Integrating Situational Awareness Into Higher Education Curricula

Professional spaces today are rapidly changing, and to meet such swift changes in the environment, there is a rising demand for professionals who understand the dynamics of the place. They need human resources with the competence to perceive, interpret and respond effectively to the influx of their landscapes. Situational Awareness is a skill recognised in aviation, healthcare and domains that require quick responses to changing trajectories. However, it has not received significant attention in higher education despite its potential to develop professional competence and readiness. This article, thereby, aims to investigate the present gap in higher education curricula. It seeks to highlight understanding of situational awareness among the participants in the study, their perception of its need for professional success and the need to integrate it into higher education curricula. It emphasises the role of Situational Awareness in professional development and growth of an individual. The article endeavours to reason its crucial function in the learning phase of a student pursuing Higher Education and also aspires to rationalise its suitability as an important topic of perusal in the curriculum of Higher Education. It explores the vitality of the term and how it helps an individual fit in better in an environment. Personal interaction with the students helped us to analyse their understanding of the concept. In addition, a quantitative and cross-sectional survey design was undertaken for the present research. Data collection was based on structured online questionnaire in the format of six five-point Likert-scale items and demographic questions. The questionnaire incorporated aspects to measure participant's awareness of the term, its professional relevance, appropriate training of situational awareness in higher education, its contribution to boosting employability, whether it improves decision-making and the need for integration into higher education curricula. A sample of 72 participants, including undergraduates, postgraduate students, students with work experience and working professionals from engineering discipline with major emphasis, was used for the study. Descriptive and statistical techniques were deployed for the analysis of the data, particularly the aggregate percentage was taken for the scales reflecting agree and strongly agree parameters which was apparently higher than the neutral, disagree and strongly disagree parameters. The article relies on empirical evidence to assess participants’ perception of situational awareness as a vital skill in the present era. The results aim to inform the value and significance of situational awareness in developing professional competency for stakeholders, that is, curriculum developers, policymakers and higher education entities. The research aspires to contribute to repertoire of competence-based education by investigating as an important transferable skill to hone perception, adaptability and decision making of the students.