Chapter 1: Fundamental Change in Education Knowledge involves two strongly inter-linked but different components: content and skills. Content includes facts, ideas, principles, evidence, and descriptions of processes or procedures. Most instructors, at least in universities, are well trained in content and have a deep understanding of the subject areas in which they are teaching. Expertise in skills development though is another matter. The issue here is not so much that instructors do not help students develop skills – they do – but whether these intellectual skills match the needs of knowledge-based workers, and whether enough emphasis is given to skills development within the curriculum. The skills required in a knowledge society include the following (adapted from Conference Board of Canada, 2014):
We know a lot from research about skills and skill development (see, for instance, Fischer, 1980, Fallow and Steven, 2000):
The teaching implications of the distinction between content and skills will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 2. The key point here is that content and skills are tightly related and as much attention needs to be given to skills development as to content acquisition to ensure that learners graduate with the necessary knowledge and skills for a digital age.
ReferencesThe Conference Board of Canada (2014) Employability Skills 2000+ Ottawa ON: Conference Board of Canada Fallow, S. and Stevens, C. (2000) Integrating Key Skills in Higher Education: Employability, Transferable Skills and Learning for Life London UK/Sterling VA: Kogan Page/Stylus Fischer, K.W. (1980) A Theory of Cognitive Development: The Control and Construction of Hierarchies of Skills Psychological Review, Vol. 84, No. 6 |