21st‐century competences: The relation of ICT competences with higher‐order thinking capacities and teamwork competences in university students

Abstract The Knowledge Society, along with the non‐stop growing technological evolution, entails university students acquiring new competences for them to be successful in society. These are called 21st‐century competences that come as high‐skill competences – higher‐order thinking capacities and teamwork competences – and information and communication technologies (ICT) competences – technological, pedagogical and ethical. This study aims to determine the link between ICT competences and high‐skill competences. A correlational study was conducted whose sample was formed by 983 students studying degrees at the Universidad de Valencia (Spain), selected by non‐probabilistic incidental sampling and collecting information with two questionnaires. The results indicate a positive and statistically significant relation between ICT competences with the other two considered sets: higher‐order thinking capacities and teamwork competences. Moreover, pedagogical competences are more related with the two high‐skill competence sets. This suggests the need for training plans that favour learning 21st‐century competences and for stressing pedagogical competences in ICT.