Developing Life Skills
Interviews are not like they used to be… Think about the last time you worked in a group… What was your role? How could you have performed better ? Think about a problem you had at work recently… How did you solve it? Describe a situation where you showed amazing speed of thought and self control in the face of persistent and irrelevant questioning.
What skills are required outside the classroom? Make a guess: What percentage of employers place high importance on each of the following things? • • • •
The ability to appreciate an alternative point of view Communication skills and the ability to work in teams The ability to grasp complex information The right academic qualifications
Source GRADdirect, 2008
What skills are required outside the classroom? Make a guess: What percentage of employers place high importance on each of the following things? • • • •
The ability to appreciate an alternative point of view Communication skills and the ability to work in teams The ability to grasp complex information The right academic qualifications
Source GRADdirect, 2008
42%
What skills are required outside the classroom? Make a guess: What percentage of employers place high importance on each of the following things? • • • •
The ability to appreciate an alternative point of view Communication skills and the ability to work in teams The ability to grasp complex information The right academic qualifications
Source GRADdirect, 2008
42% 62%
What skills are required outside the classroom? Make a guess: What percentage of employers place high importance on each of the following things? • • • •
The ability to appreciate an alternative point of view Communication skills and the ability to work in teams The ability to grasp complex information The right academic qualifications
Source GRADdirect, 2008
42% 62% 68%
What skills are required outside the classroom? Make a guess: What percentage of employers place high importance on each of the following things? • • • •
The ability to appreciate an alternative point of view Communication skills and the ability to work in teams The ability to grasp complex information The right academic qualifications
Source GRADdirect, 2008
42% 62% 68% 27%
The Four Cs of the Business World Critical thinking
Communication Collaboration
Creativity
Collaboration Managing time & schedules Making plans Brainstorming Working in a team Having cultural awareness Listening actively Discussing alternatives Reaching a compromise Giving & receiving feedback
Motivating a team Developing empathy Building communities Maximizing potential Understanding decisionmaking styles Understanding rights & responsibilities Persuading others
Creativity Doing research Brainstorming Estimating & guessing Thinking “out of the box� Avoiding stereotypes Developing empathy Turning problems into opportunities Maximizing your potential
Developing curiosity Categorizing creatively Making personal change Solving problems Preparing an argument or a presentation Contributing ideas to a team
Is education keeping up?
Learning: past, present, and future In the mid-90s: “We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist . . . using technologies that haven’t yet been invented . . . in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” Richard Riley, Secretary of Education under President Bill Clinton
The future of work and careers Are today’s graduates better prepared to work? “… students graduating from secondary schools, technical colleges, and universities are sorely lacking in some basic skills and a large number of applied skills: • Oral and written communication • Critical thinking and problem solving • Professionalism and work ethic • Teamwork and collaboration • Working in diverse teams • Applying technology • Leadership and project management American Management Association (about 2008)
• Brought up on “teaching to the test”, students can lack the meta-skills – initiative, teamworking capability , etc. – required in the fast moving world of modern business. • Meta (or transferable) skills such as teamworking, effective communication, and adaptability are becoming increasingly important to employers. They are vital in the modern labour market, as employees are increasingly required to move between quite different projects and roles. The Mobile Economy, Reform (think tank), 2008
Innovation UNESCO: Four Pillars of Education, 1996
Learning to‌.
Learning to‌know
Learning to‌do
Learning to‌live together
Learning to…be
Innovation
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills
The 21st Century Framework Core Subjects:
-Language arts, foreign languages, science, math, history, etc.
21st century topics:
PLUS
-Global awareness, civic literacy -Learning and innovation skills -Information, media, and technology skills -Life and career skills
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/
The big challenge‌
How do I teach life skills/soft skills/competencies and still teach the present perfect?!
Competency development activities‌ - are content / outcome based and not focused on accuracy or the use of specific language. - make the process at least as important as the product. - take into consideration the students’ age and intellectual capacity while keeping the language at an appropriate level.
For example‌
Global and The Business 2.0 for the 21st Century classroom
Target skill: thinking creatively (the ability to think in new, innovative ways; “thinking outside the box”) Understand the problem Open your mind and be creative Identify the best solution
Technique 2: “Different hats� technique Look at the problem from different perspectives. Consider each of these people in turn and decide what features each one might find most attractive.
the sports fan
the busy mom the party animal the student
Apply your creative thinking to the real world. Think about the features you have come up with and answer these questions.
Which features will… …everyone be interested in? …people use most often? …probably be too expensive or too impractical? …people probably not use very often? Features to keep: 1 __________________________________________ 2 __________________________________________ 3 __________________________________________
Summary The skills students generally acquire in the classroom may not represent the “whole picture”; i.e., they may not be the skills that employers value most highly and that give students the most flexibility in their future careers. We can help our students develop both their English-language skills and their “transferable skills,” or “life skills,” by including systematic work on these skills as a part of our regular syllabus.
Language competence + general competencies = success!