What's law got to do with it? Introducing emotional and social competencies at a master in law program

This presentation proposal shares the case of the transition of a Master in Law program which added an interdisciplinary project to the curriculum combined with the framework of Intentional Change Theory. Learning is expected to take place in two dimensions: On the one hand, working groups generate their own knowledge and skills through action learning on an interdisciplinary project which is applicable and useful to the professional reality. At the same time, each person enhances emotional and social intelligence competencies, to ensure the success of their personal development and, consequently, also that of the practical project. This module is distributed over the whole academic year and offers eight workshops which continuously interchange the focus between the external learning through the interdisciplinary project and the internal learning through self-knowledge exercises or evaluation tools. Students are offered three individual coaching sessions to ensure the best possible alignment of personal and team goals and enhance the desired personal change. Emotional and Social Intelligence Competencies are measured twice during the academic year with the ESCI-U: First after a period of 3 months into coursework in order to enable students to get to know each other and thus deliver valid peer evaluations; and second at the end of the coursework. Positive change on emotional and social intelligence competencies established as individual development objectives is expected. Feedback on this course from students, professors, coaches and other stakeholders can help define possibilities of improvement for the next cohorts. This new curriculum can be applicable to any other faculty or program.