Developing soft skills (also known as pervasive skills): usefulness of an educational game
View/ Open
Date
2016Author
Viviers, Herman Albertus
Fouché, Jacobus Paulus
Reitsma, Gerda Marié
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the usefulness of an educational game to develop
soft skills (also known as pervasive skills), from the perspectives of three groups of role-players (student
participants, student committee members and employer companies). The game was designed to provide
students with the opportunity to develop soft skills and to determine whether students applied the
pervasive skills required by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Design/methodology/approach
– Action research was conducted according to a parallel
convergent mixed-method research design. Both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered using
questionnaires and focus group interviews to determine the usefulness of the educational game.
Findings
– All three groups perceived the educational game to be effective in requiring students to
apply the full spectrum of soft/pervasive skills. Although all the pervasive skills were perceived to be
present in the game, teamwork, communication (listening and verbal) and time management skills were
perceived to be most prominent, while written communication, professionalism and ethical awareness
were found to be less prominent. Overall, this game can be recommended as an effective and innovative
teaching method that can positively contribute to the pervasive skills development of accounting
students.
Originality/value
– The need to deliver well-rounded accounting graduates demonstrating core
technical and soft skills (or pervasive skills and competencies) calls for new and innovative teaching
methods. Accounting educators and programmes are continuously challenged regarding which
methods to apply to meet these outcomes and substantiate their usefulness
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/21112https://doi.org/10.1108/MEDAR-07-2015-0045
https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/MEDAR-07-2015-0045