Competency-based learning and formative assessment feedback as precursors of college students’ soft skills acquisition
研究调查了303名以色列本科生对能力本位学习和形成性评价反馈的看法，发现前者与个人、社会和方法的软技能正相关，而后者主要通过促进能力本位学习间接影响软技能。
In recent years, researchers have highlighted the importance of students’ set of soft skills. However, although deemed important, the integration of those skills into educational systems’ policy remains ancillary in higher education. This is mainly due to the scant use of competency-based learning activities and the widely used instructional practices of back-to-basics across many higher education systems. This study set out to examine how undergraduate students perceive the extent to which competency-based learning accompanied by formative assessment feedback techniques are employed by their faculty, and the effect these methods have on their soft skills acquisition. Data were gathered from 303 Israeli undergraduate students of education, health management, and social work study tracks, and analyzed by using Partial Least Squares – Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). According to the empirical model, competency-based learning was found to be positively connected to personal, social, and methodological soft skills. Another finding showed that formative assessment feedback was highly and positively connected to competency-based learning, whereas merely low results were indicated between this factor and soft skills. These findings suggest that soft skills can be enhanced by constructivist learning activities that take place in meaningful and relevant vocational situations, accompanied by detailed feedback, based on specific assessment criteria, provided in a timely manner, constructive, and aimed at reinforcing students’ learning towards soft skill acquisition.