Peter,


Glad to hear those ideas were helpful.


As to your question on how to develop skills around Integration, the key concept in that idea, for me, is "making connections."

      Then there are various kinds of connections that you might want students to learn how to make. 


Types of Connections

First, there can be connections between/among ideas within a course. For example, in a Psychology course, one might want students identify similarities and differences among various theorists, e.g., Freud, Skinner, and Rogers.

       Or you might want students to make connections between what they are learning in your course and other courses they have taken (or might take), e.g., between geography (a subject I once taught) and history, economics, political science, etc.

      Or you might want students to make connections between what they are learning in this course and other parts of their life, e.g., between what they are learning about leadership in the Business School and what they see happening in organizations they are part of or what they are trying to do in any organization of which they have been a part or are currently a part.


How you get that to happen

To help students make connections of any kind, they basically need to practice making such connections multiple times and getting frequent, immediate feedback.  This will happen usually through a combination of individual reflection, writing, and small group or whole group discussion.

      The key, I think, is to give them multiple opportunities to do this and to get feedback every time they do it.  Gradually, if all goes well, they get better at it.


Hope that gives you some ideas on this task that will be helpful!


My Best,   Dee




On Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 2:44 AM, Peter Smith <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi again Dee,

Thanks for taking time to respond ... you prompted me to start thinking about the things that weren't there (from your taxonomy): Integrating, Caring, and Foundational knowledge.

It seems to me that there are possibly skills that we need to address in those categories. For example, in the foundational knowledge I suspect that many students struggle with finding effective ways to understand and remember the ideas to which they are exposed. i wonder if, for many students, the rate of knowledge acquisition they are meant to achieve comes as a 'shock to the system'. We probably could do something about that---even if it is something as basic effective note-taking and how to read (and find) a scholarly article.

I can see how we might assist students develop skills around Caring, but I'm struggling to see how one might develop skills in Integration. No doubt the answer is that I need to read more of your work :)

I still worry that I have been somewhat myopic in the skills list developed thus far. Of course it's contingent on our New Zealand context, but I still hope that others might proffer some suggests.

Kind regards

Peter Smith

Department of Management and International Business
The University of Auckland Business School, Private Bag 92019, AUCKLAND
Email: [log in to unmask], Phone: +64 9 923 7178



On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 22:28, Dee Fink <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Peter,
 
What a wonderful task and related question.
 
I will leave the door open to others, to address your question of which of these learning goals might have the largest impact.   What I can't resist is the opportunity to note two things about your list of possible learning goals.
    
First, if you had not mentioned that the course was mainly about Management and Marketing, I could have read that list as a good list of learning goals for "Leadership in Any Kind of Organization" - churches, schools, the military, university department chairs, non-profits, etc.
 
Second, when I read your list of desired kinds of learning and relate them to my taxonomy of significant learning, they seem to relate to three of the categories of significant learning:
Application:
A. Skills

        Communication

        Writing

        Presentation

        Project Management

        IT Management

B. Thinking

        Critical thinking

        Problem solving

        Creativity

Human Dimension:

A.  Learning about ONESELF:

        Managing oneself
 

B.  Learning how to INTERACT WITH OTHERS

        Giving and receiving feedback

        Negotiating

        Managing Others

        Teamwork

Learning How to Learn
       Lifelong Learning
Thanks for the quick posting!  I assume others will have more to say about your question.
 
Dee
 
 


On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 3:47 AM, Peter Smith <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi all,

I, and two colleagues, have been tasked with developing, introducing, and delivering a new core (aka compulsory) courses for our 1st year, undergraduate degree (Bachelor of Commerce).The 'content' of the course is largely based on Management and Marketing.

Aside from the 'content', there are explicit goals around the delivery of soft skills. our starting list of soft skills is rather long (more than we can possibly do). Our partial list includes:

Communication skills
Writing skills
Giving and receiving feedback
Presentation skills
Project management skills
Negotiation skills
Managing self
Managing others
Teamwork
IT Management and Technology
Critical thinking
Problem Solving
Creativity
Lifelong learning


I wonder what people have found that, in their experience, are the three or four soft skills that would have the largest positive impact on students  (I'm leaving things rather vague here, so people can interpret the question in a variety of ways).



Kind regards

Peter Smith

Department of Management and International Business
The University of Auckland Business School, Private Bag 92019, AUCKLAND
Email: [log in to unmask], Phone: +64 9 923 7178
Wave: [log in to unmask]



--
***********************
L. Dee Fink          
234 Foreman Ave.
Norman, OK  73069
Phone/FAX:  405-364-6464
Email:  [log in to unmask]
Website:  www.finkconsulting.info

**National Project Director:  Teaching & Curriculum Improvement (TCI) Project
**Senior Associate, Dee Fink & Associates Consulting Services
**Author of: Creating Significant Learning Experiences
**Former President of the POD Network in Higher Education (2004-2005)




--
***********************
L. Dee Fink          
234 Foreman Ave.
Norman, OK  73069
Phone/FAX:  405-364-6464
Email:  [log in to unmask]
Website:  www.finkconsulting.info

**National Project Director:  Teaching & Curriculum Improvement (TCI) Project
**Senior Associate, Dee Fink & Associates Consulting Services
**Author of: Creating Significant Learning Experiences
**Former President of the POD Network in Higher Education (2004-2005)