VITAL COGNITIVE SKILLS FOR UNDERGRADUATES BASED ON ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

The society is becoming more complex and science based, therefore, lots of efforts are directed to reform science education. This literature review aims at identifying the most crucial cognitive skills required for higher-education students to acquire based on their academic discipline. It would pay special attention to higher-order cognitive skills. Similar studies are concerned with school students and consequently targeting lower-order cognitive skills. Most of the studies concerned with higher-education students only focused on a specific scientific discipline. This paper would provide detailed data about vital cognitive skills for students in higher education phase targeting main academic disciplines: science and technology, health sciences and humanities sciences educational disciplines. 30 research papers in different educational disciplines have been reviewed and analyzed to include their results in this review. The reviewed studies‟ methodology varied between surveying experts‟ opinions, analysis of exam questions, redesigning course structure, applying problem solving tests, comparing results of pre-tests and post-tests. This review concluded that mastering science process skills in addition to spatial ability skills is essential for science and technology students. For health sciences, problem solving skills are of the fundamentals of the clinical competency of a medical practitioner. For humanities sciences, critical thinking skills came as the most crucial skills for this discipline's students