Abstract:

There is a lively debate on the issue of the acquisition and development of soft skills in education. This appreciation is a global phenomenon in which, the development of these skills has evolved from being an effect consequence of the overall development of the individuals since childhood during their learning process, to be a concrete and decisive aspect in their formation in life.

Theories of Piaget, Vygotsky, and Montessori, on learning and child cognitive development, provide multiple guidelines for the analysis and approach of holistic learning experiences in childhood, which will be the basis of this application research in the Ecuadorian educational environment (Pichincha case study). Soft skills are very important in the early stages of a child’s development because they influence his emotional state, his social relationships, how his self-esteem is formed and his cognitive system is enhanced.

This study is part of an investigation on the role of design, in the learning of soft skills in rural schools. In this work, we observe which are the soft competencies that are worked in the rural areas of the area of Pichincha, how the acquisition of these competencies is proposed in children of 5-6 years, and with what learning resources they have. This state of the art of this issue will allow contextualizing this research, as part of a social problem accentuated in the Ecuadorian education model, with the aim of framing the relevance of the design of educational material for this purpose.

The first part presents the scope of competencies at the different levels of the Ecuadorian education system, in relation to rural schools and, in particular, in the pre-school age bracket. The case, scope of the study, materials, and methods are described below. Finally, some results and conclusions are presented, derived from the analysis carried out and their potential to develop new effective and sustainable learning resources are shown.

Keywords:

Soft skills, Educational resources, Design, Learning, Communication Design.