Soft skills and pedagogical teaching strategies in college students

Abstract

Soft skills are a set of competencies for life that allow students to face challenges, create healthy relationships, and adapt to any environment. The objectives of this article were: to evaluate the soft skills of students in the Early Childhood Education degree and bachelor's degree in psychology at Peninsula of Santa Elena State University, and to determine the pedagogical strategies used by teachers to develop these skills in university students. A quantitative approach was used, descriptive in scope, with a cross-sectional experimental design and convenience sampling of 559 students, 77.3% of whom were in Psychology and 22.7% in Early Childhood Education. A structured questionnaire was used, specifically designed to assess the students' soft skills. The findings reveal that most students recognize that the pedagogical strategies most used in teaching practice are oral presentations, projects and group dynamics, focused on the development of soft skills such as effective communication, teamwork, problem solving and emotional management. However, a lower percentage of neutral responses suggests that some participants maintain an impartial position or with respect to the dimensions of the study variables. It is concluded that pedagogical strategies are effective for the development of soft skills, however, it is necessary to create additional scenarios that optimize these practices, thus allowing students to successfully face academic, personal and professional challenges.

Keywords:

Soft skills, Pedagogical strategies, Early Childhood Education, Psychology.