What makes the difference : PIAAC as a resource for understanding the problem-solving skills of Europe's higher-education adults
Hämäläinen, R., De Wever, B., Nissinen, K., & Cincinnato, S. (2019). What makes the difference : PIAAC as a resource for understanding the problem-solving skills of Europe's higher-education adults. Computers and Education, 129, 27-36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.10.013
Published in
Computers and EducationDate
2019Discipline
KasvatustiedeKoulutuksen tutkimuslaitosEducationFinnish Institute for Educational ResearchCopyright
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
The ever-evolving technological landscape is challenging adults' problem-solving skills. The central goal of higher education (HE) is to guarantee a high level of know-how, which is in line with the changing demands of technology at work and in everyday life. This study builds on European data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) to understand adults' (N = 53,407) skills for solving problems in technology-rich environments. The study provides insight into the socio-demographic, work-related, and everyday factors that are associated with a strong and a weak problem-solving performance. The results indicate that HE adults stand out from adults with other educational backgrounds. Having a higher education degree is related with strong problem-solving skills. Still, it is rather surprising that only 15% of HE adults are strong problem-solvers and that as many as 35% can be considered weak problem-solvers. Since this century requires citizens to possess more and more skills to resolve problems in technology-rich environments, this study identifies the indicators for problem-solving skills differences. Namely, this article presents the models that predict problem-solving performance on the basis of theoretical assumptions as well as empirical support. Our results indicate that HE adults' strong or weak performance seems to be associated with socio-demographic factors (especially age, gender, parental education, and native speaking skills), as well as work-related and everyday-life factors. The models presented in this study may be helpful when developing HE practices and new approaches to foster HE adults' problem-solving skills to meet the needs of technological advancement at work and in everyday life.
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Publisher
Pergamon PressISSN Search the Publication Forum
0360-1315Keywords
problem-solving technology-rich environments higher education large-scale assessment work-based and everyday life learning PIAAC Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies sosioekonomiset tekijät aikuiskoulutus informaali oppiminen oppiminen työssäoppiminen aikuiset ongelmanratkaisu korkea-asteen koulutus teknologia
Publication in research information system
https://converis.jyu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/28682243
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Related funder(s)
Academy of FinlandFunding program(s)
Research profiles, AoF
Additional information about funding
This work was supported by the Academy of Finland [grant numbers 292466 and 318095, the Multidisciplinary Research on Learning and Teaching profiles I and II of JYU].License
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