Adviser Update Spring 2011

DOW JONES NEWS FUND SPRING 2011 VOLUME 51, NUMBER 4 INSIDE Copyright © 2011 Dow Jones News Fund, Inc. Update’s annual summer journalism workshop listing https://www.Newsfund.org A dd r e s s in g the Global Achievement Gap By DAVE CORNELIUS chools at all levels around the S world fail to prepare students for the workplace. ship Group at Harvard Graduate School of Education, defines the core 21st century survival skills as: • critical thinking and problem solving; • the ability to create, collaborate and communicate across media-rich networks and systems; • agility and adaptability; • initiative and entrepreneurship; • effective oral and written communication; • accessing and analyzing See GAP on page 2A P01.VV51.I04 oral and written form; and • students entering the work place (including those leaving university and graduate schools) are generally unable to produce immediate results. Business leaders recommend several core competencies or “survival skills” necessary for success in a 21st century workplace. These universal requirements are in addition to mastery of job-specific theoretical knowledge and technical skill. Dr. Tony Wagner, co-director of the Change Leader- black • 30 percent of available jobs internationally remain unfilled because companies are unable to find qualified talent; • 70 percent of students leaving school at all levels lack practical experience; • 56 percent of students leaving school lack any specific career training; • 58 percent lack a sense of work ethic and professional conduct; • 62 percent lack the ability to adequately communicate in both cyan Thirty percent of available jobs internationally remain unfilled because companies are unable to find qualified talent says Dr. Mona Mourshed during session on healing the ills of global higher education. information; and • curiosity and imagination. Increasingly, the worldwide challenges are remarkably similar. Wagner suggests three areas of global concern. Global equity must be achieved in the areas of basic literacy, access to education and availability of web-based access/infrastructure. The methodology of teaching and assessing knowledge and skills must be drastically overhauled to accommodate divergent learning styles as well as motivational and knowledge-based economy demands. The understanding of what magenta Dave Cornelius is the director of Digital Media Outreach Programs for High School Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He recently participated in Bahrain 2010 where he met with industry, government and education leaders from more than 50 countries. The general topics of discussion included educational reform, workplace development and 21st Century skills. yellow This was the clear message from business, government and education leaders of 50 nations participating in the Bahrain 2010 Global Education Conference. The global achievement gap between what industry expects and what education delivers is not caused by a lack of content but of context and practical application. The basic problem stems from the fact that educational institutions mistakenly interpret rigor as adding more difficult coursework rather than demanding mastery of existing content at all levels. They are also mired in an archaic assembly line system that fails to deal with the requirements of an agile, pulloriented, media-rich and increasingly accessible knowledge-based economy. The result is that both business and students are unhappy. Fewer jobs require a four-year degree. More jobs require a higher level of technical skill. All jobs require increased communication and collaboration skills. Productivity is less time and space dependent. Knowledge and information are commodities. Geographic and job mobility have increased. These shifting conditions leave students at all levels feeling increasingly unprepared to meet the challenges of a 21st century workplace. According to Dr. Mona Mourshed, partner and co-leader of Global Education Practice of McKinsey and Co.: