Charity Oluchi Aneke & Lazarus Chinedu Aneke
Abstract
This study examined the relationship between 21st century skills and overcoming approval dependency among undergraduate education students in public universities in Cross River State, Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted for the study, while stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 400 students from a population of 8,000 undergraduate education students in faculties of education in public universities in Cross River State. Data collection was done with an instrument developed by the researchers titled: “Twenty-first Century Skills and Approval Dependency Questionnaire” (TCSADQ), duly validated and with reliability estimates of the sub-variables ranging between .74 and .83. The data collected were subjected to statistical analysis using Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. The findings indicate that 21st century skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity and digital literacy are inversely correlated with the degree of approval dependency exhibited by the students. Based on the findings it was recommended, among others, that curriculum planners should integrate curricular and co-curricular activities that focus on developing students’ emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and resilience, which can help mitigate the negative effects of approval dependency.