General education skills such as reading, written communication, and math are very important because through these skills the other learning flows.
Hi Christian- Thanks for your post to the forum. I agree that the general education or soft skills are so important and also that mastering them needs to be integrated across curriculum. In other words we should have students speaking/presenting and also writing in every class. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
These skills are necessary not only for success in college-level courses but also in life in general. It is important to identify early which students that have the potential to be successful in college level learning and use this information effectively in guiding and supporting each student. This would include lesson plan development and delivery, catering to the various learning styles of my students.
I have found that many younger students have trouble in all of the general education skills. Some like math but hate English. Others, just the opposite. This assessment helps to come up with a different syllabus and testing may be an oral exam in some cases.
HI Nikki- Thanks for your post to the forum. I completely agree that we must do our best to have our students attain reasonably adequate communication skills before sending them out into the workplace. Realistically this can be daunting since as we all know, we do encounter students who have somehow managed to graduate from high school without really learning to read and write.
Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
many hide behind not communicating or having poor written skills.Many times this is left unnotice until graduation and thus student is not able to obtain a job or keep a job. i believe this is important as the main subject matter in prepareing student for the work field.
These skills transcend particular area competencies. It really doesn't matter what the answer is in math, for example, if the student can't interpret it, apply it, and then explain it. This requires communication abilities that will be applicable no matter what the job.
The assessment of general education skills such as reading .written communiation and math are important to instruction because it allows instructor a stating point to where one should begin teaching or refresher.
True. The speed with which you can get through introductory material will help you prepare for how much you can challenge students.
Critical and comprehensive thinking and being able to process complex material and issues require these skills.
Hi Colleen - Yes, offering students a choice odf assignment types is a great idea for the reasons you cite. Best wishes- Susan
If an instructor knows each students skills in these areas, s/he can more easily prepare each class to challenge, yet not overwhelm, the students. For example, if an instructors finds that one or more than one of her/his students has difficulty writing, s/he may require a presentation on a topic, rather than a written paper. This will show the students' knowledge of a subject, without frustration them by forcing it to be in writing.
An assessment in these disciplines helps to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the class as a whole, as well as individually. The instructor can also use this information to help develop lessons plans, and aid in finding ways to reach every student without them becoming bored.
This is a foundation/starting point as to how an instructor can build upon. These skills are fundamental and need to be incorporated to some degree.
And implement those skills in real life situations
I teach remedial writing classes, so I'm fairly sure from the beginning of the level of my students' writing; it's low. Many of them fear writing and yet know that it will be important for their careers. Planning from the students' level and getting them ready to take composition classes demand fine tuning of the curriculum to meet the actual needs. They can't learn to avoid sentence fragments until they can recognize subjects and verbs. It may seem slow and basic to the students, but we work our way through the basics. The testing feedback comes when I see fewer grammatical problems.
Hi Jared- Thanks for your post to the forum. This is a continuing problem for all instructors on the post-secondary level and probably the secondary level as well. Too many students are coming out of the elementary and middle schools unable to read and write at the expected levels. We do our best to remediate but.... Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Because it is an indicator of how far and fast you can push the students.
Susan:
I think assessment of these skills is critical to being able to find teaching methods that will reach students with variable basic skills. In my current Web Design class, it is really not all that necessary for people to be good spellers, but they are quickly learning that if they make any typos in their code, their page tends to not function correctly.
Moreover, if I make an assumption that everyone's readings skills are similar, assigned readings might automatically put certain students at a disadvantage when reading is not really an objective or goal of my course. However, it is critical if they want to truly succeed.
Regardless of what you are teaching, if the student does not understand because of poor 'reading, writing and arithmetic ' (the three 'R's) then they will have a difficult time comprehending what you are trying to teach. I have had students whose reading skills were so poor that they could not fully understand the complex accounting text material,even though they could understand when verbally explained. I always would send these students to tutors to help them.
