Meeting the Demands of the Workplace: Science Students and Written Skills

Gray, F. Elizabeth; Emerson, Lisa; MacKay, Bruce R.

doi:10.1007/s10956-005-8087-y

Cited by 49 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Engineers recommended additional instruction on making oral presentations and writing, rather than more engineering in the engineering curriculum (Jonassen et al 2006). Our study suggests that STEM education programs can create a continuous cycle where students practice communicating in learning contexts (Gray et al 2005) and get frequent professional feedback from peers and educators using a peer-and self-assessment for writing, speaking and collaboration. This system for getting frequent feedback might promote students' learning substantially (Black and Wiliam 1998).…”

Section: Implications For Stem Educationmentioning

confidence: 94%

Identifying 21st Century STEM Competencies Using Workplace Data

2015

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Gaps between Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education and required workplace skills have been identified in industry, academia, and government. Educators acknowledge the need to reform STEM education to better prepare students for their future careers. We pursue this growing interest in the skills needed for STEM disciplines and ask whether frameworks for 21st century skills and engineering education cover all of important STEM competencies. In this study, we identify important STEM competencies and evaluate the relevance of current frameworks applied in education using the standardized job-specific database operated and maintained by the United States Department of Labor. Our analysis of the importance of 109 skills, types of knowledge and work activities, revealed 18 skills, seven categories of knowledge, and 27 work activities important for STEM workers. We investigate the perspectives of STEM and non-STEM job incumbents, comparing the importance of each skill, knowledge, and work activity for the two groups. We aimed to condense dimensions of the 52 key areas by categorizing them according to the Katz and Kahn (1978) framework and testing for inter-rater reliability. Our findings show frameworks for 21st century skills and engineering education do not encompass all important STEM competencies. Implications for STEM education programs are discussed, including how they can bridge gaps between education and important workplace competencies.

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Section: Implications For Stem Educationmentioning

confidence: 94%

Identifying 21st Century STEM Competencies Using Workplace Data

2015

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“…Science communication training makes a crucial difference to how scientific and technical knowledge is circulated and received (Longnecker, 2009). Furthermore, surveys from a range of English-speaking countries show that employers consistently rank oral and written communication abilities highly, and even more highly than, quantitative or technical skills (Gray, Emerson & MacKay, 2005). Additionally, it has been noted that many enterprises reflect that they do not want technical "boffins" or operators who cannot communicate about their work with peers (DEST, 2002;Longnecker, 2009).…”

Section: Teaching Oral Communication and Presentation Skills In Undermentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching oral communication in undergraduate science: Are we doing enough and doing it right?

Chan

2011

JLD

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“…This is particularly concerning given that the achievement of complex learning outcomes, such as communication skills, necessitates a coherent whole of degree program focus (Yorke & Knight, 2006) with iterative opportunities to practice and develop such skills. This conclusion offers support, and a potential curriculum-based explanation for, the complaints from many sectors that science graduates are not prepared for the communicative requirements of the modern-day workplace (Gray et al, 2005;Herok et al, 2013;McInnis et al, 2000;Zou, 2014).…”

Section: Is There Coherence In Bsc Programs?mentioning

confidence: 75%

“…A report prepared for the Australian Council of Deans of Science found that analytical, technical, and problem-solving skills along with science content knowledge are being taught successfully but communication skills (oral, interpersonal, and written) consistently are falling short of requirements (McInnis, Hartley, & Anderson, 2000). Similarly, research shows that science graduates and employers from across Australia and New Zealand have found that training received by undergraduate science students does not reflect the reality of workplace requirements (Gray, Emerson, & MacKay, 2005;McInnis et al, 2000). Champagne and Klopfer (1974)-40 years ago-argued the need for evidence-based approaches to evaluating educational practices as an important source of insight for developing new science curriculum.…”

Section: Communication Skills As a Graduate Learning Outcomementioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching Scientists to Communicate: Evidence-based assessment for undergraduate science education

Mercer-Mapstone

Kuchel

2015

International Journal of Science Education

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Communication skills are one of five nationally recognised learning outcomes for an Australian Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree. Previous evidence indicates that communication skills taught in Australian undergraduate science degrees are not developed sufficiently to meet the requirements of the modern-day workplace-a problem faced in the UK and USA also. Curriculum development in this area, however, hinges on first evaluating how communication skills are taught currently as a base from which to make effective changes. This study aimed to quantify the current standard of communication education within BSc degrees at Australian research-intensive universities. A detailed evidential baseline for not only what but also how communication skills are being taught was established. We quantified which communication skills were taught and assessed explicitly, implicitly, or were absent in a range of undergraduate science assessment tasks (n = 35) from four research-intensive Australian universities. Results indicate that 10 of the 12 core science communication skills used for evaluation were absent from more than 50% of assessment tasks and 77.14% of all assessment tasks taught less than 5 core communication skills explicitly. The design of assessment tasks significantly affected whether communication skills were taught explicitly. Prominent trends were that communication skills in tasks aimed at non-scientific audiences were taught more explicitly than in tasks aimed at scientific audiences, and the majority of group and multimedia tasks taught communication elements more explicitly than individual, or written and oral tasks. Implications for science communication in the BSc and further research are discussed.

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Meeting the Demands of the Workplace: Science Students and Written Skills

Cited by 49 publications

References 5 publications

Identifying 21st Century STEM Competencies Using Workplace Data

Identifying 21st Century STEM Competencies Using Workplace Data

Teaching oral communication in undergraduate science: Are we doing enough and doing it right?

Teaching Scientists to Communicate: Evidence-based assessment for undergraduate science education

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