Teaching for Tomorrow Ch 1

The author believes that technology skills are secondary in importance to problem-solving skills.
Workers of the 20th century didn't need to problem solve, that was the supervisors job. Todays workforce is much different. He believes that schools are producing "highly educated useless people who possess school skills that help them be successful in education but not in real life situations. Most of the employee evaluations are performanced based yet schools assess basic knowledge skills. I really don't predict this will change in the near future. Schools are teaching what their communities ask for: literate citizens who possess the skills to continue on to higher education. As long as the State requires specific curriculum to be covered, and schools are held accountable for the instruction of that curriculum, then schools will successfully produce students that have great "school skills".

I don't mean to pass the buck, because I do believe that schools can produce students that can be successful in higher education and the workforce if they will incorporate the workplace/life skills into the learning of basic information. Problem-solving skills, teamwork skills, and effective communication skills can all be part of any curriculum; but including these into an exciting unit with basic knowledge takes time to create. The traditional textbooks only give teachers the knowledge and assessment tools, very few include projects or performance based assessment ideas. We teachers are successful products of our former schools. This method is what we know. If we are to make changes in our methodology, direction is needed. Where will this direction come from? Will the parents of the community ask us to stop teaching school skills and start teaching life skills? We humans are so competitive by nature that I don't predict that the assessment methods will be disappearing soon. I actually think the steaks will be higher. If a teachers job depends on how well their students do on their tests than they will continue to make this a priority in the classroom!!