21st Century Soft Skills in our Cognitive-laden Curriculum

Teaching and learning in the 21st century aim to produce students proficient in content knowledge, specific abilities, literacy, numeracy, and technology uses. From the 21st century skills, soft skills were delineated from the student outcomes; and defined as intra- and interpersonal skills vital for personal development, social participation, and workplace success. This study has 3 goals: to determine the perceived extent of integration of 21st century-based soft skills in the current dentistry curriculum, to examine the perceived 21st century-based soft skills of the student participants to serve as baseline data and teacher participants to determine if they have the skills that they are supposed to impart; and, to determine the relationship of the perceived 21st century-based soft skills with various factors to justify the integration of the 21st century-based soft skills in the dentistry curriculum. The 21st century-based soft skills were grouped into four areas: communication, relationships and collaboration, critical thinking and decision making, and initiative and self-direction.