James Needham reports the observations
>"College graduates may be better prepared than ever before in their
>academic disciplines, but they too often lack the following essential
>skills:
> *The ability to work effectively in teams.
etc.
*Are these valid criticisms ?
Quite often yes. Though, there are an increasing number of courses where
project work in teams is used. However, since most of the teachers
themselves were not taught or learnt in this way, I think that the process
(vs. the task) element is not well handled. They tend to focus on the
outcome of the project rather than giving the team guidance on how they
worked.
*If so, who is responsible for these shortcomings?
Very clearly the institution and the lecturers involved, especially if
their clients are reporting this and they are not responding. Also the
examinations board may have a greater influence on the institution than
the clients i.e. thier performance measure is a grade on a piece of paper,
not real world learning.
Everyone I talk to about such matters (and I have been doing it for time
time) blames "the system". A related system is that of the 'citation
mafia' that distorts the efficiency and usefulness of academic research.
David
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David J. Skyrme Tel/Fax: +44 1635 551434
David Skyrme Associates Limited Newbury, Berks, England
a member of the ENTOVATION Network
Spring Newsletter - Knowledge Management, Web Guidelines etc.
at http://www.hiway.co.uk/skyrme/index.htm
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--david@pop3.hiway.co.uk (David J. Skyrme)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>