FORMATION OF SOFT SKILLS IN PUPILS THROUGH THE CONTENTS OF “CIVIC EDUCATION” COURSE

Abstract

The article researches the didactic resource of the subject field “Civic Education” regarding the possibilities to form a complex of soft skills at high-schoolers. The means of analysis of the methodological tools of the course revealed that the main components of soft skills, which were summarized in four groups in the study, namely: educational, literacy skills, social and personal skills, can be acquired at the lessons; groups of methods that can be used as trainings to form comprehensive skills at pupils were proposed. In the course of the study, it was established that some universal skills, such as leadership qualities, time management, flexibility, need to be specified through separate courses, which was the area of mutual responsibility of the subjects of the educational process. It was confirmed that teaching should take place on the basis of a balance between the formation of hard skills and soft skills, which corresponded to the conceptual principles of the New Ukrainian School reform and the new challenges of a globalized society. The relevance of the idea of a holistic approach to education grounding on the principle of balance, which involved a harmonious combination of mental development with emotional, creative, and spiritual one was determined; inclusiveness, which meant building an educational process based on dialogicity, partnership and connection of knowledge and experience. It was confirmed that the search for effective strategies for the formation of soft skills and forms of their implementation by means of subjects of various educational fields remained a promising direction of research in pedagogical theory and practice, requiring reflection and dissemination of experience at various levels of education.
 Keywords: soft skills; universal competences; educational process; civic education; comprehensive skills; methods of soft skills formation; holistic approach to teaching; educational practices.