The positive impact of the explicit teaching of interpersonal skills in highly technical courses
Conference Tracks
Learning Theories and Pedagogy – Research
Abstract
Interpersonal skills are not often intentionally taught in highly technical courses. In the required course BME2210-Conservation Principles in Biomedical Engineering, however, students are taught highly technical and advanced content alongside interpersonal skills. Specifically, students learned to apply the ICAP framework for engagement, attribution theory, cognitive biases, conflict resolution, and the Johari window while working in pairs on course content. Students were later surveyed about their use and transference of these interpersonal skills. Responses vary, but students frequently positively describe transferring these skills beyond the course. These self-reports support explicit teaching of interpersonal skills in traditionally highly rigorous technical classes.
Session Format
Presentation
Location
Room 2
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
van Montfrans, Veronica; Bonds, Mahauganee; Le Doux, Joe; and Newstetter, Wendy, "The positive impact of the explicit teaching of interpersonal skills in highly technical courses" (2019). SoTL Commons Conference. 40.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/sotlcommons/SoTL/2019/40
The positive impact of the explicit teaching of interpersonal skills in highly technical courses
Room 2
Interpersonal skills are not often intentionally taught in highly technical courses. In the required course BME2210-Conservation Principles in Biomedical Engineering, however, students are taught highly technical and advanced content alongside interpersonal skills. Specifically, students learned to apply the ICAP framework for engagement, attribution theory, cognitive biases, conflict resolution, and the Johari window while working in pairs on course content. Students were later surveyed about their use and transference of these interpersonal skills. Responses vary, but students frequently positively describe transferring these skills beyond the course. These self-reports support explicit teaching of interpersonal skills in traditionally highly rigorous technical classes.
