The learning competence in teacher education programs in four Colombian universities

Learning Competence is one of the most important twenty-first century skills. Objective: To identify and compare the levels of learning competence among students who are starting and finishing undergraduate and postgraduate programs in Education in four Colombian universities. Method: It is a research with descriptive scope of quantitative character. A non-probabilistic sampling of opportunity was used in which 581 students participated, enrolled in the first and last semester and postgraduate in Education to whom the Learning Competency Scale (LCS) was applied. The data were analyzed with the statistical platform SPSS version 23. Results: The outcome shows significant differences between first-semester of undergraduate students and students of the last semester of postgraduate, but not the same for students who are completing their undergraduate formation. Conclusion: The scale of the learning competence is a valid instrument to measure the progress of this said competence in the population studied. The imperfect development of this competence may be due to the fact that it is possible that in the first years of formation, the participants in this study were unaware of the existence of this competence and have had no experience what it means to obtain it, they consequently assume it as acquired. © Revista Colombiana de Ciencias Sociales.