Soft Skills: What They Are and How to Develop Them
The webinar will focus on the nature of “soft skills” and how they are and aren’t different from “hard skills.” Soft skills are predictive of both academic and career success but are often misunderstood. For example, lists of soft skills provided on various websites vary from a handful of skills to one site that lists 144. Many believe or assert that soft skills are difficult if not impossible to teach and that they are fundamentally different from “hard skills” and “technical skills” in the way that we learn them. They are widely believed to be more about the attitudes or personality characteristics that students/employees bring to the classroom/workplace than about the experiences we can give them once they arrive. As a result, teachers and managers know how important soft skills are but often are at a loss when it comes to how to help students and employees develop them. This presentation will help clarify and correct key misunderstandings about soft skills and provide participants with correct information that will increase their ability to help themselves and others develop these skills.
- Hard skills and soft skills. Why the distinction doesn't matter.
- What is learning? How do we acquire different types of skills?
- What foundational skills need to be in place for soft skills to develop?
- What does all that imply for helping individuals learn soft skills?
- Sample Soft Skills Exercises: Communication and Flexibility
I like to describe myself as a "recovering" educator, but the truth is that I am more excited than ever about what neuroscience is uncovering about the brain and how we can use that information to enable each individual to reach his or her cognitive potential. I'm here to share what I've been learning over the last ten years and to continue to learn from others in this amazing and fast developing field.
