Classroom engagement through short stories and motivational messages

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study is to introduce short stories and motivational messages on soft skills in pharmacy didactic courses to improve classroom engagement. Methods: Surveys were then conducted on the impact of students’ understanding of soft skills and their impact on classroom engagement. Results: The survey results from the two classes (2022 and 2023) of first year students showed that they gained an understanding of soft skills appropriately. The strategy also improved their classroom engagement and well-being. A further survey from a class of 2023 third year students indicated the strategy continued to be helpful in subsequent years. The results from students’ feedback also showed that students generally appreciated the strategy, and it helped them stay positive and engaged in the classroom. Conclusion: Overall, the study concluded that this unique delivery of soft skill information helped students in classroom engagement and helped them learn various soft skill sets.

The Role of Modality in Developing Durable Skills: Challenges and Experiences of Diverse Student Populations

“…Student engagement has been demonstrated to have a positive effect on academic performance and student retention (Chapman, 2002(Chapman, -2003Coates, 2005;Kuh, Cruce, Shoup, Kinzie, and Gonyea, 2008;Pascarella, Seifert, & Blaich, 2010;DeOliveira, 2022). Furthermore, student engagement has a positive impact on the development of durable skills in every area (Kumar, Haque, Zhou, & Spivey, 2022;Almeida & Daniel, 2022). Engagement in the form of educationally effective practices can take place both in and out of the classroom and lead to many different measurable outcomes and skill development.…”