How are we preparing our future workforce?

Young people don't want jobs... apprenticeships aren't a "thing" anymore... and EDUCATION is not enough to create a skilled workforce. We need to change the system and the handoff from school to work. 

3 Ways "We" Have Destroyed Young People's Ability to Think

Here are three ways education has undermined thinking in theyounger generations:

The primary education system has changed quite a bit in thelast 50 years and many of those changes have resulted in young people'sinability to think critically and instead to rely on cues and memorization.

1 - Memorization

For decades we’ve been lulled into believing that memorizingand recalling information is learning. And perhaps, in anindustrialized world, recall was all that was necessary. When theindustrial age was ruled by manufacturing and work was repetitive, perhapsremembering the steps in a process and executing them properly was "theskill." We are now in a knowledge economy (and have been for at least 20years!). We pay people to think. We pay people to make decisions,solve problems, innovate and synthesize. In direct opposition to this, oureducational system (and generally our corporate training system) focuses onteaching learners to memorize information so that, with the proper prompt, itcan be recalled; educating/training does not teach us how to useinformation in a variety of ways and circumstances or (heavens!) use it in away that wasn’t taught at all (extrapolating).  

2 - Cramming

Somewhere along the line, we have lured young learners intobelieving that “cramming” is a proper methodology for learning. Duringexam week at colleges, the libraries and dining halls stay open around theclock to accommodate the learners who are staying up around the clock studying– this only reinforces the idea that the last-push to learn is a crucial time.

Typically young people prepare for a test or exam the day beforethe exam – which means that they are simply working from short term memory,which generally is good enough if the measure of one’s learning is being ableto spot the right answer on a multiple-choice test - but not enough if weexpect them to use that knowledge "out in the real world."

Real-world application is built from learning over multipleexposures to a concept or process, not a cursory review of the keypoints. 

3 - Testing

Thanks to the introduction of Scantron Bubble Sheets in the50's and 60's - everything became a multiple-choice test. The bubble sheetswere extremely helpful to teachers and administrators as class sizes grew andrecord-keeping became more stringent.  Unfortunately, they took morethan they gave. This type of testing fueled the usage of the 2"learning" strategies discussed above AND undermined the value of theteacher's input into student's testing.

Prior to a machine grading tests, teachers had to read eachresponse, giving the answer critical thought. Very often they would addcommentary to the grade, rather than simply marking an answer wrong. They mightremind the student where the correct information was found or help them toremember how the concept they got wrong was similar to what they werethinking. Sometimes they would give partial credit if the student was onthe right track but then veered off before their final summation (this is theonly way I passed geometry, believe me).

Prior to a machine grading tests, even when a student got ananswer wrong - they were learning. They had coaching, correction andrefinement from their teacher based on how the teacher graded thetest. Once the Scantron bubble sheet became de rigueur in public schooleducation, students simply received their grade with little to no explanationor intervention.

Unfortunately, I can spot factors that led to the demise of thinking skills (and there may well be more that you are thinking of!) but I am not sure what the remedy should be to reverse the trend. Given class-size and teacher pay, it's not reasonable to take efficiencies away from public school teachers. Instituting "study skills" classes in college is smart - but it's usually an elective and addresses a small population of the students (plus, by the time students are in college, it is remedial - we should be teaching study skills at about age 11 and continue it until the end of high school - see my article on 3 Keys to Ensuring Learning for more on this topic).

I think the rise of AI and machine learning will make theseshortcomings even more apparent in coming years, as all of the "easy tospot" answers will be gobbled up by robots and the critical thinking willbe the domain of humans.

Your thoughts?

Note: This article was originally published on LinkedIn.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3-ways-we-have-destroyed-young-peoples-ability-think-miner-ed-d-

Multiple Choice Tests and the Downfall of American Education

scantron

Here is an excerpt from a rather lengthy blog post by Alex Terego. He makes a compelling point about how an educational testing process has had the ripple effect of reducing thinking skills.

In the 1960s schools found a way to grade tests more cheaply by using what we would now consider a rather dumb electronic device. It was an optical character recognition reader. As long as the student used a #2 pencil to fill in ovals the OCR reader could collect and grade the results of a test; a task traditionally performed by the teacher, at much greater cost.

There was just one issue: the OCR could only work if tests were administered in multiple choice formats. This is because an answer to a factual question has a true/false or right/wrong -objective- answer that is universally true. So, the only way to test for retention of factual information was to create tests beginning with "which of the following multiple choices is the true one?". So, the more the curriculum was based on facts the easier it was for the OCR machine to replace the teacher, and take the drudgery of test-taking and grading out of their hands and save money.

If a question or problem needed a student to use facts as just one aspect of developing a subjective opinion, to which there is no universally accepted right or wrong answer, the OCR machine had no value. So, for the past half century, in the name of efficiency and cost-savings we have been preparing students for a personal and employee life where they will be faced with issues that are overwhelmingly about subjective opinions by teaching them how to memorize facts. We opted to teach fact-memorization, and to grade our entire instructional structure based on its results.

You can read his whole post here.

Why We Need to Reform Education in America

You MUST invest 20 minutes in this TedTalk on Education featuring Sir Ken Robinson on Why We Need to Reform Education in America.

5 General Rules for Workplace Tests Part-5

Rule #5

Ordering Questions

You may wish to group evaluation questions by topic or you may mix them up. Back on the job, the work people encounter won't show up in any kind of logical sequence – so mixing questions up has its merits.

On the other hand, keeping questions grouped allows you to easily spot if a learner just "didn't get" a particular topic. If all the questions on a similar topic are grouped together and the learner answers all or almost all of them wrong, either he needs retraining or the topic itself was poorly presented. If your same-topic-area questions are interspersed throughout the exam, it might be harder for you to spot a problem.

5 General Rules for Workplace Tests Part-4

Rule #4

Use Key Words

Key words assist the test-taker in figuring out the answer.

• Who triggers the respondent to look for a person or position

• What triggers the test taker to look for a thing or a process

• Where triggers them to look for a place or location

• When triggers them to look for a date or a period of time

• Why will signal them to look for reasoning.

5 General Rules for Workplace Tests Part-3

Rule #3

Stick to the Facts

Do not include trivial information - the only intention of which is to confuse the test taker. For instance: Bob and Ed left their office on K Street in Washington DC at 4:45 pm to travel to BWI airport for a 9:00 pm flight - how far is the airport from their office? The times given have nothing to do with the correct answer; in fact, Bob and Ed are irrelevant, too. 4

A better phrased question would be:

Using (a calculator, a map, an internet site) calculate the distance between K Street in downtown DC and the BWI airport.

5 General Rules for Workplace Tests Part-2

Rule #2

Give Adequate and Specific Instructions

Instructions are critical. Do everything you can to make sure test takers know WHAT to do, and WHEN and HOW to do it.

Examples:

• If there is a time requirement, state it. e.g. you must finish this section in 30 minutes

• If a tool or resource is allowed, state it. e.g. you may use a calculator for questions 11 – 20. The opposite is true as well - you may NOT use a calculator to complete this section. For each item in column A there is ONLY ONE correct answer in column B.

• It's also quite helpful to read the instructions out loud at the start of the test even when they are clearly written on the test itself. This will ensure that everyone hears, sees, and interprets the directions the same way and allows for questions before anyone begins.

5 General Rules for Workplace Tests Part-1

RULE #1

Do Not Trick Them

If you have not taught “it” in the training, it should not be on the test. In addition, your test questions should be stated in the same manner they were stated/taught in the class. For example: if you teach the three characteristics of steel, don't ask: Which one of these is NOT a characteristic of steel. It's hard for most people to have success with "null" answers and more importantly, why reinforce what you don’t want them to remember?

US Government helping young people get prepared with employable skills

The US Department of Labor will award a total of $2 billion over the next four years through the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant Program. Grants will support the development and improvement of post-secondary programs of two years or less that use evidence-based or innovative strategies to prepare students for successful careers in growing and emerging industries.

Educational achievement in the US goes down

The US ranked fourth-worst among 29 developed countries for children obtaining a higher level of education than their parents, According to a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

In the US, only 21.6% of those  25 - 34 years old achieved a higher level of education than their parents. That compares to the OECD average of 36.8%.

Source: WSJ.com

How much do you really know about learning?

Parade Magazine recently had an informative back-to-school quiz  focused on learning facts.  Follow this link to see how much you really know. After you answer each question it will tell you the research behind the answer.  We'll give you a few clues because they are important to training:

Testing doesn't simply measure what you know-it reinforces what you know, says psychologist Henry Roediger III, Ph.D., of Washington University in St. Louis. Every time you summon facts from memory, you strengthen your brain's hold on the material. (Editor's Note: this is why, at The Training Doctor, we always say that the quiz is just the final part of the learning process.)

Research on what's known as the "spacing effect" shows that we form stronger and more lasting memories by exposing ourselves to information over time. Repeated cycles of learning, consolidating, and then re-encountering material fix it firmly in our minds.

It's much more effective to "interweave" different types of problems - mixing them up so you learn how to quickly identify which approach is needed to solve each one. For example, a study of baseball batters found that when different types of pitches - fastballs, curveballs, sinkers-were mixed up unpredictably during practice, the players became more adept at scoring a hit.

Paying workers to learn? Yes! Great idea!

Now here's a twist - and a good one at that.  Okanagan College (British Columbia) is offering free training for retail and food service workers. Upon successful completion the learners get paid $500.

The curriculum includes: exceeding customer expectations; powerful sales systems; productivity and efficiency; product knowledge; effective communication; problem solving; accountability and ownership; and workplace health and safety.

The retail employees will have their own "track" as will the food service workers.  There are four days of training (9a - 4p) as well as six hours of self study.

Learners must be presently employed in the industry and have no college degree.

What a win-win-win - the employers get free training provided to their employees (and lots of it! How many organizations give 24 hours of training to retail or food service workers?); the employees get enhanced business knowledge and skills that can be put to use immediately as well as being an important addition to their resume; and the local region has a pool of well-trained individuals which can only help the local economy as a whole.

The futility of tests

Sorry - no idea where this came from. Was forwarded on to us by a colleague.