Social entrepreneurship and complex thinking competencies with an open technology platform: a gender approach

Abstract

In addition to specialized disciplinary training, cross-disciplinary skills are relevant to lifelong learning. One such skill is complex thinking, which involves integrating different reasoning to solve problems. To ensure that all students can achieve the same professional learning goals, in this paper, we present the results of an analysis of students’ perceived achievement of complex thinking competency through self-managed activities on an open education technology platform that diagnoses, develops, and evaluates social entrepreneurship competency. The research objective was to identify statistically significant gender differences in the two competencies (complex thinking and social entrepreneurship) in a group of students attending a technological university in Mexico. Methodologically, a multivariate descriptive analysis calculated arithmetic means and standard deviations, supplemented by boxplot and violin plot analyses and a scatter plot with lines of central tendency. In addition, a t-test analysis with a p-value of 90% was performed to identify the statistical significance of differences in the mean values by gender. The findings confirmed a statistically significant gender gap in the development and level attained in the students’ perceived achievement of both competencies (social entrepreneurship = 0.007 p-value; complex thinking = 0.068 p-value). Women showed the best results after using this technological platform. This study highlights the need to design technological tools for developing disciplinary and cross-disciplinary competencies from a gender perspective, to promote educational innovations that equitably ensure lifelong learning.