Are Non-cognitive Skills the Key to Academic, Professional & Personal Success?

 

 

What are the top skills employers demand? Communication skills, judgement and decision making, active listening to name a few. These skills are referred to as soft skills, or non-cognitive skills that are not measured by a cognitive or academic test, like IQ, for example.

In an age when our economy demands more college grads in order to fill the jobs of the future and to be globally competitive, the answer has been to make our classes harder and rank students, schools, and teachers by the scores students earn on their standardized test. Put more effort behind increasing IQ and get a better prepared workforce, right?

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The Education Gender Gap: From Grade School to Grad School

Since the 1980s, more women than men have been attending college. Since 1996, more women have been attending and graduating from college.1 A study in 2008 found the male to female ratio for attending college was 43.6 and 56.4, respectively. The gender gap in education continues to widen in favor of women, but why?

The 2011 PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) found a consistent difference between girls’ and boys’ academic achievement in most countries.  Fourth grade girls have a much higher average reading achievement than boys, and their 2011 results continue to show this pattern. In the United States, recent research found that girls had an advantage in reading at all grades, from kindergarten through twelfth grade.  Another study conducted by PISA in 2009 showed that 15-year-old girls performed consistently better in reading than boys.3

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Your College Degree Timing: Should you Detour from the Pipeline?

 

This year, student debt climbed higher than credit card debt in the U.S. Though the recession has encouraged more people to pursue higher education, it doesn’t mean that we have more graduates. The Obama administration, along with the Gates and the Lumina Foundation, reacted to the low college graduation rates by vowing to make America the number one country for college graduates, according to Jeff Selingo in his article “On Students’ Paths to College, Some Detours Are Desirable.”
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Practical Skills to Close the Job Gap: Risks that Bring Reward

The week before Thanksgiving, I attended the annual National Association of Gifted Children (NAGC) conference for teachers of gifted and talented students along with 4,000 others. One of the opening sessions featured Dr. Howard Gardner, Dr. Joseph Renzulli, and Dr. Robert Sternberg, all intelligence experts from varying points of view. Sternberg, in particular, addressed the disconnect between what we are teaching in school and the needs of the world of work, where graduates are falling short.
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Under- or Over-worked? Employers and Employees Must Take Action

When employees don’t feel like their abilities are being used to their full potential, work is “frustrating” and “exhausting,” according to a study that asked subordinates to rate the percentage of their intelligence they felt their higher-ups were tapping into. These questions lead to researchers defining two types of leaders in the workplace:
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Game Plan for Alleviating Financial Stress in College

There are many reasons college can be stressful for students. Entering freshmen might suffer a culture shock or fear their heightened level of independence. College sophomores have the stress of picking their academic path that should set the pace for the rest of college and their career after school. With their general classes behind them, college juniors go on to higher-level classes and get heftier workloads. Seniors start getting a taste of the real world as interns and student aids, while having the most difficult classes yet. And this is for the traditional student who has remained on-track to graduation. Due to any number of circumstances, many students’ college career will continue over five or six years.
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Setting the Career Path in College: A Tale of Two Choices Five Years Later

College students notoriously have overwhelming schedules. Many balance going to school full time, having part-or full-time employment, living on their own, and maintaining relationships. In the whirlwind of the college lifestyle, students can lose sight of how college should support and propel their career, and instead become only focused on grades and graduation day.

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Defining Unique Skills Powers Economic Success for Grads

In a competitive global market the soon-to-be college graduate and new professional needs to know their unique talents and abilities in order to stand out from the crowd. Our economy is recovering slowly; a shift in our schools  and colleges can set new expectations to better prepare graduates for workforce realities. Many K-12 schools, whether out of choice or necessity, still teach to standardized tests and curriculums. However, the new professional is anything but standardized. The new professional is self-aware, stands out because of their ability to develop unique strengths, can connect their education to their career, is fully integrated into traditional and digital communication, and understands how to use personal discipline for professional advantage. If there isn’t enough time to emphasize this model in class, teachers can emphasize the importance of this exposure out of class.
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Professional Success Eclipses the Resume and Interview

You’re graduating this semester. Your resume is clean, you have your reference letters in order, your suit is pressed, and you feel confident your school trained you in the skills you need to land an entry-level job and climb up the career ladder. But are you sure you’re not missing anything?
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Unemployed Youth Cost More Than Money: Turning the Trend Around

America’s unemployed youth each take $40,000 a year from the economy and cost the government $14,000 in taxes, according to the article “What Does One Jobless Youth Cost Taxpayers? $14,000 a Year.” The “lost generation” is projected to cost taxpayers $437 billion over the next five years, and possibly $1.15 trillion in their lifetime.
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