Life skills

Mathematics education

Neuroscience

Social psychology

Social skills

Pedagogy

Soft skills

Developmental psychology

Computer science

Psychology

Political science

Transferable skills analysis

Artificial intelligence

Skills management

Medicine

Interpersonal communication

Medical education

Perception

Active learning (machine learning)

Higher education

Studies In Educational Evaluation

21st century skills are essential for career readiness. We investigated the development of students’ 21st century skills at a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research university: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. We designed a self-reporting questionnaire covering 14 skills and deployed it to approximately 1500 students and alumni. Respondents were asked to rate each skill based on the degree to which it was developed during their studies. Domain-general skills scored higher than STEM-specific skills or soft (interpersonal) skills, whereas STEM-specific skills scored higher than soft skills. Content analysis revealed nine methods of teaching and learning through which skills developed. The four active methods had a small effect on domain-general skills, while the five passive methods had a medium-to-large effect on these skills. Active methods had a medium-size effect on both STEM-specific and soft skills, whereas passive methods had no effect on either group. Our contribution lies in identifying and matching methods to skills.

Perceptions of STEM alumni and students on developing 21st century skills through methods of teaching and learning