Teachers' knowledge of soft skills and flipped classrooms: nursing and health technologies

Background: Soft skills and flipped classrooms are important in the fields of education, nursing, and health techniques.

Aim: This study determined nursing teachers’ knowledge of soft skills and flipped classrooms.

Design: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study with an analytical focus involving 100 teachers.

Settings: The study was conducted at a higher institute of nursing professions and health techniques—ISPITS at Agadir and its annex in Tiznit.

Participants: One hundred permanent and part-time teachers (with an equal distribution of male and female teachers) at ISPITS in Agadir and its annex in Tiznit participated in the survey.

Methods: A five-part questionnaire was used to collect data. The independent variable was the use of a flipped classroom and the dependent variable was the development of soft skills. SPSS version 25 software was used to process the data. A Chi-square test, Ficher’s test, a binary logistic regression test, and a multivariate logistic regression model were employed for data analysis.

Results: In total, 80% of the participants had knowledge of soft skills, and 75% knew about flipped classrooms. The most important soft skills were considered to be communication, stress management, teamwork, conflict management, problem-solving, time management, critical thinking, autonomy, adaptability, and decision-making. The five soft skills considered most likely to be developed by flipped classrooms were autonomy, analysis, teamwork, communication, and time management. Furthermore, the development of soft skills through the flipped classrooms was independently associated with soft skills training (p=0.008) and the use of the flipped classrooms (p=0.042).

Conclusions: Teachers have knowledge of soft skills and flipped classrooms despite a lack of training, and flipped classrooms contribute to the development of soft skills