Monday, October 27, 2014

We Want Critical Thinking Skills and All That Jazz

We hear it all the time from employers: job seekers today, especially the younger generations, lack soft skills, critical thinking skills, problem solving skills and 'EI". What we do not hear is who is to blame? Why are all these college graduates coming out of school with a lack of ability to "think"?

Being a Adjunct Professor, I see it. Example: An assignment is due on Saturday at 11:59 PM and is to be submitted electronically. Pretty clear, you have over a week to complete the task, plan accordingly. Why is every week, like clockwork I have students who miss the deadline, come to class the next week (still with out submitting the assignment) and ask what they should do? They tell me their Internet was down, their cat ran away, children were sick...yet with all of those excuses did it not every occur to submit the paper late, you know the better late than never?

When I say "why didn't you just submit it late"? They stare at me and say something like "well, I was not sure if you would except it late."

So, if you miss a credit card payment do you just never pay it because its late and you were not sure if they would accept it late? If you are going on a first date with someone and you are struck in traffic and late do you just not show up because you were not sure they would still go on a date with you because you are late? Makes no logical sense.

Now this is an age old problem, late homework, but why is this so hard for students to solve on their own. Its not a big deal, its college and its my duty to teach them, they don't know what they don't know so I look at these opportunities as teachable moments, and offer them advice for the future on how to address these problems as it relates to the workplace. That is my job as an instructor but does everyone do this, I am not sure.

This is simplistic example of the lack of problem solving skills students have today but is a window into a much bigger problem. I see it with my own children. They are given an assignment or task and if the the regular way or doing it is not available they deduct the task impossible to complete. Dishwasher full of clean dishes and your job is to load dirty, well clean dishes in the way hence can not complete task. Or lawn mower not starting, so cant mow the lawn. It never occurs to my children to try to fix the problem. Now they are teens so some of this is to be expected but I have to wonder, have I let my children down, do they suffer from this lack of critical thinking and problem solving deficit I see every day?

The youth of today are bright and technologically advanced, so many amazing skills and abilities at their disposal but with all their knowledge I wonder if we have departed wisdom. Knowing everything is different from being able to DO something and I worry that we are equipping them with tools but not showing them how to use them or letting them figure out how to use them. Employers like coach-able people, not people who know everything, but people who are willing to learn and DO things. I have heard it a million times, I would take a hard worker who is coach-able over a highly educated college graduate with a know it all mentally any day!

#collegegrads #highereducation #karenpotter

Article on the thoughts on what employers are seeking below:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20141027122755-17000124-bosses-seek-critical-thinking-skills-but-how-about-the-rest-of-the-company?trk=nus-cha-roll-art-title

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