The Requirements of Integrating Soft Skills into Higher Education Curricula within the Context of Transformative Education

Abstract

Transformative education theory is one of the key concepts of the 21st century. It aims to teach learners the knowledge, skills, and soft skills to prepare them to be skilled and responsible citizens in their society. In this article, we examine the importance of soft skills in Mongolia’s higher education curricula to investigate whether Mongolian universities recognise these societal demands and incorporate soft skills effectively. The object of the research was the English language education curriculum in four Mongolian public and private universities, and the curriculum analysis method and focus group interview were employed to find answers to the research questions. The findings revealed that different terms were used to express soft skills, and universities incorporate various soft skills. However, the target curricula did not include soft skills tailored to specific majors. For instance, we focused on the four curricula for English teaching education, but half of them incorporated only one or two specific soft skills for future English language teachers. Therefore, it was concluded that soft skills are insufficient to incorporate into the curriculum. It was also noted that hard or technical skills are emphasised more than soft skills in the curriculum of the universities targeted in this research. Given the evidence, it is difficult to determine whether the skills acquired by graduates meet the employers’ requirements. In this case, higher education institutions in Mongolia must integrate soft skills into their curricula to convey key concepts of transformative education and ensure equal emphasis is placed on knowledge, skills, soft skills and teaching methods.

https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.24.3.34