A SCALE DESIGN OF PERSONAL COMPETENCES ASSOCIATED WITH VIRTUES IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS - AN APPROXIMATION STUDY

Abstract

Integral formation is undoubtedly one of the great pretensions of higher education in the 21st century. By integral education we understand that which is directed at the whole person, and which aims at the harmonious development of all their dimensions and faculties. This education, which places the student at the centre, making them the protagonist of his learning, is designed so that each student discovers and carries out their own life project. A relevant contribution to integral education is the development of cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance) through competency-based learning. This study presents the design of a measurement instrument on personal competences, based on cardinal virtues and whose purpose is to measure the degree of development of the undergraduate's integral formation. Accordingly, each item of the questionnaire measures the self-perception of development of some of the transversal competences linked to cardinal virtues. The competences measured are critical thinking, decision-making, resilience, proactivity, self-improvement, emotional management, servant leadership and teamwork. The questionnaire was subjected to expert validation. The main results confirm that the questionnaire reaches an acceptable level of interjudge agreement, although minor changes suggested by experts are introduced. Thus, it can be concluded that this study presents a relevant questionnaire to measure the self-perception of the development of some competences associated with cardinal virtues that contributes to the integral formation of undergraduates. In this sense, this questionnaire may be useful for university community since it allows to test among students whether the curricula are acceptable in terms of integral formation.