Enhancing the development of soft skills of psychoeducation interns: the design of a pedagogical innovation
In psychoeducation, soft skills refer to all learning related to the emotional and social domains. Although soft skills are recognized as one of the fundamental concepts of psychoeducational practice, training is still mainly provided by a pedagogy aimed at acquiring theoretical and practical knowledge. As a result, students do not sufficiently develop the relational skills essential to their future practice. This article presents the conception phase of a pedagogical innovation aimed at optimizing the internship course from Université de Montreal’s psychoeducation undergraduate program, in order to promote, among other elements, the development of soft skills. The innovation is based on the Authentic Situated Learning and Teaching (ASLT) conceptual framework (Bédard et al., 2000; Frenay & Bédard, 2004) which aims to facilitate learning transfer between theories and practices in the professional field. The pedagogical innovation is composed of active learning pedagogies implemented in the internship course and in professional context. Anchored in a shift of paradigm towards a competency-based approach in the psychoeducation program, this innovation changes the way the internship is taught in the undergraduate program by promoting the development of soft skills among future psychoeducators. This article is of interest to anyone who trains human services practitioners for and through practice.