TSSP APPROACH TO SOFT SKILLS TEACHING AND LEARNING
Until there is a consensus on a definition of soft skills, TTSP will take its point of departure in Professor
Tanka Nath Sharma’s definition which is presented in his MOE Approach Paper (2010) and which
represents a broad understanding of the concept:
Soft skills are generic skills such as communication, decision making, creativity, team work and
personal attributed which are preferred by employers. Soft skills are not developed in isolation; they
are developed during the occupational preparation programs in schools
Teachers and parents may ask how soft skills differ from life skills, which maybe is a concept, people are
more familiar with. Life skills are accounted for in basic education and prepare students for living in the
society. Some of the basic skills in life skills overlap with key soft skills, e.g. communication skills, but
when teaching life skills, health and social issues are more predominant. When practicing soft skills the
overlapping skills are practiced on a higher level in secondary school and the teaching is always including
an employment aspect – either by simulating work situations or practicing skills that are directly related
to relevant employment opportunities.
Life skills
Prepares students to be responsible for their life
Soft skills
Prepares students for broad-spectrum
employment after school
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In order to make soft skills understandable and workable for teachers, TSSP need to use the principle of
examples. When teachers do their lesson planning, they are only able to focus on a very limited number
of skills. TSSP will therefore start working with the four fundamental soft skills mentioned in in Professor
Tanka Nath Sharma’s definition. After using these as examples teachers have practiced ways of
integrating soft skills in teaching and learning and can move on with individually selected soft skills.
Students participating in a lesson with the aim of learning a hard skill will inevitably and unconsciously
practice a range of soft skills, but with the revised curriculum it is necessary to have a specific focus on
soft skills development. An approach to embed soft skills into hard skills practice in different subjects is
by turning the objective of a lesson upside down, i.e. making soft skills the focus and the hard skills or
the content of a lesson the vehicle to teach soft skills, not the end goal.
Lesson example:
An example would be a mathematics teacher who plans a lesson by firstly determining what soft skills
s/he wishes to enhance on that day, and then secondly considers how the required mathematics
content can be arranged to support this goal.
The following is an example of focusing on soft skills such as team work, decision making and
communication in mathematics by using basic hard skills such as measuring, calculating and estimating.
The teacher asks his/her students to estimate the resources needed to paint the class room and
calculate how much it would cost. The students would have to form groups and:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Measure the size and calculate the area of the 4 walls in the class room.
Find and note down prices of different types and qualities of paint.
Study the specifications on how many square meters of wall the paint covers per litre.
Make a group presentation of the total cost of painting the room, if the group also should do the
work and be paid for the job.
5. Make an assessment of the “quotations” from the different groups. Students could participate
in selecting the “best value for money” option.
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Curriculum Learning Outcome no. 8 Grade 8:
Soft skills
Activity
Team work
Group work
Delegation of
responsibilities
Combining results
Organising work into
one presentation
Decision making
Brainstorming and
selecting best ideas
Choosing colour, price,
quality, decoration
Selecting best option of
all proposals
Communication
Present group proposal
in writing
Oral group presentation
Reasoning for choice
made
Creativity
Producing models and
art work
Finding alternatives
Content
Plastering, colouring
and carpeting Measuring, calculating,
scaling
Assessment focus
Correct measuring,
calculations and scaling
Analyse and estimate
different options
Identifying criteria for
best option
Choosing realistic and
good solution according
to criteria
Presenting calculations
and proposal logically
and systematically
Quality of presentation
- written and orally
Most value for less
money
Criteria: Most value for
less money
Student self-evaluation
If the teacher wanted to increase the focus to include creativity as well he/she could ask the learners to
make suggestions of art works or decorations on the class room walls and produce scaled
models/drawings of the four walls. If applied, such an approach to teaching will automatically increase
the attractiveness and effectiveness of a lesson regarding both hard skills and soft skills.
A lesson plan may look like this:
In training teachers will make lesson plans like this, test the activities and share their reflections with
other teachers in the ALGs. Best practices will be used in national training and material development.
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