Training 21st-century workers: Facts, fiction and memory illusions

Abstract

Technological achievements require complex skills for the workplace, along with creativity, communication, and critical thinking. To compete effectively in the global economy, governments must provide their citizens with relevant education and training. To help close the skills gap, international agencies often advise governments of developing countries to de-emphasise basic knowledge and focus instead on complex cognition and systemic improvements. However, the donors' advice may be due to memory biases of highly educated people. Such training strategies would fail most students, because complex skills are built by combining and automatising shorter chains of thoughts or behaviours. An effective training process requires much practice, feedback and rearrangement of subcomponents over time. Execution of various tasks must become automatic and effortless to avoid using up too much of the very limited capacity of what is termed the ''working memory''. Marketable skills are those skills which are fluently performed without excessive cognitive load. To provide complex skills for all, including noncognitive skills, curricula should therefore first ensure detailed instruction and practice of basic components which can then be strung together and applied to new tasks. Policy advisers seem unaware of these scientific insights, so they are not taken into account. The article reviews the essential neurocognitive functions involved in the acquisition and execution of skills chains. The author concludes that to improve the skills of economically disadvantaged populations, donors and governments must acquire expertise and offer advice on the basis of cognitive science.

Effectiveness of Regulation of Educational Requirements for Non-Bank Credit Providers in Czech Republic

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The Effect of Biotechology Module with Problem Based Learning in the Socioscientific Context to Enhance Students’ Socioscientific Decision Making Skills

“…The results of this research are supported by research conducted by Dori, Tal, & Tsaushu (2003) showing that learning using modules with controversial biotechnology cases can make students form questions, find and evaluate evidence, and convey decisions or solutions with arguments in accordance with several aspects of SSI such as health, social and moral. Children who are able to survive in the 21st century are those who can do a project, find solutions, communicate it, and have social skills (Abadzi, 2016).…”

Government Policy and Financing Options for Solar Energy: World Prospects

“…States that have not established strict rules in the field of public services, which makes it possible to recover investments in transmission (ie, reimbursement of costs), and also did not coordinate the processes of planning and issuing permits, slow down the development of renewable energy projects on their territory. To overcome this situation, it is necessary to develop international uniform standardized rules for the installation of SPP, at the same time, taking into account the need to take into account local peculiarities (Bird et al, 2012;Abadzi, 2015;Feldman et al, 2015;Baraniuk, 2016;Baraniuk, 2019;Cox et al, 2019).…”