Where Students are Going: American Higher Education

and Culture

Purpose/Preview

• To inform, encourage, & enlighten SNA faculty on higher education in the United States, potential experiences, and challenges.

• To outline the hard skills and soft skills students will need to be successful in American colleges.

What skills and

characteristics do

your students need

in order to be

college-ready?

Hard skills vs. soft skillsHard skills Soft skills

Can be learned from a book Cannot be learned from a book

Academic Social and interpersonal

IQ EQ

More easily measured Not as easily measured

Ex. Mathematical computations and typing speed

Ex. Collaboration and time management

Identifying hard skills and soft skills

o Working in groupso Labelling DNAo Networkingo Self-awarenesso Personal habitso Using a microscopeo Patienceo Citing sources in a papero Writing computer codeo Creating a group presentationo Putting events on a timelineo Create one of your own

Balancing skills

Hard skills

Soft skills

What does a college

classroom look like?

Probably not this.

It might look like this…

or this…

or this…

or even this.

What can you do in

your classroom to

blend hard skills and

soft skills?

Group work

Presentations

Think-Pair-Share

Active Problem Solving

Reflective Practice

Self-evaluation and peer-evaluation

What are the

challenges to helping

students develop hard

and soft skills in the

classroom?

What support and resources do you need in order to help students

develop a blend of hard and soft skills so students can be college-ready?

Final Questions?

• Nick Fortune, Math Ed PhD student

– ncfortun@ncsu.edu

• Andrea Gambino, English Teacher

– algambin@ncsu.edu

• Katie Green, Science Ed PhD student

– kegreen4@ncsu.edu