How to teach "Green Soft Skills"

How to teach "Green Soft Skills"

Francesca Concia Alessandra Tomasini POLITECNICO DI MILANO 16 October 2025

How to support teachers?

A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to increase awareness about integrating soft skills training while teaching STEM disciplinary knowledge

Introduction to soft kills and their importance for green transition

Self-regulation skills for green transition

What's inside?

Intellectual cognitive skills for green transition

The MOOC is structured in 6 weeks

Team management skills for green transition

Communication skills for green transition

Innovative pedagogies for soft skills in STEM higher education

Metacognition process

For each skill, participants pass through

Action

Knowledge

Awareness

Self-awareness

Invitation to integrate in courses

Stimulus to put into practice

Acquaintance with soft skillss

Deepen the topic

01

A case-study: “Improve transdisciplinary communication”

Prof. Barbara Del Curto teaches at Politecnico di Milano the elective course Nanotechnologies and functional materials for design” to Master's degree students with a multidisciplinary background.

She wants students to develop an awareness of the most innovative technologies and materials for the design sector, with a particular focus on nanotechnologies and functional materials, with a view to sustainable development and circular economy.

For this year the teacher would like the students:

• practice communication:
• at the academic level with a specialized language
• at a divulgative level, with an informative language

• develop a metacognition awareness
• learn in an active way
• be fully engaged in the learning activity
• experiment the value of the collaboration
• develop critical thinking

Which didactic strategy do you suggest to the teacher of the course? How can Prof. Del Curto get these learning Outcomes?

Her solution:

a podcast!

The podcast

Format: Multi-voice Monologue Genre: Culture/Education Audience: General public Themes: Innovation trends in materials

+ info

Material trends

A trend for each group

Translate an academic product into popular language without compromising its scientific nature

Learning Outcomes

Summarise the topic in depth, extracting the key points

Communicate the topic and case studies effectively and engagingly, making them accessible to a general audience

Use this side of the card to provide more information about a topic. Focus on one concept. Make learning and communication more efficient.

Practise soft skills in communicating the topic developed in the in-depth study (dissertation) via podcast:

Critical thinking, adaptability

Title

Communication, empathy, teamwork

Flexibility

Write a brief description here

Students' feedback

When giving a presentation, you need to go after two main objectives: to convey information and avoid yawns. To do this, it can be good practice to make an outline and use words that will be imprinted in the memories of your audience.

02

A Methodology Card for the course: “Ethics of Climate Change”

He proposes: - a comparison of some texts, with particular attention to the analysis and development of complex topics, and - a self-reflection on one's work as a (future) engineer

Francesco Nappo is in charge of a new course for M.Sc in Automated Engineering students “Ethics of Climate Change”

A ‘Methodology card’

Attending the MOOC Francesco is inspired by an approach that can be useful for his students.He suggests the students to choose, among the sources for the final teamwork, to listen to stakeholders’ voices, through interviews. In this way, he think they can:

• experiment an “active ethics”,
• create new “connections”.

Ethics of Climate Change

Ethical thinking skills related to environmental issues, considering different perspectives

Environmental awareness

An initial knowledge of legal aspects

Ability to think and make decisions in a sustainable manner

Soft skills

“Coral” participation

Interview assignment assessment

45%

Interview weight in the final mark

50% instructor assessment and 50% assessment by other groups

55%

Assessment on: 25% communication effectiveness 25% response to questions 25% group synergy 25% overall value of the project

What’s the problem? Which kind of difficulties do the students meet?

Challenges

• The use of qualitative methodologies, which students are not accustomed to
• Quite demanding in terms of students' support (double or triple weekly office hours)
• Sometimes difficult to define the boundaries of the project
• Tension between ambition and the feasibility of projects, difficult to manage

Conclusion

• It is more effective to integrate soft skills development while working on subject-matter knowledge, than to implement specific curriculum on soft skills;
• A more interactive engaged approach to instruction improve skill acquisition
• While conducting active learning, it is important to provide a window in which to make learners’ thinking visible and accessible

Don’t forget to publish!

Synopsis

Human progress has always been enabled by the ability to manipulate matter and discover new materials. Even today, in the digital age, tangible matter continues to be a surprising driver of innovation, thanks in part to the possibility of structuring it on a micro and nano scale. With increasingly surprising properties, materials are also set to play a key role in the sustainable transition process. In this podcast, curated by the MakingMaterials research group at the Politecnico di Milano, you will discover some of the trends in materials innovation, recounted through dialogue with students from the Nanotechnology and Functional Materials for Design course....

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