Menshenina S.G. Interdisciplinarity as a Means for Students’ Soft Skills Development

Abstract

Introduction. The development of the business sphere, scientific and technological progress set the pace of engineering education modernization and stimulate the search for the optimal and close to real working conditions ways of improving and enhancing professional competences and soft skills of university graduates. Interdisciplinarity has become a professional fields trend comprising enormous potential to foster the research, implement its results into practice and facilitate students’ soft skills development.Materials and Methods. The study is based on the analysis and comparison of domestic and foreign experience on the problem of the research; pedagogical observation of the educational process; study and generalization of pedagogical experience; experimental work.Results. The interdisciplinary project “Hardware and software complex of augmented reality as a means of learning a foreign language” was carried out with students of different specialties on the bases of Samara State Technical University. The rationale for this project choice is related to the relevance of the information technologies use in educational process and the need to learn a foreign language for professional purposes. These conditions make us think of creating the innovative methodological support of educational process. Considering the development of students’ soft skills, special attention was paid to group dynamics, role functions, leadership, as well as environmental and context factors. Interdisciplinary interaction terms were identified: stable working relationships which help develop communication literacy skills; finding the effective conflict solution that stimulates thinking skills; role and time distribution for actualizing management and self-management skills; a common goal achieving which is conditioned by the combination of the main soft skills groups of effective thinking skills, communication skills, management and self-management skills.Discussion and Conclusion. Practical work within the interdisciplinary project proved the necessity of students’ soft skills development for achieving success in professional sphere. The most efficient way to better this process is to realize the interdisciplinary interaction due to its potential, represented by its resources, ideas and approaches from different fields, and opportunities for mastering the skills in question.