García Higuera, María del Carmen
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García Higuera, María del Carmen
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García Higuera, María del Carmen
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García Higuera, Carmen
mcgarcia
Villa, Carmen G.
G.-Villa, Carmen
García Villa, Carmen
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25655594500
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CRE-3256-2022

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Success Center : a center for the development of soft skills among Universidad Panamericana students

2017 , García Higuera, María del Carmen , Repellin Moreno, Adriana Agnes , Matienzo Cáceres, Yanira

Higher education institutions have sought to develop in students the knowledge and abilities that prepare them to a particular profession in the current job market and to shape personality traits necessary through life (Shakir, 2009). Graduates should not only be experts in a certain field, but also they need mature personalities, with a well-balanced, rounded off education. Many colleges and universities are focused in promoting students with the highest ethical standards and a strong sense of responsibility for society. In its mission statement, Universidad Panamericana (UP) expresses these values, convinced that only college graduates with these abilities will help Mexico raise its capacity for professional competencies, creativity and innovation. However, a gap has been identified between the skills college graduates have and those needed to succeed at the job place (Schultz, 2008). Under this consideration, UP proposed two venues as an effort to assure a learning model that integrates soft skills. First, a proposal to work with professors in order to include soft skills into curricula; and second, the Success Center (SC), as a specific initiative to address student competencies outside the classroom. This paper describes the experience of creating the SC and the results obtained during its first year of operation.The SC initiated in the spring of 2016 with two projects: the first project was a logo design student contest for the center. The final design is used as the SC official logo. This project helped students not only develop awareness about the new center, but also about the need to acquire soft skills for their lives after college. The second project was a survey conducted among students to identify the perceived needs of attitudes and competencies for their integral development. The survey was available to the students in different open spaces throughout the university for two days and was accessible online for two weeks. 1,321 students from all disciplines answered the survey. Results include time management, oral and written communication, critical and creative thinking, negotiation and personal finance as important soft skills to develop among students. Based on the survey, the SC proposed 16 projects to be released the next academic year. These projects seek to address students in different stages of their college experience. Moreover, SC team up with academic colleges in order to attract more students and to develop skills and competencies for the specific professional fields. In addition, SC worked with other centers inside the university such as the Center for Innovation in Education and student organizations, in order to better understand student needs. During the first year, nearly 12% of the undergraduate population participated in at least one project experience, and most of them are now ambassadors for the services provided by the SC. Encouraged by the first year student participation, 18 new projects will be offered in next year with follow-up tests of the skills acquired. Initiatives like the SC are thus documented as an example of how to enhance soft skills in students in order for them to compete in a globalized world. ©2017, Iated Academy S.L.

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Socialization, appropriation and adaptation of outstanding teaching competencies as an enhancement of curricular improvement : the creation of a Center for Innovation in Education

2013 , Matienzo Cáceres, Yanira , Diez Uriarte, Isabel , García Higuera, María del Carmen

New educational paradigms, such as what the UNESCO identifies as “the dynamic networks and work spaces for the discussion, creation, diffusion and socialization of knowledge, integrating development strategies that enhance innovation in higher education” (Observatorio Mexicano de la Innovación en la Educación Superior [OMIES]; 2011: 5), force us, as a college, to start looking in different directions. The world in which we operate is looking forward to the creation of interdisciplinary curricular programs and the transformation of academic organizations, under the notion that professors should rethink their role –traditionally though of as lecturers and knowledge holders¬–, and recreate their teaching practice through personal and collegiate work, aligned with the academic training (mastery of their discipline) and pedagogical and didactic education (didactic instrumentation and curricular design) that all teachers need. Set in this scenario and as a response to the challenges that these paradigms entail, Universidad Panamericana [UP] has set the goal of developing interdisciplinary learning environments that encourage the development of professors and college students through dialogue and reflection, in order to achieve a solid academic formation. This is the reason why more than two years ago, the university firmly got interested in creating a space where its professors’ talent could be enhanced, a space that contributed to the improvement of the teaching and learning process and the promotion of innovative learning environments through academic and cross-disciplinary collaboration. This concern materialized since the 2010 Fall term as the Center for Innovation in Education [CIE], whose utmost goal is to enhance teaching talent through the innovation of learning environments, in order to have a positive effect on the students’ integral learning. The following paper aims to present the center’s efforts regarding curricular work and program development as a teaching practice, tasks in which educational innovation has been promoted, having as a foundation each professor’s outstanding teaching competencies and strengths, that is, their “best qualities” (Lopez and Louis; 2009: 2). ©2013 IATED Academy

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