Aliu, J and Aigbavboa, C (2023) Reviewing the roles of extracurricular activities in developing employability skills: A bibliometric review. International Journal of Construction Management, 23(10), pp. 1623-1632. ISSN 1562-3599
Abstract
The process of employability skills improvement is reflected in the pedagogical approaches employed by institutions of higher learning (HEIs). While several studies have discussed these approaches, very few have microscoped them and examined their learning outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to review the concept of extracurricular activities (ECA) research published on the Elsevier Scopus database from 1990 to 2020 using a sequence of bibliometric analysis to identify the status, research trends and focus areas in recent ECA studies within the built environment context. Keywords such as 'extracurricular activity' OR 'extracurricular activities' OR 'co-curricular activity' OR 'co-curricular activities' OR 'out of school activity' OR 'out of school activities' AND 'employability' AND 'built environment' were used to extract papers from the database. Through the sequencing of cluster analysis, the results of this study revealed that the focus on ECA studies is placed on employability skills, academic performance, overall human development, parental involvement and improving cultural diversity. More so, the current research focus is tending towards the knowledge and adoption of problem-based learning (PBL) which is a key component of built environment education. This study provides a basis for encouraging ECA as a key pedagogical approach in developing the future workforce of the construction industry. Despite the novelty of this article, generalizations of the results must be done cautiously due to the use of a single database, which in this case is Elsevier’s Scopus.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | bibliometric review; employability skills; extracurricular activities; human development; pedagogical approach |
| Index terms: | built environment education, bibliometric analysis, learning outcome, employability, academic performance, construction industry, built environment, problem-based learning, cluster analysis, database |
| Subjects: | research evaluation and metrics, professional development, infrastructure and transport systems, assessment methods, teaching methods, human resources and leadership, industry analysis, data analysis and analytics, student development, data management |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Urban Studies, Education, Information Management, Digital Applications |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 CTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here