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[Assessment 1028] Re: Assessment Digest, Vol 25, Issue 31Gail B gbundy at rmi.netMon Oct 29 17:18:00 EDT 2007
There is always a tension in the workplace between executives who want workers who have that intuitive thinking and inexperienced supervisors who want workers who only do as they are told. I beleive that it is part of my role as a teacher of adults to help students gain the critical thinking skills to prepare students for both scenarios. In adult education, we have always had an emphasis on using reallife examples and making education relevant. Our adult students are a rich repository of data / stories that can be used to develop some creative problem-solving skills. What I do as part of the ABE/ GED instruction is to work with students to develop real-life applications for their math, social studies, science, or reading, based on their actual workplace experience - or on their desired or fantasy profession (e.g. hip hop song album producer). And then develop ideas for improving some aspect of that profession. For instance, a woman who is a housekeeper at a hospital, examined the physics of how her tools, such as mops and brooms, work. She began recording the productivity directions from her boss, which she than graphed, identified a problem, developed a solution, and wrote a memo to her supervisor, suggesting a solution. A young man who works as a concrete pourer developed a set of word problems for his classmates to solve, based on his work. The big hangup for most students is not the lack of creativity -- many of our students have at least one area where they are very creative - it is the negative self-talk, sensitivity around criticism and debate, lack of experience in solving problems related to productivity in a group setting that then combine with the low literacy skills that hinders creativity in the workplace. Gail Bundy Night Instructor Native American Multi-Cultural Education School Denver, CO
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