A small percentage contemplate academic graduate study, but only the tiniest fraction have any concept of liberal education and its potential importance in their lives. And potential employers of graduates at all levels have definite expectations for the skills and abilities of their employees. Since these employers collectively influence support for and accountability from institutions of higher education, public or private, it behooves us to pay attention to what they want.
Here is what employers want, expressed in seven ''skill groups'' [ 3 ]: The foundation: knowing how to learn Competence: reading, writing, and computation Communication: listening and speaking Adaptability: creative thinking and problem-solving Personal management: self esteem, goal setting and motivation, personal and career development Group effectiveness: interpersonal skills, negotiation, and teamwork Influence: organizational effectiveness and leadership With the possible exception of item 2, this is very different from what educators usually think of as ''basic skills.
Why is calculus so hard? What math is higher than calculus? Is Trig harder than algebra? Which is harder physics or calculus?
What is harder math or physics? Is physics harder than pre calculus? Do you have to be good at math to be good at physics? Is physics a useless degree? How do I become really good at math? At what age can Humans usually show math abilities? What age can a child count backwards from ? I realized going in that I had everything to lose.
My own dignity, the reputation of The Tech, Environmental Engineers, the lacrosse team, Next House, the Freshman Urban Program, and most importantly the respect of Nora Buchanan, who taught me this stuff back in my senior year of high school.
After a long string of personal foolish mishaps, such as locking myself out of my dorm room, going to the wrong test room, and forgetting a pencil, I finally got into half an hour late. I was nervous that today wasn't going to be the day to test my intelligence. For full effect, I wore my South Lakes High School Seniors shirt to make my freshman appearance all the more convincing. The overseer eagerly accepted my apology about tardiness I didn't even have to use my excuse about being at a mandatory event and let me sit in the fourth row.
I felt pleased to appear so young. Miraculously, the graduate student who asked to see my ID Card did not notice that it expired in and not Thus I was able to finish the test without incident. A big boost of confidence hit me after I breezed through the first two pages of the test.
I was halfway done in half the time allotted to the freshmen! When a tough problem arose, I found that most of my time was spent recalling classes from BC calculus, not really applying examples that I had learned. Of course disaster had to hit. Retto permalink. Farhan Chowdhury permalink.
Peter permalink. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. Email required Address never made public. Name required. Daily Quanta my daily photoblog about teaching math and physics A Quantum of Learning a tumblr I use to record interesting snippits of learning. Follow Following. Quantum Progress Join other followers.
Sign me up. Already have a WordPress. Log in now. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
0コメント