Teaching Soft Skills at School is The Need of the Hour
Skills, skills skills! Whatever we wanted to do we need skill to do it perfectly! Sometimes it is technical, sometimes academic! But in today’s fast-paced, competitive and technology-driven world, it’s not enough for this generation to graduate with just academic knowledge and technical skills. Our children need soft skills. Skills like communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving are needed now to succeed in life and the workplace. And teaching soft skills should start from schools.
By the time the children reach their teenage, they will have much greater exposure to critical thinking, problem analysis and collaboration through their school curriculum. Hence adding soft skills to the school curriculum is a necessity.
The benefits of prioritizing soft skills are extensive. The development of soft skills helps prepare students for higher education and equips them with abilities needed for the job market. Because, in most of the careers, collaborating, communicating clearly, thinking critically, and resolving conflicts constructively are essential for success.
Now, how to introduce soft skill training into the school curriculum? There are many practical ways for schools and teachers to integrate soft skills instruction into the curriculum and school environment.
Here are some examples:
In the Classroom:
Teachers can encourage group projects and presentations to build teamwork and communication skills. You can teach students how to give constructive feedback to their peers.
Students can analyze texts, consider pros and cons in problem-solving, and also focus on how they reached conclusions to develop critical analysis.
Teachers can make use of role-playing and simulations to help their students develop empathy, resolve conflicts, and practice situational judgment.
At Home:
Parents can emphasize soft skills by encouraging teamwork, problem-solving, and responsibility with household chores and projects.
Discuss academics, current events, daily updates with the kids to enhance critical thinking and communication. You can ask them how their day went in school? what did their friends do? what would you do if an event happened to you? What’s new thing happened in school? how was the bus? etc. Model important soft skills like empathy, flexibility, and self-control in these daily interactions.
There are some interesting games for children to develop and enhance their soft skills.
Here are some games for improving soft skills in kids at school and at home:
Communication Skills:
Storytelling Circle:
Have a circle time where each child contributes to a common collective story. Encourage them to listen actively and add their story to the narrative. Let a child start a story, next child will continue the story and the story continues with other kids adding their part.
Show and Tell:
Allow children to bring an item from home and talk about it. This helps improve verbal communication and boosts confidence.
Teamwork and Collaboration:
Group Art Projects:
Assign a larger art project that requires teamwork to a group of kids. Kids can collaborate on a collage, or a sculpture. Art integration projects also build teamwork and responsibility among students.
DIY Craft Challenges:
Provide materials to the kids and challenge them to create something unique. This encourages creative thinking and resourcefulness.
Emotional Intelligence:
Feelings Journal:
Have kids keep a journal to express their emotions and discuss on them. This promotes self-awareness and empathy. Let them discuss with parents voluntarily only if they want to about those emotional situations and learnings.
Leadership Skills:
Classroom Jobs:
Assign rotating classroom jobs to students. This encourages responsibility and leadership. Class Leaders, Class representatives, Library prefects, sports prefects, and many more will help students enhance their leadership skills.
Group Presentations:
Allow kids to lead short presentations on topics of interest. Presentation to their friends will help kids to overcome stage fear, communication issues. This builds confidence and leadership skills.
Read more on why leadership skills must be taught at school and many fun leadership activities!
Time Management:
Daily Schedule Craft:
Have kids create and decorate their daily schedules. Let them organize their day, let them give time for their play, rest, dinner and study. This teaches them time management and organization.
Adaptability and Flexibility:
Musical Chairs with a Twist:
Play musical chairs with different scenarios (pretend it’s raining, or they are in slow motion or through dance). This helps them the skills of adaptability and creativity.
Change of Plans Activity:
Occasionally change planned activities to teach kids to adapt to unexpected situations. This promotes flexibility.
Active Listening:
Listening Bingo:
Create bingo cards with various listening tasks. Have a healthy discussion with the kids on any topic. Based on the tasks mentioned during discussions, kids mark off the tasks.
Simon Says:
Play Simon Says with the kids, with a focus on listening carefully to instructions. This enhances listening skills and attention to detail among the kids.
Respect and Politeness:
Manners Matter Game:
Create a game where kids earn points for demonstrating good manners. During the class, at home or in school, kids will demonstrate good manners and this reinforces the importance of respect and politeness.
The key is to make these activities fun and engaging so that children enjoy the learning process. Adjust the difficulty level based on the age group and individual needs of the children involved.
NEP in India
Recently, the Government of India (GoI) has decided to implement a groundbreaking initiative in CBSE schools through the framework of the National Education Policy (NEP). One significant aspect of this policy reform is the introduction of Open Book Examinations (OBE) as a pilot project for students across classes 9 to 12.
OBE system offers dynamic approach evaluates academic knowledge and nurtures vital soft skills essential for success in the 21st century. To enhance the critical thinking, problem-solving abilities, time management, communication , research skills, and adaptability among students.
