Teaching generic skills: eroding the higher purpose of universities, or an opportunity for renewal?

Star, Cassandra; Hammer, Sara

doi:10.1080/03054980701672232

Cited by 91 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Some research focusing on low-achieving students (not learning disabilities) shows that interventions given to students outside the context of their discipline does not enhance learning (Barefoot, 2006;Chanock, 2007;Wingate, 2006). Other researchers suggest that teaching critical thinking skills may not lead to adopting these skills in practice (Star & Hammer, 2008). In line with this research, students in our high-intervention group did make progress but not at the level of those in our success course.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

The relative effects of university success courses and individualized interventions for students with learning disabilities

Reed

Kennett

Lewis

et al. 2009

Higher Education Research & Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Little is known about the relative effects of post-secondary learning services for students with learning disabilities. We compared outcomes for students with learning disabilities who selected to: (1) take an academic learning success course (course-intervention), (2) have regular individual interventions (high-intervention) or (3) use services only as needed (low-intervention). Pre-and post-test comparisons revealed improvements in academic self-efficacy and academic resourcefulness for students in the course-and high-intervention groups. The course-intervention group also showed decreases in their failure attributions to bad luck and increases in their general repertoire of learned resourcefulness skills in comparison to the high-intervention group and had significantly higher year-end GPAs in comparison to the low-intervention group. Here we find positive outcomes for students with learning disabilities taking a course that teaches postsecondary learning and academic skills.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

The relative effects of university success courses and individualized interventions for students with learning disabilities

Reed

Kennett

Lewis

et al. 2009

Higher Education Research & Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Education researchers have found mixed student responses to skills‐based pedagogy 27 and have noted resistance to change, 28–30 with weaker students most likely to feel that academic support is unhelpful 31 . However, if students gain trust in a programme 32 and perceive its relevance, they may respond more positively 26,33 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

At-risk medical students: implications of students’ voice for the theory and practice of remediation

Winston¹,

Vleuten

Scherpbier

2010

Medical Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Successful remediation needs to challenge students' conceptions of learning, works best in groups with skilled facilitators, and must take into account a blend of cognitive and affective factors and the complex interplay between learner and environment. Given a carefully designed programme, at-risk medical students can learn to make effective and lasting changes to their approach to study, and their views of learning can come to converge with influential ideas in the education literature.

show abstract

“…The main practices that need to be addressed are by embedding soft skills competencies into the curriculum disciplines. That study's findings consistently showed that soft skills competencies in higher education were more effectively developed in the context of disciplinary knowledge and embedded into the curriculum disciplines (embedded model), rather than through stand-alone subjects and were isolated from the context of the discipline of study (Barrie, 2004;Bath et al, 2004;Bowden et al, 2000;Drummond et al, 1998;Star and Hammer, 2007;Sin and Reid, 2005;Thompson et al, 2008). The separation of soft skills from the disciplinary learning environment may lead to superficial technical approaches in teaching and learning of soft skills (Star and Hammer, 2007).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 89%

Teacher trainers’ and trainee teachers’ understanding towards the curriculum philosophy regarding soft skills embedment in the Malaysian Institute of Teacher Education

Hassan

Maharoff

Abiddin

et al. 2015

Policy Futures in Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The embedment of soft skills into education programs in higher education is closely related to the curriculum philosophy brought by the respective institutions. The soft skills are embedded through understanding belief systems and practices among the teacher trainers. Furthermore it provides an insight into the curriculum philosophy on how to implement soft skills embedment. Therefore, this study aimed to understand teacher trainers' understanding and teaching practice in embedding soft skills while teaching core courses for the Bachelor of Teaching Program (PISMP) at the Malaysia Institute of Teacher Education (IPG). This understanding is necessary in order to resolve the misunderstanding that embedding soft skills are burdensome for the teacher trainers and that it is only documented without being practiced. The case study methodology was used through a qualitative approach. Five teacher trainers with different backgrounds and teaching experience participated as respondents. The findings resulted in improved understanding on teacher trainers' understanding about soft skills embedment and how the actual process of embedding soft skills occurred. The results of this study allow those involved in the development of student-teachers' soft skills to generate ideas to develop models for soft skills embedment that are in line with the interpretation of PISMP soft skills.

show abstract

Teaching generic skills: eroding the higher purpose of universities, or an opportunity for renewal?

Cited by 91 publications

References 23 publications

The relative effects of university success courses and individualized interventions for students with learning disabilities

The relative effects of university success courses and individualized interventions for students with learning disabilities

At-risk medical students: implications of students’ voice for the theory and practice of remediation

Teacher trainers’ and trainee teachers’ understanding towards the curriculum philosophy regarding soft skills embedment in the Malaysian Institute of Teacher Education

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About