You will find many references to ‘skills? in this unit. Before we explain how we will be using this word, we would like you to think about what you understand is meant by ‘skills?.
Spend a few moments thinking about what you associate with the word ‘skills?. Write down, as quickly as possible, what you connect this word with. There are no right or wrong answers; we just want you to put your ideas down in your Learning Journal.
As with many of the activities in this unit, we have no way of knowing what your answer might include ? that is why keeping your activity notes together is so important to help you recall your thoughts. You might like to compare the range of ideas you included with the discussion in the rest of this section.
One aspect of this activity is that it highlights how studying often includes a concern to work out what words mean and how they are being used.
The problem with the word ‘skills? is that it can be, and is, used in very many different ways. This might be the case in your response to Activity 2. There is one aspect that sees skills as something that we are good at doing. We might say that someone is a skilled football player or cook. This may be connected with work. We might need particular skills to do a certain type of work. Some jobs need specialised skills; for example, the skills required to work as a brain surgeon are very different to those needed to work as an airline pilot. Beyond this there is the idea that some skills are needed in most jobs; for example, both the brain surgeon and the pilot need to be able to communicate with other people. These skills are sometime called transferable skills (because you can use them in many different settings).
In this unit, we also want you to think about the skills you use as a student. This unit aims to develop your confidence in skills that are useful for successful study. However, we also want you to think about the skills you have already. This means that in Learning to change there are two sets of skills for you to think about.
The first set comprises the skills that are used on a day-to-day basis in the ‘real world?. As there are many of these we have decided to focus on three very important ones:
In this unit we will refer to these as ‘everyday? or ‘real world? skills.
The second set of skills includes the skills that are more associated with studying. These are:
In this unit we will refer to these skills as ‘academic? skills.
It may look quite neat and tidy to have these two sets of skills listed in this way. But doing this can cause difficulties. Calling the first set ‘real world? or ‘everyday? skills and the second set ‘academic? skills might imply that the real world and study are completely separate from each other. Yet this unit looks at how you interact with the world. This is not so different from many other academic subjects which also explore different ways of making sense of the world. However, many people do see the real and the academic worlds as being completely different from each other. This can act to put them off from participating in academic study. The separate lists might also imply that real world and academic study use different skills. This can reinforce the belief that academic skills are of little or no value in the real world.
We ask you, in this unit, to question both these notions. We think that many ‘everyday? skills can be useful in becoming a successful student and that ‘academic? skills can have useful applications in everyday life. Using academic skills in this broader context can also help you see yourself as a student.
‘Reflection? is something that is important in the real world and for studying. In this unit, you will find that we refer to ‘reflection? quite often. This is the time you spend thinking about what you have done, or how effective your approach to study has been so that you can do better next time. But reflection is useful in the real world, where it is often the basis of people changing how they work. This means that it is found in paid work, where, for example, social workers and nurses have to develop as ‘reflective practitioners?. Reflection can also be an important aspect of some unpaid or voluntary work, such as counselling.
The next activity helps you to reflect on your study of this section.
Think about how you felt about Activities 1 and 2 and the comments afterwards. Next time you come across the words ‘learning? and ‘skills? will you approach them differently?
Jot down a few notes in your Learning Journal summarising your thoughts.
People learn in different ways and it is important for you to try different approaches, to find out which methods work best for you. You might find that you are able to get through some parts quite quickly; at other times you might need to read something more than once and still have to ask your tutor to explain it.
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