{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,3]],"date-time":"2026-10-03T16:45:20Z","timestamp":1791045920929,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":69,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,26]],"date-time":"2022-04-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1650931200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Universidad Pontificia Comillas"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS ONE"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n<jats:title>Purpose<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>In recent decades, educators have pushed to implementing active learning techniques that can advance students\u2019 competences. Universities are increasingly required to develop knowledge measured in terms of grades (hard skills) and inter-personal, social, and communication abilities (soft skills). Nevertheless, within the field of active learning, educators often focus on how these techniques can improve students\u2019 hard skills and their satisfaction. Few have analysed whether and how these techniques might improve students\u2019 soft skills. Moreover, among these few studies, the majority has analysed hard and soft skills separately, measuring whether different active learning techniques may or may not improve them. Virtually no one has studied whether students\u2019 hard and soft skills can converge or diverge in an active learning format. This study allows us to understand the relations between these two sets of variables, for example, whether an improvement (or deterioration) in the hard skills corresponds to an improvement (or deterioration) in the soft skills, and vice versa.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n<jats:title>Method<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>In our experiment, we analyse the impact of a specific active learning format, such as the Flipped Classroom (FC), on both students\u2019 hard and soft skills, by comparing it with a traditional class integrated with other active learning techniques, such as presentations, debates, and teamwork activities. First, we use Pearson correlations to measure the relation between students\u2019 hard skills, understood in terms of grades, and a set of soft skills, such as critical thinking, self-efficacy, teamwork, and perception of learning. Second, we use canonical correlations to analyse whether hard and soft skills converge or diverge in an FC format, in comparison with a traditional teaching format integrated with the other active learning techniques.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n<jats:title>Results and conclusions<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Our main finding is that the FC <jats:italic>per se<\/jats:italic> neither improves nor worsens students\u2019 performance in terms of hard and soft skills.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0265408","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,26]],"date-time":"2022-04-26T17:57:35Z","timestamp":1650995855000},"page":"e0265408","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":31,"title":["Can active learning techniques simultaneously develop students\u2019 hard and soft skills? 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