COGNITIVE ENGAGEMENT, ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, AND PERCEIVED 21ST-CENTURY SKILLS: AN ICAP-INFORMED MIXED-METHODS STUDY IN TEACHER EDUCATION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32890/mjli2026.23.2.6Keywords:
ICAP framework, cognitive engagement, perceived 21st-century skills, learning strategies, academic achievement, teacher education, latent class analysis, latent profile analysisAbstract
Purpose – This study examined how learning strategies and professional development orientations were associated with self-reported GPA and perceived 21st-century skills among teacher education students. It also investigated how latent groups and students’ accounts explained differences between these outcomes.
Methodology – A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design combined hierarchical regression, latent class analysis, and latent profile analysis of data from 464 students. Interviews were conducted with 12 respondents who volunteered to participate in this aspect of the study. The interview data were analysed through inductively oriented two-cycle coding and then integrated with the quantitative findings.
Findings – Predictors explained substantially more variance in perceived skills than in the GPA. Elaboration and monitoring, as well as voluntary major, choice predicted the GPA; study habits, elaboration and monitoring, motivation, and initiating professional development activities predicted perceived skills, although the professional development block added no significant variance. Perceived skills increased across low, moderate, and high strategy profiles, whereas the GPA was lower only in the low-profile category. Five themes contextualised these patterns, namely instructional fit and meaning-making; strategic repertoire, calibration, and assessment fit; regulation breakdowns under load; identity, professional growth, and success criteria; and perceived transfer of 21st-century skills.
Novelty – Participant-linked integration showed that the reported engagement had different meanings across outcomes, while individual accounts revealed contextual variation and counterexamples within latent groups. ICAP informed interpretation without treating profiles as direct measures of its modes.
Significance – Grades, perceived skills, and engagement profiles provide complementary rather than interchangeable evidence; profiles may be most useful as starting points for inquiry rather than as fixed learner labels.
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