Soft skills from the perspective of john dewey's problem-based learning for tenth semester psychologists in training at the villa del rosario campus of the university of pamplona

Abstract

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are called upon to develop skills for work and life. That is to say, the formation of values and attitudes for every human being is of great importance for the development and balance between the professional, work, and social spheres. However, at present, higher education students have an education focused on work performance, leaving aside the development or training of soft skills or competences. This research set out to characterize the soft skills of tenth semester psychologists in training at the Villa del Rosario campus of the Universidad de Pamplona using John Dewey's Problem-Based Learning Theory (PBL). It was done under a qualitative, cross-sectional and phenomenological design approach, by means of interviews with psychologists in training and the application of a PBL. It can be concluded that Problem-Based Learning as a learning theory offers education a strategic framework for psychologists in training to develop competencies, as well as hard and soft skills from an experiential perspective. Regarding the latter, the evaluation identifies an imperative need, from this theoretical framework (PBL), to redefine the teaching-learning processes. As well, to promote values and traits that foster, in addition to communication, effective individual and collective relationships in the context in which the psychologist develops.