Roots & Wings 2.0

Empirical research has shown that soft skills are essential for success both at the workplace and in life.

Soft skills are intangible and non-technical abilities related to an individual’s personality, character, and attitudes, and comprise a variety of skills from communication, resilience, collaboration, to time management.

Roots and Wings 2.0 is a series of 1-MC modules that equip students with crucial soft skills so they can thrive in an ever-changing and complex environment.

The programme is offered and delivered by the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in collaboration with NUS Centre for Future-ready Graduates.

Programme

A typical Roots and Wings 2.0 module comprises three 3-hour activity-based sessions with an emphasis on experiential learning.

Modules are typically run in classes of 25. There may be multiple classes taking the same module across the academic semester.

There is no prerequisite or preclusion for enrolling in a module.

Upon satisfactory completion of a module, students will receive 1 MC which can be counted towards the Unrestricted Elective (UE) portion of their graduation requirements. Students can accumulate up to 8 MC in the UE space by taking different modules from Roots & Wings 2.0.

Assessment for a module will typically comprise active participation (around 75%) and written reflection (around 25%). Modules are graded on a CS/CU (Completed Satisfactorily/Completed Unsatisfactorily) basis.

Attendance at all sessions is compulsory. Doing a make up for an absence is possible for valid reasons (e.g., medical leave, death in family, representing NUS for events) with supporting documentation.

Modules

PLS8001 Cultivating Collaboration

This module focuses on soft skills on the interpersonal level in terms of more effective working with other people and reaching for better outcomes jointly.

Through various experiential activities (e.g. role-play, negotiation exercises), students learn to understand the importance of collaboration in various settings and to apply basic techniques to help resolve conflicts and to strive for win-win situations when collaborating with other people in task accomplishment.

PLS8002 Cultivating the Self

This module is designed to help students achieve better self-awareness through the understanding of basic psychological concepts such as self-esteem, social comparison, self-perception and self-handicapping.

Students learn about how they acquire knowledge about themselves, how low self-esteem came about, and what psychologists learned about happiness.

PLS8003 Cultivating Resilience

This module focuses on helping students recognize potential self-defeating beliefs and biases, and to overcome those beliefs.

Students will engage in experiential activities that foster positive emotions, engagement with the work they do and the people they interact with, and a positive narrative of their lives. The general aim of this module is to increase students’ awareness of self-limiting beliefs and to equip them with mindsets / behaviours that build psychological resilience.

PLS8004 Optimizing Performance

This module focuses on soft skills derived from psychological research for students to better manage their performance level in tasks.

Through various experiential activities (e.g. visualization, attention regulation), students learn to develop a set of skills that will be useful for them to optimize their work performance by setting up effective goals, enhancing productivity, and dealing with the challenges of working in demanding and multi-tasking situations.

PLS8005 Elevating Interpersonal Communication

This module focuses on soft skills derived from psychological research for students to develop effective interpersonal communication in everyday social interactions.

Through various experiential in-class activities (e.g. role play, conversation planning, speech practice), students learn about useful concepts and techniques for effective communication such as formulating an argument, asking effective questions, active listening, non-verbal communication, attempting a persuasion, and building relationships.

For more details on the programme as well as frequently asked questions (FAQs), please refer to the Department of Psychology’s website.

For all enquiries, please email psyboxRW@nus.edu.sg.