Key competence choices of students at a science festival in Turkey: a preliminary study

Abstract

This study focusses on ensuring quality education among other SDGs. The choice of competency area of participants in a local science festival that adopted European key competencies for lifelong learning as a theme and the effect of demographic and contextual variables on these choices were investigated. The survey method was used to make inferences about the participants' attitudes towards competency areas through their choices. Data were collected through the Participant Information Form. Descriptive statistics and chi-square independence tests were conducted in the SPSS-22 programme to analyse the data. The findings revealed that the students selected the area of competency in mathematics, science and technology the most and the area of digital competency the least. Furthermore, the choices of the competency area of the students differed according to their gender, education level, and socioeconomic level of the district in which they resided. It can be concluded that there are political, social, and economic reasons for the choices of the competency area of the students. In this context, it is recommended that educational policies include practices that promote all competence areas, the government incentives for competence development should be expanded and maintained, the technical infrastructure of socioeconomically disadvantaged schools should be strengthened, and appropriate learning environments should be created, both to ensure students' key competence development and to eliminate gender differences.