Abstract:

The role of holistic competencies in training students has been reflected in the new educational trends, in which the 21st-century approach is particularly relevant. Among them, the 4 C's (creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration) have been studied explicitly as key competencies of comprehensive training. However, how their differential effect can be understood in the long term is still being determined. The present study is the second phase of a previous study of these competencies, where we assessed the relationships between the 4C’s and the student’s performance. Specifically, the present study aims to assess potential changes related to these competencies’ impact on the students’ performance. To reach that goal, 614 first-year Spanish university students responded to questionnaires assessing the 4 C’s competencies. Then, the academic performance after the first (first-year grade point average, GPA) and the second academic year (second-year GPA) was evaluated. Two types of analysis were conducted: bivariate correlations and analysis of variance. In the latter, participants were classified as low, middle, and high achievers considering the level of performance achieved in the first and the second year. The results after the first year confirmed a significant correlation between first-year GPA and two competencies: communication (r=.21; p<.01) and critical thinking (r=.16; p<.01). When considering achievement groups, there were significant differences in communication between high achievers and low achievers (MD =3.06; p<.001) and between middle achievers and low achievers (MD =1.84; p<.05); and in critical thinking, between high achievers and low achievers (MD =7.17; p<.001) and between high achievers and middle achievers (MD=4.10; p<.05). Considering the second year, only critical thinking correlated significantly with second-year GPA (r=.11; p<.05). When comparing the groups, there were only significant differences in this competence between high achievers and middle achievers (MD=4.92; p<.05). Creativity and collaboration were not relevant competencies in any of the analyses conducted. These results confirm the differential role of the 4C's studied. According to the results, critical thinking is the competence with the most outstanding university curricular relevance, followed by communication, which reduced its impact from the first to the second year. Meanwhile, creativity and collaboration seem to have no curricular impact during the first two years at the university. The implications of these results are discussed, emphasizing, on the one hand, the need to reconfigure curricular plans to make holistic competencies acquire greater relevance in academic outputs. On the other hand, the need to keep collecting data over the years to confirm these results is highlighted.

Keywords:

University students, 4C´s, academic performance, longitudinal study.