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| By Wiros from Barcelona, Spain [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons |
Despite having to define the scope of “soft skills” for outside audiences at the start of this project, hiring managers, career and guidance counselors, and non-profit/government agencies across the United States have been mired in research on the topic. They are all trying to answer, “What are the skills and behaviors necessary for success in the workplace”. Thankfully for me, their hard work and research left me only needing to synthesize.
Curriculum writers spend a lot of time aligning their work to standards, that is essentially the same task I started with. Seven different bodies of research offered 44 desired traits. My first thought after this synthesis: I have three semesters to develop student character, not three lifetimes. With a little more research on my part to identify where there was overlap, I whittled this list in half.
Curriculum writers spend a lot of time aligning their work to standards, that is essentially the same task I started with. Seven different bodies of research offered 44 desired traits. My first thought after this synthesis: I have three semesters to develop student character, not three lifetimes. With a little more research on my part to identify where there was overlap, I whittled this list in half.
To meet the specification of a tiered, progressive curriculum, I organized twenty-four traits into 8 categories. Each category has three levels of skill development. For example, a student working to develop “Work Ethic” will start by learning, practicing and being evaluated on “Punctuality”. When the student has demonstrated mastery of that competency, he will move onto “Dependability” and finally onto “Accountability.” Using an adapted version of the “Whole-Student Competency Plot”
developed as part of the NextGen Learning initiative of Educause, student progress can be tracked and growth can be monitored.
With all this said, I feel like Dr. Frankenstein gazing over his monster come-to-life. I am so excited about the work that I have done! Unlike the famous doctor, my success is tampered by the knowledge that my newest creation will be inspected and critiqued by the customer. Then it will likely be sent back to be repaired and restitched.
Alas, a big hurdle has been overcome. I’ll let you know next week how the product fared against customer expectation.
With all this said, I feel like Dr. Frankenstein gazing over his monster come-to-life. I am so excited about the work that I have done! Unlike the famous doctor, my success is tampered by the knowledge that my newest creation will be inspected and critiqued by the customer. Then it will likely be sent back to be repaired and restitched.
Alas, a big hurdle has been overcome. I’ll let you know next week how the product fared against customer expectation.
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