From School to Workforce:

October 16, 2012

Information Literacy, Critical Thinking, and Problem-Solving Skills

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Our Facilitator

Lana W. Jackman, Ph.D.

President

National Forum on Information Literacy

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

FROM SCHOOL TO W

ORKFORCE:

INFORMATION LIT

ERACY, CRITICAL T

HINKING,

AND PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILL

S WEBINAR

©2012 Lana W. Jackman, Ph.D. President

A National Forum on Information Literacy and Credo Reference/Libraries Thriving Collaboration - October 16, 2012.

PRESENTERS

William Badke, Associate Librarian, Trinity Western University for Associated Canadian Theological Schools and Information Literacy

Jennifer Homer, Vice President of Communications and Career Development, American Society for Training and Development

What are the competencies required for educational and workplace success in the 21st century?

What do we need to do as education and workforce development professionals to prepare learners how to live and work in this dynamically, emerging networked universe?

TODAY’S QUESTIONS??

FIRST YEAR STUDENTS IN TWO AND FOUR YEAR COLLEGES2004

F A C U L T Y P E R S P E C T I V E S

• 66% of students cannot think analytically

• 70% of students do not comprehend complex reading materials

• 65% lack appropriate work and study habits

• 59% do not know how to do research

• 55% cannot apply what they’ve learned to solve problems

E M P L O Y E R P E R S P E C T I V E S

• 39% of recent high school graduates with no further education are unprepared for the expectations that they face in entry-level jobs

• 45% are not adequately prepared for the skills and abilities they need to advance beyond entry level.

• 46% of high school graduates who apply at their company are inadequately prepared for the work habits they will need on the job

• 41% are dissatisfied with graduates’ ability to read and understand complicated materials.

Achieve. (2005). Rising to the challenge: Are high school graduates prepared for college and work? Retrieved from http://www.achieve.org/files/pollreport_0.pdf

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

EDUCATION FOR LIFE AND WORK: DEVELOPING TRANSFERABLEKNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

The charge for the Committee on Defining Deeper Learning and 21st Century Skills was to define key 21st century skills, describe how they relate to skills specified in the New Common Core, and investigate the importance of such skills to success in K-16 education, work, and other areas of adult responsibility. Included in the study is known and needed research on the issues involved and assessments of recommended, potential interventions.

National Research Council. (2012). Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century. Committee on Defining Deeper Learning and 21st Century Skills, James W. Pellegrino and Margaret L. Hilton, Editors. Board on Testing and Assessment and Board on Science Education, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

One of the major outcomes of this study is a preliminary taxonomy of 21st century skills and abilities in which information literacy is identified as belonging to the cognitive competence domain, within the knowledge cluster, affiliated with O*Net as content skills, and designated as a main ability factor i.e. “crystallized intelligence”.

Occupational Information Network (O*NET) - large database of information on 965 occupations which is organized around a “content model” which describes occupations along several dimensions, including worker characteristics (abilities, interests, work values, and work styles) and requirements (skills, knowledge, and education).

MAJOR STUDY OUTCOME

THE PROJECT INFORMATION LITERACY (PIL) PASSAGE STUDIES

LEARNING CURVE: HOW COLLEGE GRADUATES SOLVE INFORMATION PROBLEMS ONCE THEY JOIN THE WORKPLACE

OCTOBER, 2012

“Many employers were dazzled by new hires’ natural ease with computers, but employers soon found graduates lacked research readiness for the workplace.

Employers found newcomers rarely demonstrated traditional research techniques, such as picking up a phone; thumbing through a bound report; and interpreting results with team members.”

Alison Head, Ph.D. Executive Director and Principal Investigator, www. http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_fall2012_workplaceStudy_FullReport.pdf

“The rigor that matters most for the 21st century is demonstrated mastery of core competencies for work, citizenship, and lifelong learning. Studying academic content is the means of developing competencies, instead of being the goal, as it has been traditionally. In today’s world, it’s no longer how much you know that matters, it’s what you can do with what you know.”

Wagner, T. (2008). The global achievement gap. New York; Perseus Books.

THE GLOBAL ACHIEVEMENT GAP

FROM SCHOOL TO W

ORKFORCE:

INFORMATION LIT

ERACY, CRITICAL

THINKING, AND PROBLEM-SOLV

ING

SKILLS W

EBINAR

William Badke Associate Librarian

Trinity Western University Langley, BC Canada

We need a way to integrate the wide range of skills required in the 21st Century workplace.

As separate skill-sets, it is very difficult to see how we can teach all this.

Let’s think in terms of “cultures.”

Every academic discipline and every workplace has a distinct informational culture or even complex of cultures.

If we can teach information-handling within an informational culture, we can find a way to teach students how to “read” any informational culture.

Three crucial elements:

1. The knowledge base

2. The belief system

3. The methods used

Knowledge Base

What does this setting (discipline or workplace) accept as reputable information?

Belief System

What does this setting believe about the task it is doing?

Goals

Values

Motivations

Methods used

- How is information used well in this setting?

- What constitutes good evidence? - What makes for valid judgments?

- How does one best do the task that connects information with productivity?

So much for theory. Now the practice:

1. Make the study of disciplinary culture part of the very foundation of courses in higher education. Ask:

a. What does our knowledge base look like? What do we value as knowledge?

b. When we problem-solve in this discipline (workplace), what is our goal? What do we want to accomplish, and what do we believe is possible?

c. What is good method in our use of information to solve problems?

a. Acceptable proceduresb. Proper use of evidencec. Determination of valid conclusions

This is information literacy in the best sense – guiding students to enter the informational culture of the setting in which they are working.

We accomplish this by making research – problem solving using information – part of the very foundation of our courses.

FROM SCHOOL TO W

ORKFORCE:

INFORMATION LIT

ERACY, CRITICAL

THINKING, AND PROBLEM-SOLV

ING

SKILLS W

EBINAR

Jennifer Homer Vice President of Communications and Career

Development American Society for Training and Development

(ASTD)

Bridging the Skills GapHelp Wanted, Skills Lacking: Why the Mismatch in Today’s Economy?

ASTD white paper

October 2012

What is the Skills Gap?

• A significant gap between an organization’s current capabilities and the skills it needs to achieve its goals.

• When an organization can no longer grow or remain competitive because it cannot fill critical jobs with employees who have the right knowledge, skills, and abilities.

ASTD Survey: Is there a Skills Gap?

84.0%

6.4%

9.6%

Yes

No

Don't know

n = 377 responding organizations

Where are the Biggest Gaps?

Other

Process and project management skills

Sales skills

Technical/IT/systems skills

Communication/interpersonal skills

Customer service skills

Managerial/supervisory skills

Professional or industry-specific skills

Basic skills (the traditional building blocks of business-level competencies that are most commonly associated with elementary language arts and mathematics)

Leadership/executive-level skills

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

14%

44%

5%

13%

33%

20%

28%

19%

7%

24%

1%

27%

12%

16%

26%

13%

48%

32%

14%

18%

6%

17%

9%

17%

16%

8%

38%

37%

5%

54%

Ranked 1Ranked 2Ranked 3

n = 377 responding organizations

Lack of skilled talent in one or more of the company's lines of business

When hiring for certain types of jobs, there are too few qualified candidates (i.e. a gap in the pipeline?

Training investments have been cut or there is a lack of commitment by senior leaders to employee learning and development

Recent merger/acquisition where the organization brought in new employees or current employees are not up-to-speed on the new industry

Not enough bench strength in the company's leadership ranks

Skills of the current workforce do not match changes in company strategy, goals, markets, or business models

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

49%

38%

46%

9%

22%

46%

39%

35%

36%

12%

48%

40%

18%

30%

41%

8%

55%

58%

Ranked 1

Ranked 2

Ranked 3

Why is there a Skills Gap in Your Organization?

n = 377 responding organizations

What are the Business Impacts of Having Skills Gaps?

Other

Missed opportunities

Higher expenses

Harder to compete

Less new product development

Unable to expand or grow

Less efficient

Challenges to recruitment

Less profitable

Slower time-to-market

Lower productivity

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

17%

14%

38%

22%

8%

23%

38%

14%

20%

6%

38%

3%

26%

13%

25%

8%

12%

69%

9%

24%

8%

40%

9%

31%

7%

8%

4%

16%

42%

17%

10%

16%

77%

Ranked 1

Ranked 2

Ranked 3

n = 377 responding organizations

Take Action!

• While many organizations talk about the skills gap challenge, few people have provided suggestions on what to do about the problem

• The Action Plan provided in this white paper helps managers, CEOs, and learning professionals identify and assess gaps, and take action to close them

Taking Charge of the Skills Gap

1. Understand key strategies, goals, and performance metrics

2. Identify competencies that map to strategies and performance metrics

3. Assess the skills gap4. Set goals and prioritize the path to filling gaps5. Implement solutions6. Monitor and measure results, and

communicate the impact

Five Case Studies/Best Practices

An e-copy of the white paper may be found here on October 18:

www.astd.org/careerdevelopment

Send questions to Jennifer Homer:jhomer@astd.org

FROM SCHOOL TO W

ORKFORCE:

INFORMATION LIT

ERACY, CRITICAL T

HINKING,

AND PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILL

S WEBINAR

Questions - Comments

Lana W. Jackman, Ph.D.PresidentNational Forum on Information Literacynfil@infolit.orgwww.infolit.org617.959.1464

Thank you for joining us!