Personality traits of core self-evaluation as predictors of 21st-century skills development among higher education students in Ghana: a seemingly unrelated regression analysis

This study examines whether core self-evaluation traits predict 21st century skills among higher education students in Ghana who are training to become basic school teachers. Using a cross-sectional survey of 400 students from one college of education, we estimated a seemingly unrelated regression model linking self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control and emotional stability to self-confidence, problem-solving, creative-thinking and collaboration. Self-efficacy was positively associated with all four skills and showed the largest coefficients. Self-esteem was positively associated with self-confidence, problem solving and creative thinking but negatively associated with collaboration, while locus of control was positively associated with self-confidence and problem solving. Contrary to expectation, emotional stability was negatively associated with problem solving, creative thinking and collaboration. As the data are cross sectional, self-reported and drawn from one institution, the associations are neither causal nor representative of all Ghanaian teacher trainees. The dimensions thus relate to specific skills differently, identifying efficacy building and structured collaborative learning as promising and testable directions for teacher preparation in Ghana.