Graduate-Level Credit / Non-Credit Hours
3 Semester Credits or 45 Clock Hours
Course Description
Participants in this course will learn how to build academic success by exploring and developing tools to increase K-12 students’ soft skills (communication, work ethic, leadership, personal responsibility, and listening.) They will recognize and prioritize their students’ soft skills that will be valuable in reaching future goals, remaining optimistic, and dealing with conflict in their schooling. Participants will explore a series of strategies for reaching and helping students learn appropriate behaviors, strategies for the future, and ways to help prepare them for college and career readiness. Research is based on the works of Robert W. Gaines, II, Ph.D., Meca B. Mohammed, Ph.D., Cheryl Talley, Ph.D., and Marcheta Evans, Ph.D., among others. Foundational work in this course will include the research on understanding soft skills, strategies to develop soft skills, bringing students' soft skills to reach within the classroom, and the different types of soft skills: communication, work ethic, leadership, personal responsibility, and listening. Participants will synthesize these paradigms and develop a new understanding of the role that soft skills can play in student learning, along with new tools and techniques for cultivating students’ soft skills.
Global Goals of the Course
The following global goals of the course exist to deepen and/or apply the content and skills of teachers’ existing professional knowledge:
The course was great! The information was on point and the instructor was very supportive throughout the class.
I loved the enthusiasm the instructor brought to class every day, the overall course content, and the relevant assignments.
The professor was very knowledgeable and helpful about the content area and had so many great ideas that I plan on using with my class this year and beyond. I was surprised at how many resources there are for outdoor education and how beneficial it is to kids.