Numerous scientific studies confirm that music is a tool to improve and develop interpersonal skills. These skills, such as leadership, teamwork, communication, interpersonal skills, or coordination. are essential at present and their acquisition is necessary to adapt to a constantly changing society. The aim of this study is to analyze the contribution of music to the development of soft skills in educational contexts. To achieve the objective of the study, a systematic review of the last five years was carried out to find the existing empirical evidence. Among the main results, we observed that soft skills improve when they are developed through music in educational contexts, concluding that educational interventions with music allow for participants to develop these skills.

High perceived academic self-efficacy influences both subject performance and emotions of the subject. In turn, dispositional empathy implies a social and emotional adaptability towards the subject itself and those around them. This study aimed to analyze the differences in the mean dispositional empathy factors (i.e., perspective taking, fantasy, empathic concern and personal distress) between future teachers with high and low perceived academic self-efficacy, as well as the predictive capacity of dispositional empathy on high perceived academic self-efficacy, and the correlations between both dimensions. For this, a sample of 805 Spanish students of the Faculties of Education of the Universities of Alicante and Murcia was recruited. The Escala de Autoeficacia Percibida Específica de Situaciones Académicas was used to assess perceived academic self-efficacy and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index was used to analyze the dimensions of dispositional empathy. It was observed that high academic self-efficacy is more likely to present in people with a high level of perspective taking and fantasy (OR = 1.06 and 1.09, respectively) and less for those with personal discomfort (OR = 0.86). The other analyzes provided the same conclusions. In conclusion, it is important to develop perceived academic self-efficacy in undergraduates and future teachers due to the consequences that can lead to their classrooms.

The maladaptive nature of Perfectionistic Automatic Thoughts (PAT) increases the importance of evaluating the construct. This study aims to identify different clusters of PAT in undergraduates, and to check possible inter-cluster differences in the dimensions of dispositional empathy and emotional intelligence in a sample of 691 Spanish undergraduates (M_age = 23.1; SD = 5.26). The Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Trait Meta-Mood Scale were used. Three clusters with low (LPAT), moderate (MPAT) and high (HPAT) levels of PAT were identified. Statistically significant differences were observed between these clusters in terms of dispositional empathy and emotional intelligence dimensions. HPAT significantly scored higher than LPAT on Fantasy, Empathic Concern, Personal Discomfort and Perception, as well as in comparison with MPAT on Fantasy, Empathic Concern, Personal Discomfort and Perception. Moreover, MPAT obtained significantly higher scores on Comprehension and Repair than LPAT. Effect sizes for these differences were of a small magnitude, except for the HPAT and LPAT contrasts, whose differences were of a moderate magnitude.

The objective of this study is to develop intercultural and critical citizenship competences by using a literary excerpt among a group of EFL university students in Spain. For this purpose, the focus group method was adopted, and a qualitative study was designed. The core aim was to implicitly work on aspects such as otherness, the rejection of racism and the use of revenge as a response to a perceived unethical action. The findings demonstrate that the approach dealt effectively with all these concepts. The literary excerpt triggered discussions against racism and religious intolerance. Revenge was rejected as a constructive solution to discrimination and the cohort expressed their connection to ‘others’ through a common humanity, which is linked to human rights principles. These values are closely aligned to the theoretical reference points known as Intercultural Citizenship Education (ICE), Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and cosmopolitan citizenship.

The question of developing educational policies that involve training people to be capable of critical reflection and skilled in approaching the discussion-debate binomial, with the overall goal of achieving learning which is of a transformative kind, is currently embraced by the transdisciplinary paradigm known as Global Citizenship Education. This qualitative study investigates the impact of protest or topical songs released in response to the Iraq War on a cohort of university students and explores whether these songs could be useful in Global Citizenship Education. The results of the study emphasize the value of these types of songs as triggers for transformative learning, because, independently of respective national educational policies or the possible influence of the mass and digital media, these songs were shown to tap into an underlying set of universal values, rights and attitudes among citizens that drive the need for Global Citizenship Education design and evaluation.