Cathleen Stasz

Do Employers Need the Skills They Want? Evidence from technical work

Changes in the modern workplace, brought about by technology and management innovations and by increased global competition, raise many concerns about the adequacy of workforce skills. In the US and elsewhere, these concerns have led to new ideas about skills, in particular the need for ‘generic skills’ like problem solving, teamwork, and communications. Many employers and policymakers in the US believe that these skills are necessary for work across most jobs and support school reforms to teach them. This article presents empirical evidence from a study in technical work which challenges conventional wisdom about skills and skill requirements and has broad implications for school reform.

Learning Problem-Solving Skills in Algebra

In this article we describe aspects of our intelligent tutor for basic algebra. A main goal of the project is to develop a computer tutoring system whose skills and knowledge approximate those of a high-quality human tutor. We are particularly interested in exploring novel learning opportunities that can be made available to students for the first time by exploiting the reactive capabilities of such intelligent tutors. In this context, we focus here on the role of an algebra expert system embedded in the tutor. We discuss how it can be used to help students learn several nontraditional types of skill and knowledge in the context of algebra, including goal-directed reasoning skills, and debugging techniques.

Generic skills at work: implications for occupationally-oriented education

Changes in the modern workplace brought about by technology, management innovations, and increased competition in the global marketplace, have led to many concerns about the adequacy of workforce skills. Work organisation, for example, is increasingly characterised by the integration of traditionally separate functional roles (e.g. design, engineering, manufacturing); flatter organisational hierarchies with decentralisation of responsibility, and greater employee involvement. Innovation and speed are accomplished through teams of workers who monitor quality and take charge of reconfiguring the production process, thereby performing some of the supervisory, planning, repair, maintenance, and support functions previously done by managers or specialists. Compared to the traditional model of work, based largely on mass production, this new ‘flexible’ model is thought to require less supervision, but workers with higher and more varied skills (Berryman & Bailey, 1992).

Work-Based Learning: Student Perspectives on Quality and Links to School

Programs that incorporate work-based learning (WBL) experiences in connection with school activities are proliferating, yet we know very little about their quality as learning experiences for young people or the costs associated with participating in them. This article examines two programs operating in the same school district, where students receive course credit for participating in WBL. One program provides unpaid internships each year of high school; the other provides paid work experience for one semester. We contrast the kinds of learning opportunities each offers to students, as measured by a student survey and a case study of program operations. We focus on two issues: the quality of students’ work experiences in these programs and the relationship between program participation and school learning, including effects on school work and social experiences. We find that students perceive the quality of their work experiences to be very similar across the programs despite differences in the type of work involved and in several structural features of the programs. We find that both programs have weaknesses in establishing connections between school and work and that the number of hours students work negatively affects some aspects of school performance, such as having time to do homework and the desire to stay in school. Our findings raise questions about the value added of WBL, given costs associated with the program design and delivery and, in some cases, with participation.

Staff Development for Instructional Uses of Microcomputers.

AbstractThis paper sets forth recommendations for the topics and organization of preservice and inservice teacher training activities based on a review of the literature on staff development for computer-based instruction, and on the opinions gathered from 60 microcomputer-using teachers who were nominated as “successful” users of microcomputers in mathematics and science instruction. Teacher-taught, individualized, multi-session workshops, with “hands-on” practice, follow-up, and incentives for participation constitute important organizational features. Core topics for staff development include microcomputer operation, computer programming, computer literacy, selection and evaluation of courseware, and integration of computers with instruction.

Employing an ‘employer‐led’ design? An evaluation of the development of Diplomas

This paper presents some of the findings of an evaluation of the development of the first fourteen 14‐19 Diplomas in England. It focuses on the question whether the government’s aim to develop the new qualifications in an employer‐led way has been fulfilled. In order to answer this question, the paper evaluates the contributions of employers in the Diploma development process, the strategies used to engage employers and employers’ satisfaction with the outcome. The paper concludes that while employers have had a significant role in defining the content of Diplomas, they have been by no means leading or driving the overall process of qualification making. Due to the complex nature of the qualification system and the need for collaboration of a variety of actors, the role of employers may more accurately be described as key partners in the development process.

Computer-supported cooperative work: examples and issues in one federal agency

The increasing computerization of office work raises a number of questions about the technologys effect on individuals as well as the nature and organization of work. Organizations grapple daily with the realities of implementing advanced information systems, trying to understand how to best exploit the technology in the support of their goals. Such understanding is not trivial given rapid and continuous change in computerbased technologies and their often unpredictable capacity for changing the work of individuals, groups, and even organizations.

Ability and Strategy Differences in Map Learning

This paper describes the influence of individual differences in abilities and subject-selected techniques for learning maps. Verbal protocols were obtained from 25 subjects who differed in psychometrically measured spatial restructuring and visual memory abilities. These protocols suggested a number of learning procedures and strategies that subjects used to focus attention, encode information and evaluate their learning progress while studying a map. High ability subjects differed from low ability subjects in the overall strategies they adopted to approach the learning problem, in their use of imagery for encoding spatial information, and in ther subsequent recall of spatial attributes of the map.