The Issue of Essential Skills

1
The Issue of Essential Skills

• Framing the Discussion

2
Overview

• Welcome!
• Goal Prepare the way for the more substantive
  Part II presentation
• Comparing treatments of Basic Skills in USP and
  ERC.
• Start to think about deeper issues that will
  surface after the break.

3
USP Basic Skills

• Fall 1985 Senate Council Statement
• Basic Skills Mathematics and Foreign Language
• Inference and Communication Skills Writing,
  Calculus/Stats/Logic, Oral Communications
• Disciplinary Requirements Natural Science,
  Social Science, Humanities
• Cross-disciplinary
• Cross-cultural

4
Current Description

• The University Studies Program is separated into
  ten areas of study math, foreign language,
  inference-logic, written communication, oral
  communication, natural sciences, social sciences,
  humanities, cross-cultural, and electives.
• Much more a distribution across ten areas, with
  no particular subset of the areas any longer
  being called basic skills .

5
Different Perspectives

• ERC Report calls for a particular set of skills
  to be part of what every graduated student in the
  21st Century should possess, regardless of major.
  
• There is some sense of distribution across skills
  in that First Outcome, but otherwise the ERC
  Report doesnt address breadth of curriculum in
  the same way as USP.
• Makes the comparison a bit challenging, but a
  worthwhile exercise.

6
ERC Report - First Curriculum Objective

• The new general studies program should provide
  students with essential skills.
• Communicate effectively, both in writing and
  orally, using generally accepted methods for
  presentation, organization and debate.
• Identify the role that mathematics plays in the
  world and demonstrate and interpret mathematical
  skills necessary to be an informed, constructive,
  and reflective citizen.
• Critically evaluate the quality of statistical
  results that permeate our daily lives,
  competently perform and interpret basic data
  analyses calculate and interpret constructs
  associated with confidence, risk, and inference.

7
List of Essential Skills - Continued

• Evaluate costs, benefits, and the limitations of
  resources make informed choices as consumers,
  producers, savers, investors, and citizens
  understand the basics of income distribution,
  interest rates, inflation, unemployment,
  investment, and risk.
• Examine and apply the basic scientific principles
  which govern natural systems to critically
  evaluate the consequences of human activity on
  local, regional, and global natural systems.
• Analyze and critically evaluate the impact of
  health choices from both a personal and societal
  perspective.
• Analyze, interpret, and critically evaluate
  messages that images contain --- in print media,
  television, film, advertising, the internet, and
  the museum.
• Locate, retrieve, evaluate, analyze, manipulate,
  and use information encountered in a variety of
  formats.

8
Implications
9
Simple Comparison
Current USP Program ERC Final Report
OC OC
WRC WRC
MA MA
STA/LOG STA/
FL
SCI
HLT
ENV
ECO
MED
INF
OC Oral Communication FL Foreign Lang ENV Environmental SCI - Science WRC Written Communication ECO Economics INF Information STA - Statistics MA Math MED Media HLT Health LOG - Logic OC Oral Communication FL Foreign Lang ENV Environmental SCI - Science WRC Written Communication ECO Economics INF Information STA - Statistics MA Math MED Media HLT Health LOG - Logic
10
So .

• In part, bar is now higher wrt specific skills.
• Not that unusual with our benchmarks
• UNC-CH has a lifetime fitness skill requirement
• Univ. of Iowa has historical perspectives and
  interpretation of literature
• Univ. of Georgia has environmental literacy
  requirement, as does Univ. of Minnesota.
• Michigan State requires exposure to role of
  values and ethics in understanding human
  behavior.

11
Questions

• Are we (higher ed) trying to do too much?
• Isnt level of competency a critical part of
  the discussion if we are to make sense out of all
  this?