Learning of Social Skills in nursing students according to the methodology in the classroom

Social Skills (SS) represents an especially important set of competencies in for healthcare professionals. This work aimed to evaluate different methodologies available for the training of nursing students in SS. A quasi-experimental investigation was designed in which 189 university students participated divided into a control group and three training groups. The experimental groups were made up of students who took the subject of Social Skills. A behavioral approach was compared with two levels of implementation of the collaborative learning technique known as Aronson's puzzle. A pre-test and a post-test were performed using the Interpersonal Difficulties Questionnaire. The results showed greater effectiveness of training through cooperative learning, a superiority that was only verified when the technique was introduced systematically in the classroom, endorsing the relevance of using this methodology in university teaching when it comes to strengthening social interaction skills.