Higher education in the United States is at a tipping point. The cost of a college education has spiraled out of control, leaving deserving students priced out of a bright future and putting the nation at risk of losing much-needed talent. Many states are reducing funding for publicly supported colleges, driving the price of securing […]
Tag: Skills
Skills
Learning outcomes have been a key part of my professional life in higher education for the past 25 years. I completed a degree in social work at McGill University way back in the 80’s and haven’t been a social worker for a very long time. While I still can remember some content I learned (remembering […]
Higher education graduates need to be prepared with the knowledge, skills and dispositions necessary to be leaders and contributors at all levels of society. What stands in the way of this outcome? One barrier is the grading systems we employ, contributing to the problem of graduates who are not well prepared for a global 21st […]
A top priority for the new federal government must be to bolster Canada’s modest economic growth and ensure it is inclusive so more than just those at the top end of the income distribution enjoy the benefits. Ageing of the work force combined with the recent anemic pace of productivity growth will likely only produce […]
When I started my undergraduate program in 2007 I thought that the lecture halls and seminar rooms were the sites in which I would learn the skills needed to succeed in the world. As a result, I opted not to take part in many extra-curricular activities in my early years, focusing my energy towards academics […]
There is much discussion regarding what skills universities should teach their graduates and what skills employers believe recent graduates should possess, but what do students think they should get out of university? The Canadian University Survey Consortium surveyed over 18,000 graduating students from 36 universities across Canada and asked them this question. From a […]
As Yogi Berra said, “Predictions are hard, especially when they are about the future.” But if there is any issue that should dominate the future of higher education, it’s quality – quality of the student experience, quality of our graduates, quality of our postsecondary institutions and quality of our higher education systems. Ultimately, quality is […]
Some high school math courses are very meaningful to specific career paths. Engineers need calculus, economists need analytical geometry and I am not sure who needs discrete geometry. But let’s consider the vast majority of career pathways. What math is most important to most careers? And are we ensuring that our students are achieving the […]
Cue the tumble weeds, cowboys and whiskey-slinging saloons, and imagine a land that is both wild and full of potential. It’s the wild west of learning outcomes and like gold they are a hot commodity in an increasingly data-driven postsecondary sector. But there is still a great deal of unexplored territory – particularly in assessment. […]