Abstract:

Hyperinflation of knowledge and hard skills is one of the biggest challenges of the modern education system. As narrow-specialized jobs are being replaced by artificial intelligence technology, the request for specialists with developed soft skills tends to grow. In response to these changes, a modern educational system should shift the focus toward developing soft skills. The combination of traditional (hard-operational skills) training with developing soft skills helps school students get on the path of independent development and assists students to build a strong basis for post-graduate professional growth. It is of vital importance for contemporary specialists to find situational interdisciplinary solutions at work. The presented model fulfills the request for individual personalized learning as a countermeasure of current social processes.

The paper presents a system of developing the students’ soft skills based on the pyramid of self-actualization (PSA) which is aimed at helping them become independent lifelong learners as recommended by the European Commission. The PSA is an innovativ e model for developing the students’ soft skills as well as a diagnostic tool for evaluating the individual's development level including a position and role in society, goal setting, etc. The proposed learning pyramid has evolved from pre-existing approaches, taking into account Bloom’s taxonomy and its modification by Pappas, Dale’s and Dilts' pyramids, Boyd’s The OODA loop (Observe-Orient-Decide-Act), and J. Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. We developed the methodology for constructing an individual learning path. Based on the PSA method, each person can shape his/her own learning strategy at a higher ed quality level. The approach guides through a step-by-step process of shaping students’ co-cognition, thus empowering them to create their own professional path. Through the process of self-actualization, specialists contribute to and develop their communities .

PSA relies on knowledge acquired by a person through his/her own experience, which is valid for use in relevant situations. In other words, the learner can critically evaluate his/her own previous experience independently and reconfigure it, if necessary, for a solution to a problem that can arise in a multicultural multidisciplinary reality. The paper reveals the importance of individual experience when mastering soft skills. Based on PSA, a student can develop self-reflection, set goals, analyze and correct the routes of soft-skills development successfully.

Part of the pedagogical practices, devoted to PSA validation is also presented in the paper.
This approach is already being applied to solve psychological and pedagogical problems: for career guidance, testing of specialists, designing and correcting individual educational routes, and multimedia products for all educational levels (from primary school through postgraduate).

The PSA method is implemented in 21 countries for the creation and validation of learning materials and augmented reality of the system “Innovations for children”, for elementary school (Multimedia University and interdisciplinary cases for nature study “Go see the forest spirit” module), game set “Children of the world” aimed at developing competences (3-99 y.o.), the “Fairytale library” project and product (3-12 y.o.) et al. Since 2012 over 10. 000 people have completed training with the materials.

Keywords:

Soft-skills, education techniques, pyramids theory, pyramid of self-actualization, life-long learning.