Transversal Skills for the University Teaching Practice

Abstract

The present article highlights the importance of transversal skills in the comprehensive teacher education, which considers knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values that are transferable to any activity involved in this work. The four pillars of learning proposed by Jaques Delors (1996): “learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, and learning to live together”, provide a comprehensive framework that emphasizes the importance and the type of competencies that complement one another. These skills are essential for humans to develop in order to address the current educational challenges. In the Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, the Institutional Educational Model promotes a teaching profile that incorporates these pillars by focusing on the cognitive, practical, personal, and social development of teachers. This article presents a review of the teacher profiles established in 60 current educational programs at UAA, identifying the transversal skills promoted following the framework of Rojas, Luna, & Hernández (2018). Skills as the management of theory and teaching practice as well as social responsibility are notable for their significant presence in the revised educational programs with approximately 95% to 100%. Similarly, the management of ICT, the development of affectivity, collaborative work, institutional identity, the management of a foreign language, ethical competence, and critical thinking were found in approximately 90% of the programs. Two skills that differ from the original framework proposed by the cited authors: teamwork and institutional identity were identified. The four least-mentioned transversal skills were flexibility, research competence, communicative research, and creativity and innovation, which appeared between 7 and 12% of the educational programs.

Translated by: Adán Israel Vázquez Alba.