Proceedings of the 8th World Conference on Future of Education
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Developing Conflict Management Skills in Higher Education IT Students: Impacts and Challenges
Patrícia Guiomar, Ana Maria Costa e Silva
ABSTRACT:
Higher education institutions play an important role in developing soft skills, among them, conflict management skills. Internationally, mediation services in higher education have been proposed as an innovative strategy to identify, manage and resolve conflicts, as well as to develop personal and relational skills in students, which are essential for their holistic development. Considering the importance of developing soft skills in Portuguese higher education, this article aims to analyze the impact of the workshop ‘Mediation Strategies for Positive Conflict Management’ on how students perceive and view conflicts and how they stand in relation to the implementation of mediation services in higher education. The workshop was implemented among 45 Information Technology (IT) students at a university in Portugal. The data collected through a mixed methodological approach was subjected to a simple descriptive and content analysis. The results show that the workshop helped students to understand the importance of positive conflict management; that students tend to adopt collaborative behaviors when confronted with a conflictual situation; and that students are favorably disposed towards the integration of mediation services in higher education to help them resolve, manage, prevent and transform conflicts. This work is relevant in terms of reflecting on the future of education, since today’s globalized society requires rethinking and readjusting educational spaces in order to adapt them to current social, labor and global demands.
keywords: Conflict management, Higher education, Mediation, Soft skills, Students