Investigating the incorporation of soft skills instruction in the school curriculum : a case study of a private school in Lebanon

Abstract

Soft skills have been the subject of much discussion and trending lately. Much research has been done on the relationship between partaking good soft skills and being a better employee. This could be especially true in the field of education, as the process of expectation and planning of the learning experiences showed to improve with the significant development of soft skills of the teachers. In Lebanon, very few studies are conducted on the role of soft skills in those entering the workforce. This research aims to bridge that gap by assessing the knowledge, perceptions, and behaviors of Lebanese high school students and teachers on soft skills. To study this potential strategy, a case study design was adopted. A questionnaire was administered to 76 high school students and another questionnaire to their teachers at a Lebanese private school. It assessed the understanding of a number of selected highly sought after soft skills: entrepreneurship, teamwork and collaboration, goal setting, time management and communication. Results demonstrated that 65.79% of high school students reported lack of knowledge and benefits of soft skills due to the fact that the implementation of such skills within lesson plans in schools is still limited. In addition, findings showed that 38.6% of students displayed confusion between the definition of soft and vocational skills, and they were not applying them in their everyday lives. On the other hand, all teachers reported familiarity with soft skills and implementation in their lesson plans whenever possible. Nonetheless, 88% were not highlighting the usage of this approach in their teaching practices, which resulted in a discrepancy between the teachers‘ knowledge and the students‘ perceptions. Implications of these findings recommend that the school system needs to investigate closely the possibility of equipping high school students with soft skills for their future jobs and the necessity of teachers to incorporate them in their teaching experience.