Modelling the relationship between teaching methods, assessment methods and acquisition of 21st employability skills among university graduates

Abstract

This study modelled the effect of teaching and assessment methods on the acquisition of 21st employability skills among 784 postgraduate and undergraduate students sampled from a public university, using the cross-sectional survey design. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data which was analyzed with Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The study found that learner-centred pedagogy and summative assessment methods had a statistically significant relationship with employability skills. Furthermore, the learner-centred method significantly mediated the relationship between the teacher-centred method and employability skills; and summative assessment also significantly mediated the relationship between formative assessment and employability skills. It was recommended that assessment methods should shift away from long hours of sit-down examinations to a more practical progressive assessment with more scores and time to be able to equip graduates with employability skills.