the improvement of problem-solving skills, integration skills, and communication skills necessary to cultivate practical co mpetencies[20].

Compared to these preceding studies, creative te aching methods such as action learning and PBL h ave already been confirmed to have their effectiven ess, and it seems that students who have experienc ed the effectiveness of these teaching methods high ly recognize it is more necessary, important, and h elpful in strengthening core competencies.

Third, it was found that they have relevance amo ng the importance of creative teaching methods, th e sub-factors of core competencies such as field pr actice competency, problem-solving competency, c onvergence competency, communication competen cy, occupational ethics, and the need for creative t eaching methods.

This means that creative teaching methods are n eeded to strengthen core competencies in universit y education. In a comparative study before and afte r class using action learning, it was reported that t he core competencies of communication ability, crit ical thinking tendency, creative problem-solving abi lity, and cooperative self-efficacy had an effect[21] [22].

As a result of performing diagnosis before and af ter PBL education using the Core Competency Diag nosis System(K-CESA) for college students, it was s aid that there was a positive effect on self-manage ment competency and interpersonal competency[2 3]. In addition, it was verified that PBL classes are more effective in improving learners' creative probl em-solving skills than general classes[24].

Putting these results together, creative teaching methods play an important role in improving the co re competencies required by the future society of c ollege students. University education should activel y introduce and apply creative teaching methods su ch as action learning and PBL, focusing on improvi ng core competencies, which are actual abilities to be performed in the field. Despite the above meani ngful results, this study has limitations in generaliz ation as a cross-sectional study of some university students and graduates. In future follow-up studies, it is necessary to investigate the relationship betwe en various creative teaching methods and core co mpetencies in addition to PBL and action learning, and to compare before and after the application of the creative teaching method to verify its effectiven ess.