Soft skills assessment in a Chemistry curriculum
Pinkie Ntola
Faculty, University, Country
Deaprtment of Chemistry, Faculty of Applied sciences, Durban University of Technology, South Africa
Challenge and goal
There is a general criticism of many graduates in the chemical sciences not being adequately prepared for the interdisciplinary careers that they are likely to occupy. Soft skills, as opposed to specific knowledge, make graduate students more competitive and better prepared for their careers. In chemistry specifically, students require training not only in the technical skills of the STEM (Science, Engineering, Technology, Mathematics) to become effective chemists.Chemistry Department’s academic staff indicated that staff are aware of the need to improve the level of preparedness in soft skills, but do not possess the training necessary to pass them on to the students. Industrial supervisors who are tasked with training students during WIL contend that they must already possess acceptable competency in key soft skills, such as problem solving, communication, time management and critical thinking, before starting working in industry. As such, more emphasis needs to be placed on task-associated skills that are relevant to the chemistry field, such as problem solving, critical thinking, desire to learn new things, attention to detail and following instructions.
The goal is to develop a strategy to incorporate soft skills in some of the modules, thereafter develop a clear assessment strategy that allows students to reflect on the improvement overtime.
Topic of the user case
Implementation of an assessment method for soft skills in the chemical sciences
Local context (specific)
In our department, an effort has been made to inculcate soft skills in the curriculum by introducing Theoretical Experiential Learning modules, the effect being assessed through feedback from students and their industry supervisors. This module is introduced in the third year (of a three year diploma) before the WIL students go into industry. It is a semester module (6 months). Despite these efforts, the Chemical industry in which these students receive placement, continue to indicate lack of soft skills in both the trainees and graduates. The department faces challenges in both the incorporation of these soft skills and the assessment thereof. Our university has always aimed to train graduates who display competence in the application of analytical chemistry knowledge in a broad range of varied work activities that are associated with a career in the Chemical and Allied Industries, ranging from manufacturing of detergents, petroleum, plastics, food, pharmaceuticals, to mining, water treatment, and metallurgy. Historically, most chemistry graduates have found employ-ment as laboratory technicians, with a small proportion who demonstrated greater aptitude for academic learning having pursued research related endeavors. Although never explicitly specified, a certain set of soft skills is expected from a chemistry technician to help them “function” in the workplace. The nature of the job demands the fresh graduates to possess a range of soft skills, such as openness to learning and receiving instructions, attention to details, discipline, able to solve technical problems, proficient in both written and verbal communication, and able to use email, Word, and Excel, in addition to being a good team player.
Local CPD goals
1. Incorporate soft skills in the curriculum
2. Develop an assessment method for these soft skills
Needs defined in STEM-CPD Roadmap
Competences
Attitudes
Activities
CPD activities at the local university
1. Organise a workshop to teach teachers on a list of soft skills relevant to chemical sciences/use literature/industry input, how to define learning outcomes and evelop learning materials.
4. Teach the teachers how to implement the soft skills incorporation and assessment method.
5. Evaluate the effectiveness of the incorporation of the soft skills and assessment method.
Teaching and learning materials
- Scholarly articles relating to the soft skills and assessment
- Workshop on soft skills
- Meeting with Advisory Board on soft skills
- Results from industry regarding soft skills expectations
Sustainable implementation
1. A cincurrent work based learning experience- encourage students to obtain work experience at the same time as they receic=ve classroom instruction.
2. Create digital badges representing mastery of a skill.
Expected impact of the CPD User Case
The faculty will align its skills training with that of the industry in which the students will work. In this case, our students will be more employable.
The ways in which soft skills are will be re-evaluated to ensure that the students gain not only knowledge about them but also how to apply them.
Soft skills will be assessed in a way that allows both students and teachers to reflect.
Plans for eventual continuation of the CPD within the same topic
1. Design a standalone module that addresses soft skills. The module addresses specific skills for the chemical industry, and it is not a general soft skills module
2. Design industry specific electives such as competencies required for the water, pharamaceutical or mining industry.
Developing confidence in sound course design (type P1-1)
This CPD scenario describes a User case in which lecturers develop their competence in sound course design and develop attitudes in reflecting on own teaching practice and practicing teaching and learning in an evidence informed way.
The approximate duration of a User case that follows this scenario is several days.
In this CPD scenario the participants professionalize in a close connection to their own teaching practice (at their workplace) and meet in person on location with the training staff and with other participants.
Competences
Learning environment
Time
Several days
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