Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for 21st Century Skills Acquisition and Undergraduate Students’ Preparation for Sustainable Lifelong Learning in Nigeria

Academic knowledge content alone is not sufficient to prepare students for the world of work. With increasing global competitiveness, undergraduates need energetic drive for skills that are challenging and inspiring to thrive in today’s world. The study examined harnessing artificial intelligence for 21st century skills acquisition and undergraduate students’ preparation for sustainable lifelong learning in Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study, four research questions and four hypotheses guided the study. Data was collected with the aid of a structured questionnaire “Harnessing AI for 21st Century Skills Acquisition and Sustainable Lifelong Learning†. The instrument was standardized by three experts and a reliability coefficient of 0.81 was obtained. 250 (99 males and 151 females) respondents used for the study were selected using multi-stage sampling procedure. Analysis of data was done using mean, standard deviation and Independent t-test. Findings show that undergraduate students’ awareness of available AI technology is low. In addition, it was observed that undergraduate students’ preparation with learning skills, exposure to literacy skills and acquisition of life skills for sustainable lifelong learning harnessing AI technology were moderate. Findings further show that males have more awareness of AI technology and preparation in 21st century skills than females. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others, that there should be concerted effort by government and universities to organize awareness and training programmes on new and emerging technologies, especially AI in teaching and learning so as to keep students abreast of, raise awareness about and improve skills and knowledge in the utilization of AI technologies. That 21st century skills be adequately integrated into the curriculum to prepare science education undergraduate students for the world of work and sustainable lifelong learning.