Soft skills promoted by participatory processes: a case study in Italian high schools

This paper explores how the soft skills included in the European framework of key competences for lifelong learning can be promoted by a participatory approach involving high school students in the co-creation/development of their Physical Education and Sport (PES) curriculum. The first results of a research conducted within the European Erasmus Plus project DIYPES in 3 Italian high schools, including the use of focus group methodology in 9 classes, are presented as a case study. It is shown that the activation of various kinds of soft skills included in the European framework of key competences for lifelong learning – in particular “Personal, social and learning competence”, “Civic competence”, “Entrepreneurship competence” – not only was fostered by the participatory process in itself, but emerged as an implicit central issue in the proposals developed by the students to improve their PES classes.