Developing Life Skills
Mickey Rogers
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
Critical thinking
Categorizing Establishing priorities Making choices Estimating and guessing Problem solving Thinking creatively Thinking logically Identifying opportunities
Evaluating arguments Developing empathy Comparing & contrasting Being aware of yourself Evaluating explanations Organizing an argument Recognizing contradiction Identifying bias
Communication Understanding forms Making a clear plan Taking effective notes Active listening Persuading others Reporting information plagiarism Protecting digital privacy Identifying information sources
Doing research Focusing a presentation Preparing a presentation Using graphic organizers Synthesizing information Recognizing Evaluating claims
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
What skills do you need in your profession? Congratulations! You have been promoted! You have been asked to help recruit someone for your present position. Think about the kinds of things you do every day and list the key skills your successor will need.
What skills do you need in your profession? Congratulations! You have been promoted! You have been asked to help recruit someone for your present position. Think about the kinds of things you do every day and list the key skills your successor will need.
Decide which main skill area each sub-skill in the green list corresponds to.
Group 1: Organization and planning skills Group 2: Collaboration skills Group 3: Information and research skills Group 4: Thinking and problem-solving skills Group 5: Self-direction and learning skills
Reaching a compromise Being assertive Managing your time Thinking creatively Understanding statistics Persuading others Identifying resources Preparing presentations Being self-aware Establishing priorities
Organization and planning skills • •
Managing your time Preparing presentations
Collaboration skills • •
Reaching a compromise Persuading others
Information and research skills • •
Identifying resources Understanding statistics
Thinking and problem-solving skills • •
Thinking creatively Establishing priorities
Self-direction and learning skills • •
Being assertive Being self-aware
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
Tradition and innovation
• Noam Chomsky
Linguistic Competence (1965) The system of linguistic knowledge possessed by native speakers of a language
Tradition and innovation • Dell Hymes Communicative Competence (1966) A language user's grammatical knowledge, as well as social knowledge, about how and when to use utterances appropriately.
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
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
To: Product design team Subject: New product features Hi, guys. As you know, the C-600 has been on the market for some time now. I think we should start thinking about the features for our next cell phone, the C-710 – apart from a camera and text messaging, of course! I want to hear as many ideas as possible. Please have a meeting to come up with a list of ideas. Then we can get together and discuss possible features. Good luck, and be creative! Remember – even crazy ideas might work! Gillian Edgar Product manager
Technique 1: “Random word� technique Open a book at random to any page. Pick a word from that page (nouns work best). Focus on that word and use it to inspire ideas.
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. Then choose three features you want the new cell phone to have. 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. Here’s how…
The Mind Series for the 21st Century classroom
lifeSkills in openMind Steps / description of what is involved in the skill
Help with phrases & a reminder to use language from the unit
Reflection on the process &/or ways to apply the skill
masterSkills in masterMind
Language competence + general competencies = success!