VOLUME 14 ISSUE 2

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The International Journal of

Interdisciplinary
Cultural Studies

_________________________________________________________________________

A Real Skills Perspective Based on

Human Relationships and Modes of Behavior

JULIO PAREDES-RIERA

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 A Real Skills Perspective Based on
Human Relationships and Modes of Behavior
Julio Paredes-Riera,1 Metropolitan University of Machala, Ecuador

Abstract: The breakdown of the traditional paradigms in the Ecuadorian education system has given rise to the urgent
need to incorporate the omnipresence of the society of knowledge into the skills development framework. The solutions
are multiple and varied to fit different requirements with effectiveness affected by context. This proposal, although not a
total panacea, legitimizes the efficiency and effectiveness of an academic training process, focusing on developing
versatile professionals who are competent and internationally competitive, thereby contributing to the sustainable

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development of the country in line with other surrounding areas in the geographical context (professional up-scaling).
The skills of the students are identified in order to potentiate these beyond solely meeting their personal needs, and
toward contributing to covering the demands of the community through empathetic human relationships, maximizing
cooperative behavior and real achievements. The methodology, techniques, and strategies must be adapted to the pre-
professional within a standardized educational model based on real skills, communication, and satisfaction of human
needs in line with the ecosystem that legitimizes the training processes in real scenarios based on cooperation.

Keywords: Real Skills, Human Relationships, Modes of Behavior, Society of Knowledge, Teaching and Educational Process

Introduction

F rom the dawn of postmodern education onwards, there has been a subtle but pernicious
trend, perceived as necessary, toward segregating any student who thinks or acts
differently from the norm (Paredes-Riera 2016). This has been done to such an extent that
if we take the case of any subject, for example mathematics, where the teacher offers
explanations of a given problem in a specific way (uniformly and repeatedly) in order to reach
the solution. After this, practical situations are presented where the student is invited to
participate actively in finding a solution, making reference to the original example presented.
Should the student use a different process and method from the one taught to solve the
problem—underlining that the quality aim of teaching is to solve the problem correctly and not to
learn an abstract process— it can lead to endless undermining of the student by the teacher. This
includes comments such as “That’s not the way I taught you to do it,” “How did you get there?”
“Did you make up this method yourself?” or “Who taught you to do it that way?” ending up with
“Are you questioning what I teach you?” and other such negative feedback.

Quod in iuventute non discitur, in matura aetate nescitur [What is not learned when
young, it is ignored when old]. (Cassiodorus)

All of this generates an unhealthy hostile atmosphere between the teacher and the student
where the latter finds that certain characteristics of his/hers are picked upon time and time again,
with the phenomenon generalized in most of the final year academic subjects of secondary
education (also called the School Leaving Certificate) and becoming more pronounced in the
University degree, above all in Latin American countries such as Ecuador where the whole
educational process is being restructured (MinEduc 2014).
But why choose math by way of example? It is indeed true that there is a certain stigma
attached to the subject—most people dislike math and view it with certain terror, but it has been
chosen as an introductory subject to the current argument on account of the fact that it is an exact

1
Corresponding Author: Julio Paredes-Riera, 070214/Bolívar y Junín, Business Administration, Metropolitan University
of Machala, Machala, El Oro, 070214, Ecuador. email: jparedes@umet.edu.ec

The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies

Volume 14, Issue 2, 2020, https://thesocialsciences.com
© Common Ground Research Networks, Julio Paredes Riera, All Rights Reserved.
Permissions: cgscholar.com/cg_support
ISSN: 2327-008X (Print), ISSN: 2327-2554 (Online)
https://doi.org/10.18848/2327-008X/CGP/v14i02/27-32 (Article)
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY CULTURAL STUDIES

science where the method is of little importance in the final solution (Paredes-Riera Julio 2015).
When we work with natural numbers, a second example in favor of our argument could be “How
do we achieve the sum of four (4) in a mathematical operation?” This is an example of minimum
complexity. There are various answers to this question such as one plus three, two plus two, or
three plus one. Math then is an exact science and thus differs in teaching methods from human
sciences that are diffuse or inexact and therefore generate controversy over how they should be
taught. The controversy is generated either at the level of different schools of thought and
opinion with respect to teaching methods from the Traditional-Behaviorist school all the way
through to Constructivism, or at the level of the training process itself. The various parties in the
debate hold completely opposed positions on the subject as a result of their epistemological and

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theoretical cognitive backgrounds that with time becomes more extreme and entrenched, making
any chance of a middle ground consensus, on theory and function, virtually impossible.

The Teaching and Educational Process

The Teaching and Educational Process (TEP) is a conscious complex process where subjects are
interrelated in the same communicative, teaching, learning and sharing context (students,
families and teachers) (Moravek 1996). That is the starting point, therefore, communication is the
main instrument that allows development; the transactional exchange of linguistic content
empowers the interrelation of the constituent elements of society, human beings, men and
women. The character of consciousness states that the actors of the cause have full notion and
knowledge of the role attributed to them. Complexity is the level of commitment of the
participants based on the achievement of consistent objectives with local, national, regional and
global needs; the legitimacy of the process is established by the competitive demand for the
instantaneousness of information in the immediate digital and communication era.
Educational processes represent the means of transmission of culturally contextual
information (science, technology, and art) and can be divided into extracurricular informal
educational activities and formal school training. The former is the lifelong process of everyday
life, the informal activities and interaction shape attitudes and behavior above all in formative
years: family, neighborhood, park, community, media, and many others. By contrast, the latter is
establishment-normative process designed to create the generational skills demanded by society.
By bringing together these two facets of education in the teaching process, the present study
creates the correct climate for training competent competitive individuals, capable of applying
skills in an innovative manner and up-scaling their professions. The individual way of thinking
produces a rich diversity of activities and methods in the teaching and learning process,
something that is vital to this and other professions.

Skills

Performance criteria are evaluated by skills, with “skill” defined as, “The total capacity of any
individual to carry out tasks that require activating a series of resources and applying them
toward the end of solving professional, social and personal problems” (Fuentes 2003, 56). The
idea of “skills” is very much in vogue among academics in Latin America who are striving hard
to break with the traditional frameworks of education and making giant steps forward in teaching
methods and practice (Fuentes 2004). However, the first question that begs an answer is, “What
is the degree of success in vocational training stories of the professionals in Latin American
countries?” The reply would seem deceptively simple but is, in fact, quite complex because
traditional educational systems have always demanded the best as proof of learning skills without
any evident need for assimilation of the contents of a subject and practical application being
factored into the final mark.
A system of Continuous Assessment becomes necessary to judge qualitatively and
quantitatively the degree to which any individual (that is, the student) has assimilated and truly

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 PAREDES-RIERA: REAL SKILLS PERSPECTIVE BASED ON HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS

learned the subject, working on the basis of the manifested practical proofs of the same as given
in his performance of tasks. The Pillars of Education as established by UNESCO in their
International Commission Report on Education for the XXI Century, presided over by Jacques
Delors in 1998 are: to know how to know, to know how to do, to know how to behave, and to
know how to live together in peace. These must be incorporated into a totally new system of
evaluation of teaching and learning that replaces the traditional system of marks, passing courses,
or the systematic degrees and levels designed to standardize the educational practice. The system
that is applied at present is kind of a mixed bag or Creole symbiosis of skills being evaluated
within the traditional system.
Complex processes only work adequately when applied to solving problems in context and

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can be evaluated by meta-cognition (knowing how to know) and continuous assessment of how
the students develop personally and improve their skills, to become entrepreneurs whose
overriding principles are socially responsible (Tobón 2008). So what challenges does the
Knowledge Society whose pluralistic concept goes beyond the information, focusing on social,
cultural and economic transformations in support of development sustainable pose for
educational establishments? After all, the whole concept of the Knowledge Society has many
components spreading beyond the sole idea of transfer of knowledge and know-how through to
the radical social, cultural, and economic changes demanded by true sustainable development
(UNESCO 2005). Professional teaching skills are no longer merely informing development, but
are required to commit positively as agents of change and progress at all of the different levels of
society, from the individual through to the regional. The society and knowledge society must
continue the transfer of knowledge and know-how that is the very fabric of their profession, but
with practical applications and building-blocks for change since a new society is not built solely
on dreams and wish lists.
The constituent elements of skills in the framework of the educational and teaching process
are: values established in the early years inside the family; personal characteristics and features,
some of which are nature others of which are nurtured; skills that have been acquired and
perfected in formal and informal settings; encyclopedic knowledge produced as a result of the
endless curiosity and desire to learn, innate to any human being; and demonstrated attitudes,
predispositions, and actions of sentient people (Carballo Ramos 2006).

Human Relationships
The basic needs of all human beings as presented by Johan Galtung in 1990 are: the need to
survive, the negation of which is death; the need to enjoy certain wellbeing the opposite of which
is misery and sickness; the need of an identity, the opposite of which is alienation; and the need
for freedom that is unrestricted by repression (1990a). These needs must be shared at a
community level thereby safeguarding basic human rights. Galtung offers another need that he
calls “Ecobalance,” a term that refers to the harmony required at an ecological level for
humankind to survive.
The Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador that was introduced on October 21, 2008 is a
guarantee of the principle called in Quechua, the main native language in the Republic, “Sumak
Kawssay” also known as “Buen Vivir,” [A Quality Life] that rests on the balance over and
among the triad of human beings, society, and Nature, in line with the basic needs and
ecobalance as defined by Galtung (1990b).
Likewise, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs should be taken into account. Maslow defined the
basic needs to be satisfied as physiological, such as the need to be safe and in control of one’s
existence; the need for love and belonging; the need for self-esteem and self-realization, with
particular emphasis on the effect of interpersonal conflicts on an individual’s personal life, and
the need for each agent to know himself/herself for human relationships to be successful. Said
needs are the same the world over, independent of age, gender, color, and creed, and are as
necessary for the human spirit and wellbeing as are air, water, and food for the human being and

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THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY CULTURAL STUDIES

physical wellbeing (Alzate and González 1998a). If any human creature is deprived of its basic
needs, manifestation of life per se is compromised and in the case of men and women, the
impossibility of satisfying basic needs will result in violence (Galtung 1990).

Modes of Behavior
Behavior has many definitions according to the subject area in which it is the object of study.
However, it can basically be defined as the response of any individual to certain stimuli. The
range of possibilities of behavior of a human being in any given social system corresponds to the
following modes: conscious or unconscious, voluntary or involuntary, and public or private. Four

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aspects have a bearing on emotional behavior: the specific situation, the specific feelings
experienced (physiological reactions), thoughts relating to the emotion, and the external
manifestations of the responses to the specific situation (Redorta, Obiols, Bisquerra 2006).
People who are involved in the everyday job of teaching and learning bring their past modes of
behavior to the interrelationship situation. The dynamics of the teaching-learning process and
interrelationship, thus, may gradually generate “conflicts,” understood in the non-stigmatized
sense that:

Conflict is part and parcel of being human and of everyday life in every sphere or role
that we act out, whether that be in the context of our family, our job, or our wider
community. It is a source of crises and opportunities that lift us out of stagnation, excite
our interest and curiosity, and help us to define our identity as individuals and groups. It
teaches us how to find new and better ways to respond to problems, how to build better
and longer-lasting relationships, and how to get to know our-selves and others better.
(Alzate Saez de Heredia 1998b, 43–73)

Therefore, the generated dialectic contradiction within the agents in the training process
represents an opportunity for holistic growth. The principles of the educational process are
educating, instructing, and developing. Teacher and student participate together in the
communication process to facilitate the possibility of building knowledge on a daily basis and
creating defined profiles that will survive plausibly beyond their school years. Differences of
opinion or conflict may occur in this process, it depends upon two factors: the importance of the
relationship and the significance of the object in dispute. According to these two factors, five
modes of behavior are possible effects: open competition, evasion and avoidance, submission
(accommodating), collaboration, and cooperation (Wiske 1999).
These modes of behavior more or less manifest depending upon the personality of the
individual and the degree of interaction between the individuals which, in turn, depend upon the
mutual confidence established inside and outside the classroom together with the organizational
climate of the academic establishment (the variable of the organizational climate and its bearing
on the teaching and transfer of know-how processes in time and space) and allow for the
evaluation of teacher, student, and people directly and indirectly linked to the whole system:
colleagues, the different players at different levels in the educational establishment, family,
community, and environment (Goleman 1996).

Real Skills
It should be underlined here that real skills are not defined vis-à-vis hypothetical “unreal skills.”
Real life skills are the most pure manifestation of the success of the academic and educational
process, showing that the knowledge has been acquired and assimilated, ready to be applied, a
true sign of academic excellence. The demonstration of the skills acquired surpasses a rote
repetition of what has been taught and the limits of a purely qualitative or quantitative evaluation.

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 PAREDES-RIERA: REAL SKILLS PERSPECTIVE BASED ON HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS

A true evaluation of the pre-professional requires a holistic cognitive approach of the learning
process and modes of behavior in the assertive communicative context.

Acknowledgement
My eternal gratitude to the all-powerful Creator for my incipient inspiration and to my family for
their permanent support.

REFERENCES

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Alzate Saez de Heredia, Ramón. 1998a. “Cognición y negociación: una revisión a la literatura
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———. 1998b. “Análisis y resolución de conflictos. Una perspectiva psicológica” [Conflict
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Declaración Universal De Los Derechos Humanos. 1948. [The Constitution of the Republic of
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Delors, J. 1998. La educación encierra un tesoro. Informe a la UNESCO de la Comisión
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paradigma emergente, Nuevas modalidades de aprendizaje.” [Learning with new
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———. 2004. El método del proceso de formación de profesionales [Methods in the Process of
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———. 1990a. “Cultural Violence.” Journal of Peace Research 27 (3): 291–305.
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———. 2016. “Competencias Reales, Perspectiva Con Base En Las Relaciones Humanas y
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Wiske, Martha Stone. 1999. La Enseñanza para la Comprensión. Vinculación entre la
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Julio Vicente Paredes Riera: Professor, Business Administration, Metropolitan University of
Machala, El Oro, Ecuador. Bachelor of Social Communication, M.B.A. (Human Resources),
Higher Diploma in University Teaching, Social Communicator; University Teacher, Researcher,
-Master in Conflict Resolution and Mediation, Master in Strategic Management Specialty in
Management, PhD student in Humanities and Arts with mention in Education Sciences at the
National University of Rosario (Argentina), Continuing Education Coach of the Technical
University of Machala. International lecturer. IFP Card Number—ECU 021 International
Federation of Journalist

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The International Journal of Interdisciplinary
Cultural Studies is one of six thematically focused
journals that support the Interdisciplinary Social
Sciences Research Network. The Research Network
is comprised of a journal collection, book imprint,
conference, and online community.

The journal presents studies that exemplify the

disciplinary and interdisciplinary practices of the
social sciences. As well as articles of a traditional
scholarly type, this journal invites case studies that
take the form of presentations of practice—including
documentation of socially engaged practices and
exegeses analyzing the effects of those practices.

The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Cultural

Studies is a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal.

ISSN 2327-008X