From Chats to Skills: Leveraging WhatsApp to Develop 21st-Century Competencies among Students at Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania

Abstract

This study examined the role of WhatsApp in enhancing 21st-century skills among undergraduate students in Tanzanian higher education. Anchored in digital pedagogy and competency-based learning, the study adopted a descriptive research design, involving 250 undergraduate students enrolled in a compulsory English course and three course instructors. Data was collected primarily through a self-administered questionnaire, with limited qualitative insights from interviews and WhatsApp chat observations used to contextualize findings. Analysis employed descriptive statistics and correlational analysis to summarize students’ perceptions and experiences. Findings indicate that WhatsApp promotes communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity and social–emotional skills through real-time interaction, peer feedback and resource sharing. Students expressed overwhelmingly positive perceptions of WhatsApp as a supplementary learning platform, particularly valuing its immediacy for clarification, feedback, and academic support. Nonetheless, connectivity challenges and disparities in access constrained the platform’s effectiveness. The study concludes that WhatsApp is a viable pedagogical tool for supporting competency-based higher education and recommends its structured integration into teaching, accompanied by clear pedagogical guidelines and improved digital infrastructure.