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The challenges facing 21st-century society are becoming increasingly complex, requiring the development of new citizen competencies. This study aims to validate an educational model focused on developing complex thinking in higher education students. Current educational models lack future-ready competencies, necessitating the emergence of new models to guide future generations toward the common good.

This was an adaptation of the causal-layered analysis (CLA) applied to 415 participants from higher education institutions in Mexico, Panama and Spain. Sessions were designed to present the proposed educational model and explore participants’ perceptions of its significance and contributions to future education.

Key findings include the following: participants perceived complexity as difficult and challenging; causes of problems were linked to outdated educational models requiring replacement by those that develop students’ competencies; participants envisioned changes that would develop individuals capable of understanding and transforming society; and participants recognized the model’s transformative potential, offering a novel proposal for 21st-century education.

This research sought to gather opinions from different stakeholders using the CLA methodology, providing a deep understanding of participants’ perspectives on the proposed solution.

This paper aims to analyze the interrelationship that exists between expectancy-value and achievement goals as factors that are decisive for participants’ higher engagement in 12 massive open online courses (MOOCs) on energy sustainability and to determine the profile of participants achieving higher success rates.

A qualitative–quantitative study of correlational and descriptive scope is carried out on two instruments based on pre- and post-tests of 6,029 participants, which is followed by a qualitative data analysis distributed by code families to identify participants’ main motivations to take MOOCs.

The results showed a positive moderate-high correlation between expectancy-value and achievement goals, which means in a practical sense that the participants’ subjective estimates of the possibility of reaching their goals prior to the beginning of the course were fulfilled, as the intentionality of the subjects-participants was positive with respect to the contents imparted.

The profiles of participants with a higher tendency to successfully finish the course and with high rates of engagement share the following characteristics: having previously and successfully finished more than one MOOC; taking the MOOC for work purposes (promotion, seeking better job opportunities, etc.); and having intrinsic motivation, that is, not depending on external factors such as obligations and certifications.

This research suggests that there are pre-educational factors that define the trend of successful completion of MOOCs, based on expectancy-value (e.g. previous experiences with other MOOCs) and achievement goals (e.g. job improvement), with external motivational issues such as completion certificates being less prevalent in the learning intention.

This study aims to contribute to the body of scientific knowledge about teaching and promoting social entrepreneurship in higher education institutions (HEIs) based on a measurement before and after concluding an educational experience.

It tests hypotheses to draw conclusions from analyzing the pre- and post-test results of three study cases with different training experiences, to know the characteristics of the 304 participants.

The study indicated that incorporating transversal social entrepreneurship projects in various courses resulted in students feeling more capable regarding their social entrepreneurship potential.

The study presents the analysis of social entrepreneur training in three different curricular study cases. The information obtained adds value to social entrepreneurship education research that takes social entrepreneurship beyond business schools.

The aim of this paper was to analyse the creative competence of students before and after a micro-learning experience carried out in a collaborative online international learning (COIL) environment between Spanish and Mexican university students in the field of education and entrepreneurship.

A single-group quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test measures was adopted. The composition of the group was natural and included a total of 57 students who participated in the COIL experience. The duration was three weeks, where students from both countries were linked together in the development of a micro-learning project. The creativity self-efficacy scale was used as a data collection instrument.

The micro-learning activities through COIL developed the creative competence of the participating students. In particular, the groups from both universities improved their scores on the creative competence in the post-test compared to the pre-test measure.

The limitations of this study were linked to the sample loss of some cases, as some students did not complete the post-test measure. The main implication of the study was to demonstrate that COIL experiences are suitable for developing certain skills in students, such as creative competence or co-operative work.

COIL experiences break down the barriers of physical space and give students an active role, allowing them to fully develop competences and offering an intercultural perspective, which encourages open-mindedness and understanding of the world.

The study aims to assess students' perceived mastery of reasoning-for-complexity competency and its sub-competencies in a sample of students in a Latin American university. The intention was to identify statistically significant differences between a population of men and women with similar sociocultural characteristics, assessing whether gender could be a factor for educational institutions to consider when implementing strategies to develop this competency.

The eComplexity instrument was applied to 370 undergraduate students in their first to ninth semesters in a private university in Western Mexico. Descriptive statistics were analyzed to determine the mean and standard deviation indicators and were tested for statistical significance. The convenience sampling methodology ensured that there were students from all semesters and a diversity of majors. The sampling aimed for a balance of men and women, resulting in 189 women and 181 men.

The results confirmed no statistically significant evidence to indicate differences between men and women in their perceived mastery of the reasoning-for-complexity competency in general. However, statistically significant differences were found in the perceived achievements of the sub-competencies of systems, critical and scientific thinking, which comprise the overall competency. Women presented a higher average perception of systemic and critical thinking achievement, and men had a higher perception of scientific thinking. The authors concluded that social and cultural elements influence the perception of achievement that men and women develop in thinking and solving problems.

Governments and educational institutions must establish training programs that do not follow gender stereotypes and promote reasoning-for-complexity skills equitably in men and women. It is necessary to create more scientific and academic spaces and projects involving women in the sciences; countries must emphasize this to improve their scientific competency. Only in this way will it be possible to reverse the perception that men and women have of their problem-solving skills and abilities, which, as this study shows, are more a matter of culture than capabilities.

Unlike previous studies, which analyze the competency of complex thinking in a particular way among its sub-competencies, this research sought comprehensive measurement. Furthermore, beyond measuring competency development, this study aimed to measure the perception of achievement. The authors believe this is the first step towards identifying elements of the social imagination that limit the formation of scientific thinking among women in Latin America.

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have been gaining popularity as non-formal lifelong learning educational platforms. However, they have been criticized for their low completion rate and low ability for networking. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how incorporating entrepreneurial competencies in MOOCs develops attributes of educational innovation and collaborative projects.

The research followed a three-stage process: in first stage, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify dimensions of entrepreneurial skills and attributes of educational innovation in MOOCs. In the second stage, a quantitative study was carried out, based on the analysis of pre- and post-test surveys taken by a sample of 6,517 participants. In the last stage, the interaction analysis model/computer-mediated communication analysis model was applied through qualitative analysis, using the MAXQDA tool to identify if entrepreneurship opportunities were generated in the interactions within the discussion forums of the MOOCs.

The results show that the analyzed MOOCs have an overall completion rate of 12.55 per cent, above the average of the rates found in the literature review. However, only 14.29 per cent of the participants expressed at least one opportunity to generate ventures related to the topics of energy in the discussion forums.

This research could help instructional designers and universities to consider the inclusion of entrepreneurship issues in the design of MOOCs’ content and to encourage more activities that promote networking among participants, to identify business potential from the educational materials.

This research is one of the very few studies on entrepreneurship competencies in MOOCs to understand how the inclusion of issues related to entrepreneurship in MOOCs can generate a positive impact on participants.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the importance of multidisciplinary training in the perceived development of social entrepreneurship competence. By means of a sample of an ethics class, this study seeks to argue the relevance of new social entrepreneurs having a broad training, beyond the knowledge they receive from the business area.

This paper is based on a quantitative analysis methodology. Based on the application of a validated questionnaire measuring the perceived development of social entrepreneurship competence, a longitudinal measurement was carried out at two points in time, at the beginning and at the end of an ethics course, in a sample population of 132 undergraduate students. Based on these results, a multifactorial diagnosis was made using a Z-test.

Overall, the sample results did not show a significant improvement in their level of perception of students' development of the social entrepreneurship competence. However, the individual results of the perceived development of sub-competences that make up this competence did reflect some development, especially the sub-competence of social innovation. Thus, this study demonstrates that there is a measurable impact of the contribution of other disciplines, in this case the ethical education, in the training of new entrepreneurs, arguing the importance of multidisciplinary training.

The results of this study contribute to the work of universities in developing social entrepreneurship competence. Based on its findings, institutions will be able to recognize the relevance of multidisciplinary training in the generation of new social entrepreneurs, valuing other disciplinary areas, such as humanities and social sciences, beyond training based exclusively on business knowledge. A key point to capitalize on in training practices for social entrepreneurship is “social innovation”, due to the sense of transcendence and impact that universities should seek, precisely because of their social responsibility to create value.

This research provides empirical evidence of the impact of ethics education on social entrepreneurship education. It argues the importance of reflecting on multidisciplinary education as a complementary element in the perceived development of social entrepreneurship competence in students.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how university men and women in different disciplines of study in Mexico perceive social entrepreneurship competencies, using a multifactorial analysis to find possible areas of opportunity to reduce the gender gap in social-entrepreneurship-project proposals.

This is a quantitative study with a validated questionnaire that records the perception levels of five social entrepreneurship subcompetencies. The survey, which includes 28 indicators, was applied to 140 university students from different disciplines. Hypothesis testing was applied to identify significant differences between men and women in each subcompetency by disciplinary area.

In the global sample, significant differences by gender were observed only in the social value subcompetency. In the disciplinary analysis, significant differences were found in architecture and design, business, and engineering and science.

The questionnaire only gathered data about the students' perceptions. To the extent that perception is triangulated with other instruments, it is possible to increase knowledge regarding how to train in social entrepreneurship.

The results can be useful for university training and increasing the envisioning and formulating of government projects by young people who create new businesses.

This research contributes to the literature on the role of gender-specific perceptions of social entrepreneurship in Mexico.

This study aims to analyze recent publications (2015–2020) that refer to educational and social entrepreneurship to identify the primary emerging themes and gaps of entrepreneurship research and management that would be helpful for future studies and entrepreneurial ventures.

The authors used systematic mapping to review 92 research articles that address educational innovation and social entrepreneurship. All the articles were published between 2015 and January 2020 and were found in the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases.

The data analysis identified the following: the articles most frequently cited, the journals that published the highest number of relevant articles, the geographical distribution of these publications and their authors, the context of the research, the lines and themes that emerged, and the gaps in the literature regarding the research and management of educational and social entrepreneurship.

The search for articles was limited to educational and social entrepreneurship innovations and the English language; thus, studies published in other languages were not analyzed.

The analysis of this research allowed us to review concepts and identify research methods employed and thematic lines analyzed. Therefore, the work is of value for educational and social entrepreneurs and researchers who wish to examine such concepts or focus on areas not yet fully explored.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of two active methodologies on digital competences development using mobile devices. The first methodology is project-oriented learning (POL); the second one is case-based learning (CBL). The analyzed digital competences belong to the communication and collaboration area of framework DIGCOMP.

This article shows the results of the quantitative stage with a design pre-experimental pre-test–post-test. A questionnaire was designed and applied to an intentional sample from two different courses. In total, 178 students completed the questionnaire in the pre-test, and after five months, 38 students completed the questionnaire in the post-test.

The results show that students to whom POL was applied increase by 7% competence of interaction with mobile technology. The results also show that the students to whom CBL was applied to increase all four competencies (interaction +8%, share +6%, collaboration +5%, netiquette +4%).

Self-perception for the evaluation of digital competence and the short study time are limitations to generalize the results, so a longitudinal study is necessary and complemented with qualitative analysis, to present a better validation of the contribution of active methodologies to the development of digital competences.

The rapid advance of technology and the results of various investigations make evident the need of digital competences development. The most common process is digital literacy through techno-functional training. However, these research results confirm that it is possible to promote these digital competences from a practical view and implicitly in active methodologies educational practices.