Mission-Driven Learning Theory: Ordering Knowledge and Competence to Life Mission

Background: Prevailing learning theories refine the means of education—behaviour, cognition, construction, connection, competence, yet leave its end (telos) to chance, producing graduates skilled but mission-adrift. Purpose: This paper advances Mission-Driven Learning Theory (MDLT), a teleological framework that realigns knowledge and competence with a discerned life mission under God, thereby restoring purpose to the centre of educational design. Design/methodology/approach: Integrating insights from behaviourism, cognitivism, constructivism, connectivism, competency-based education, vocational psychology, purpose research, and theology of work, we distil ten constructs—Mission, Calling Discernment, Giftedness, Formation, Competence, Alignment, Seasonality, Community Confirmation, Agency, Stewardship—and weave them into a causal model. Six empirically testable propositions link mission clarity and competence to alignment, persistence, well-being, and societal impact. We translate the model into a curricular architecture featuring discernment exercises, personalised pathways, reflective portfolios, and a Mission Alignment Index. Findings: MDLT explains variance left unresolved by competence-only or motivation-only models, predicting that alignment mediates the relationship between mission clarity and long-term contribution. Early evidence from African Leadership University shows that mission-aligned graduates achieve superior employment and venture-creation rates, corroborating key propositions. Practical implications: Educators can embed MDLT through mission retreats, strengths diagnostics, purpose-centred mentoring, and alignment checkpoints, while researchers can operationalise the Mission Alignment Index to measure telos-competence congruence across contexts. Originality/value: MDLT offers the first integrative theory that systematically reorders pedagogical means to a transcendent end, providing a scalable blueprint for purpose-centred learning in both faith-explicit and secular settings. By positioning life mission as education’s organising principle, MDLT aspires to cultivate graduates who steward their gifts faithfully, persevere through vocation-specific challenges, and generate redemptive impact in a complex world.