School-based disaster preparedness: Are non-technical skills taught?

Background

The constant increase in crises worldwide questions the scientific community about disaster management [1]. Besides technical skills, soft-skills, defined as ‘the cognitive, social, and personal resource skills that complement technical skills, and contribute to safe and efficient task performance’ [2], have proved to be highly valuable when a disaster strikes [3]. Numerous studies have suggested that simulation may play a key role in soft-skills training [4]. Although disaster education is now a prerequisite in school curricula [5–7], very little is known about the content or teaching methods [8, 9]. We aimed to analyse primary and secondary school-based disaster education programs to identify which type of soft skills are taught and how.

Materials and methods

A literature research was conducted to find peer-reviewed articles, which were relevant to school-based disaster education up to December 2018. Data were then extracted and analysed according to Bloom’s skills classification [10] (Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes), the six skill components (e.g. people-related, reflexive, personal) and the teaching methods (teacher- or student-centred approach).

Results

Seven relevant articles were identified out of the 127 found. Soft-skills training was found in secondary school students in six studies. Of the seven studies, only one showed an integration of knowledge, skills and attitudes with all the soft-skill components. Regarding the latter, only three studies included reflexive and people-related skills. Concerning teaching methods, five studies used teacher-centred approach (lectures) to improve knowledge or skills, while simulation based-learning (student-centred approach) was found in one study, mainly to teach attitudes (e.g. leadership).

Conclusions

Soft-skills and simulation-based training are still largely underdeveloped in school-based disaster education. Existing initiatives remain too focused on classic teacher-centred approaches and basic or personal soft-skills knowledge. Further research is needed to develop more relevant soft-skills education tool for disaster medicine and to evaluate their efficacy.