Shariff Hasan Research and Learning Institute
Presents: Home and Community: learning and teaching method
Written by,
Shariff Hasan
In this short book the Shariff Hasan Research and Learning Institute has designed a learning model to solve the problem schools in North America have in providing the skill sets their students need for them to become more viable and provide greater contributions to the labor force in a global economy. Before we introduce the learning method we must first outline the structure of the overall problem.
The gap between the labor force and education is growing at a pace never seen before in North America. What is this gap and why is it happening? Education has traditionally provided students with skill sets applicable with the needs of businesses owners looking to redefine and expand their infrastructure for greater profit. In today's economy the employers are looking for employees with exceptional networking and people skills. Here is an article written by the New York Times discussing securing a job in today's economy:
Business Editors
Job seekers today believe they lack the required networking skills to secure a new job (40%) and hiring managers agree (94%), according to a New York Times Job Market survey, independently conducted by Beta Research Corporation, of 450 New York metropolitan-area hiring managers and job seekers.
“Only 6% of hiring managers believe networking skills are a strength of the job seekers they have seen in the past three months. Hiring managers consider networking important for job candidates seeking positions in the professions (87%), executive management (82%), senior management (69%), sales (68%) and in technology-related (50%), administrative (45%) and entry-level (37%) fields.
"I find employee referrals to be one of the most effective networking tools to assist job seekers," says Michael Scheidemann, a recruiting executive at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. "When I get referrals, I take almost immediate action to try to match the candidate with one of our open needs. In today's market, job seekers should target friends, alumni, or employees with similar skill sets in firms that they would like to work."
When asked what job seekers' greatest strengths are, the number one answer among hiring managers (31%) is "the right kind of training." Company recruiters believe this will continue to weigh heavily in their hiring decisions. For instance, the majority of hiring managers (67%) and job seekers (85%) believe that training is more important today than it was just 12 months ago”. ~The New York Times
The job market in the United States has changed because the operating infrastructure of businesses has changed and expanded its needs beyond US soil. Traditionally American businesses have prided themselves on hiring American employees to service the businesses and grow the US economy. Economic globalization has change this perspective for many American enterprises, because of strong labor laws and unions, business owners are now looking to manufacture the majority of their goods in China and other Asian countries.
A new report from the Economic Policy Institute argues that China is a big source of problems for the U.S.
The report, which studies jobs in the U.S. in relation to exports and imports from 2001 to 2007, states:
The growing U.S. trade deficit with China has displaced huge numbers of jobs in the United States and has been a prime contributor to the crisis in manufacturing employment over the past six years. Moreover, the United States is piling up foreign debt, losing export capacity, and facing a more fragile macroeconomic environment…
Between 2001 and 2007 2.3 million jobs were lost or displaced, including 366,000 in 2007 alone…
Because U.S. exports to China are much more commodity intensive (i.e., comprising products such as grains, steel scrap, and paper scrap) than Chinese imports (99% of which are manufactured products), average wages earned in jobs producing U.S. exports to China paid 4.4% less than the jobs displaced by imports from China. More than one-fourth of U.S. exports to China on a value basis were commodities…
Rapidly growing imports of computers and electronic parts accounted for almost half of the $178 billion increase in the U.S. trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2007. The $68 billion deficit in advanced technology products with China in 2007 was responsible for more than 25% of the total U.S.-China trade deficit. The growth of this deficit eliminated 561,000 U.S. jobs in computer and electronic products in this period. Other hard-hit industrial sectors include apparel and accessories (153,000 jobs), miscellaneous manufactured goods (134,000), and fabricated metal products (102,000); several service sectors were also hard hit by indirect job losses, including administrative support services (139,000) and professional, scientific, and technical services (128,000).
America is and always will be known globally for innovation and the ability to think outside the box for greater opportunity. Thinking out of the box is the basis of America as a democratic society. An easy way to visualize the future of the global economy is from the standpoint of seeing America as being responsible for creating new ideas to be sold through the Internet or other virtual distribution channels (intellectual properties), China as being responsible for manufacturing the ideas from America, and India as being responsible for all of the technical support for packaging, accounting, customer service etc. for the goods to be sold all over the world.
Much of the back-end technology and technical services are now being outsourced to India and parts of Africa due to globalization. A frequently cited report by Forrester Research estimates that the U.S. could lose 3.3 million jobs by 2015 to other countries as a result of outsourcing. With the pace of job creation in the U.S. still slacking and elections due November, politicians are playing up the rise in the number of jobs offshored as a campaign issue. India, sometimes called the back-office of the world with its cheap and high-skilled labor, is likely to have a 56% share of the projected $21.59 billion global offshoring market by 2006, estimates Indian credit rating agency ICRA Ltd. However, if there's more legislation in the U.S. restricting offshore call center services, that share could be significantly lower at 42%, says ICRA.
The gap between the United States labor force and the educational system is due to the shifting position of the United States economy in the age of globalization. United States companies are not looking to hire Americans to provide technical assistance because they can outsource those jobs to India for a 10th of the cost. American companies also look to China to provide physical manufacturing and packaging goods.
The skills needed most employers in today's workforce are networking and relationship building. This need results from the United States’ reduction in infrastructure and its focus more exclusively on providing intellectual properties for export and Global manufacturing. The process of developing the proper partnerships to export these intellectual properties is pervasively defined as networking skills and analysis of needs. Here is an article written by a law firm on the importance of networking:
The Importance of Networking and Relationship Building
Craig D. Sandok, Esq. - Search Consultant
THE ESQUIRE GROUP™
A Legal Search and Consulting Firm, Founded by an Attorney
Why network? It is the most powerful way to build professional relationships, actively foster contacts and disseminate information.
In 1994 it was estimated that the average person would change jobs 10.3 times during their life. In the year 2000, the average person would have three to five different career changes. These figures indicate that you better understand that people skills, personality, the ability to communicate, and the ability to build a network are key to keeping a job. Most major law firms and corporations now have marketing departments, an indication that people have to get along with people.
Statistics from the Federal Bureau of Labor indicate that 70 percent of all jobs are found through networking (personal contacts). A mere 15 percent are through a search firm, 10-12 percent through want ads, 4 percent have been found by people creating their own jobs, and 2 percent by blindly sending out resumes. More people are hired by being in the right place at the right time than for any other single reason. But you can't take advantage of that unless you stay in contact with your network. This is the main reason to have a network.
So how do you build and maintain a network? Most people personally know at least 250 other people, and have even more acquaintances. Harvey McKay, a well-known author and speaker, suggests keeping a rolodex of everyone you know and putting a little something about that person on each card. McKay also suggests that you update your rolodex on who you meet daily. Get to know other paralegals -- get involved in MPA and NFPA; go to Sectionals; get on a MPA committee currently meeting.
This could include the annual meeting, nominations and elections, winter gala, etc. Go out of your way to meet every single person that you have the opportunity to meet. Meeting new people will be easier for some than for others, but it will be worth your while. If networking is hard for you, start on a smaller scale - but start! The other thing I must say is be genuine, because people know if you are a phony. For some, it may take reading books to learn to genuinely like and meet new people.
Volunteering can help people who are shy or who find it hard to meet new people break out of their shells. Volunteering will afford you a smaller group to start and then you can build on that. Plus volunteering will build self-esteem and confidence faster than anything else because you are helping others. Always deliver more than you are asked to deliver.
Beware of networking errors. (1) Be sincere; (2) Don't ask for (or expect) payback; (3) Respect other people's time; (4) Follow through on promises; (5) Use special care with referred 'friends'; (6) Don't make disparaging jokes; (7) Err on the side of politeness and formality; (7) Don't wait to be properly introduced - practice a self-introduction; and (8) Say thank-you.
Even if you aren't looking for a job, it is always important to keep adding to your network -- both inside and outside your industry. Why? Networking allows you to be in a position to win and be in with the decision makers who are making things happen. You can't take advantage of that unless you position yourself to win by staying in contact with your network.
One of the more important sayings I've heard is, "It is not what you know, it is not who you know, it is what you know about who you know." Another saying that we have all heard, "They don't care what you know until they know that you care"!
I want to end with this - did you see the movie Erin Brockovich? Without giving anything away, do you know why Erin was so successful? It wasn't because of the way she dressed (and I don't recommend dressing like that), or the way she spoke -- because she definitely could have used better language. It wasn't her education either, although she was very smart. It was the fact that she really cared for others, could relate to them, and others trusted her with everything they had. So above all else, you need to honestly care about what you are doing and learn to relate and work with people.
Because of immigration the United States population over the last 50 years has become tremendously diverse this has created a greater need for the school system to teach comprehensive social skills. Most US schools have struggled to provide congruent learning methods to integrate proper social skills which in a business environment are referred to as networking abilities.
Statistics show that cooperative learning and group efforts propel the students’ aptitude at a much higher level of proficiency than the traditional means of individual study. The Shariff Hasan Research and Learning Institute has designed curriculums focused on the method of achieving an answer and how to refine and improve the process. Here is a researched article by educators on needed educational methods:
Based on the relevant research in the context of constructivist principles, I have formulated some general principles of learning statistics:
Students learn by constructing knowledge.
Many research studies conducted both in education and in psychology support the theory that students learn by constructing their own knowledge, not by passive absorption of information (Resnick, 1987, von Glasersfeld, 1987) Regardless of how clearly a teacher or book tells them something, students will understand the material only after they have constructed their own meaning for what they are learning. Moreover, ignoring, dismissing, or merely ``disproving" the students' current ideas will leave them intact - and they will outlast the thin veneer of course content.
Students do not come to class as ``blank slates" or ``empty vessels" waiting to be filled, but instead approach learning activities with significant prior knowledge. In learning something new, they interpret the new information in terms of the knowledge they already have, constructing their own meanings by connecting the new information to what they already believe. Students tend to accept new ideas only when their old ideas do not work, or are shown to be inefficient for purposes they think are important.
Students learn by active involvement in learning activities.
Research shows that students learn better if they are engaged in, and motivated to struggle with, their own learning. For this reason, if no other, students appear to learn better if they work cooperatively in small groups to solve problems and learn to argue convincingly for their approach among conflicting ideas and methods (National Research Council, 1989). Small-group activities may involve groups of three or four students working in class to solve a problem, discuss a procedure, or analyze a set of data. Groups may also be used to work on an in-depth project outside of class. Group activities provide opportunities for students to express their ideas both orally and in writing, helping them become more involved in their own learning.
Students learn to do well only what they practice doing.
Practice may mean hands-on activities, activities using cooperative small groups, or work on the computer. Students also learn better if they have experience applying ideas in new situations. If they practice only calculating answers to familiar, well-defined problems, then that is all they are likely to learn. Students cannot learn to think critically, analyze information, communicate ideas, make arguments, tackle novel situations, unless they are permitted and encouraged to do those things over and over in many contexts. Merely repeating and reviewing tasks is unlikely to lead to improved skills or deeper understanding (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1989).
Teachers should not underestimate the difficulty students have in understanding basic concepts of probability and statistics.
Many research studies have shown that ideas of probability and statistics are very difficult for students to learn and often conflict with many of their own beliefs and intuitions about data and chance (Shaughnessy, 1992; Garfield & Ahlgren, 1988).
Teachers often overestimate how well their students understand basic concepts.
A few studies have shown that although students may be able to answer some test items correctly or perform calculations correctly, they may still misunderstand basic ideas and concepts. For example, Garfield and delMas (1991) found that when students were asked whether a sample of 10 tosses or 100 tosses of a fair coin was more likely to have exactly 70%heads, students tended to correctly choose the small sample, which seemed to indicate that they understood that small samples are more likely to deviate from the population than are large samples. When asked the same questions about whether a large, urban hospital or a small, rural hospital is more likely to have 70%boys born on a particular day, students responded that both hospitals were equally likely to have 70%boys born on that day, indicating that students could not transfer their understanding to a more real-world context.
Learning is enhanced by having students become aware of and confront their misconceptions.
Students learn better when activities are structured to help students evaluate the difference between their own beliefs about chance events and actual empirical results (delMas and Bart, 1989; Shaughnessy, 1977). If students are first asked to make guesses or predictions about data and random events, they are more likely to care about the actual results. When experimental evidence explicitly contradicts their predictions, they should be helped to evaluate this difference. In fact, unless students are forced to record and then compare their predictions with actual results, they tend to see in their data confirming evidence for their misconceptions of probability. Research in physics instruction also points to this method of testing beliefs against empirical evidence (e.g., Clement, 1987).
Calculators and computers should be used to help students visualize and explore data, not just to follow algorithms to predetermined ends.
Computer-based instruction appears to help students learn basic statistics concepts by providing different ways to represent the same data set (e.g., going from tables of data to histograms to boxplots) or by allowing students to manipulate different aspects of a particular representation in exploring a data set (e.g., changing the shape of a histogram to see what happens to the relative positions of the mean and median) (Rubin, Rosebery &Bruce, 1988). Instructional software may be used to help students understand abstract ideas. For example, students may develop an understanding of the Central Limit Theorem by constructing various populations and observing the distributions of statistics computed from samples drawn from these populations. The computer can also be used to improve students' understanding of probability by allowing them to explore and represent models, change assumptions and parameters for these models, and analyze data generated by applying these models (Biehler, 1991).
Students learn better if they receive consistent and helpful feedback on their performance.
Learning is enhanced if students have opportunities to express ideas and get feedback on their ideas. Feedback should be analytical, and come at a time when students are interested in it. There must be time for students to reflect on the feedback they receive, make adjustments, and try again (AAAS, 1989). For example, evaluation of student projects may be used as a way to give feedback to students while they work on a problem during a course, not just as a final judgment when they are finished with the course (Garfield, in press). Since statistical expertise typically involves more than mastering facts and calculations, assessment should capture students' ability to reason, communicate, and apply, their statistical knowledge. A variety of assessment methods should be used to capture the full range of students' learning (e.g., written and oral reports on projects, minute papers reflecting students' understanding of material from one class session, or essay questions included on exams). Teachers should become proficient in developing and choosing appropriate methods that are aligned with instruction, and should be skilled in communicating assessment results to students (Webb &Romberg, 1992). For a variety of classroom assessment techniques designed to help instructors better understand and improve their students' learning, see Angelo and Cross (in press).
Students learn to value what they know will be assessed.
Another reason to expand assessment beyond the exclusive use of traditional tests is that students will only apply themselves to those skills and activities on which they know they will be evaluated. If students know they will be evaluated on their ability to critique and communicate statistical information, or work collaboratively on a group project, they will be more willing to invest themselves in improving skills required by these activities.
These learning ideas can be backed up on article written about interdependence in today's economy:
Another of the most basic terms in the study of economics is Interdependence. It is a big word, but it means "dependent on others for some needs." In other words, you can't produce everything you need.
If you live on a farm, you might grow all your own fruits and vegetables. You might have cows and chickens to give you milk and eggs. You might have pigs to give you meat. You might not ever need to go to a grocery store for food. But you probably don't make your own farm equipment. You are dependent on someone else for those things. If someone else didn't make the hoes and the rakes and the tractors that your family uses, you wouldn't be able to produce all that food.
And unless you live on a farm, you are dependent on others for all kinds of food. Farmers today usually specialize in one or a few kinds of food that they grow to sell to other people. Rarely do you see one farm that sells fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy products. A farmer might grow several different kinds of fruits or a few different kinds of vegetables. This farmer then sells these fruits or vegetables to grocery stores or markets or even other countries.
Some food grows better in certain areas of the world. Rice grows very well in China and in Southeast Asia. It doesn't grow so well in the African desert. So, many people who live in China and Southeast Asia grow rice, which they then sell to people around the world. If you live in the African desert and you want to eat rice, you are dependent on other people to grow that rice and sell it to you.
What else do you use in your daily life? Do you listen to a radio or watch television? Someone else probably made that and you or your family bought it. Those books and comic books you read were written, printed, and sold by someone else. All you did was buy them. If you want to listen to the radio, watch TV, or read a book, you are dependent on someone else to make those things.
What about the clothes you wear? Those are probably made by other people. (Some people still make many of their own clothes, though.) If you or your family doesn't make all its own clothes, then you probably buy clothes at a store or a market. These clothes are made by other people, either in your country or in other countries. Again, we see the idea of dependence. You depend on other people to make the clothes you wear.
In fact, we can now talk about the idea of interdependence. Things like food, clothing, radios, TVs, and books are made by people all around the world. Some people can make things better than others. Some foods grow more easily in some countries than in others.
If you are a farmer who grows vegetables, you will want to spend all your time growing vegetables because you can make money doing it. You won't want to spend your time trying to grow other kinds of food that don't grow well in the area where you live. So, you grow and sell your vegetables and buy the other kinds of food you eat. If you work at a factory that makes radios, then your company will want to spend its time making radios and not trying to also grow its own food. Your company makes a lot of radios and buys the food it feeds you and your fellow workers.
What does all this mean? Interdependence is the idea that you as a person depend on other people for certain things. The same is true of families, towns, and even countries. The people who use their own hands to make everything they could ever want are rare these days. More common are people like you, who get different things from different people. Interdependence is a big word; now you know what it means.
Graphics courtesy of ArtToday
Home and Community: learning and teaching method
Global and local community interdependence is the future, and current reality, for local and
global economies. Global and local community interdependence has existed since the beginning of time, but through the innovations of technology the awareness of this interdependence has never been more realized by the average citizen of any country in the world. In order to develop children capable of competing in the marketplace, with this newly heightened awareness of global interdependence, we must teach and develop learning methods to teach the thinking patterns necessary to contribute solutions for the needs of the marketplace. Home and Community is a learning structure that promotes a mode of thinking where students view themselves and their environment as valuable commodities that can be packaged and exported domestically and abroad for their individual economic freedom.
Students are required to work in teams of two/pairs (home)
Working with others is one of the biggest tools needed to navigate in today's interdependent society. The students’ working in pairs establishes the learning system an individual needs in order to incorporate this ideology in their lives and community.
Students are required to assess each other's strengths and weaknesses in both personality traits and learning comprehension.
Analyzing and accepting the strengths and weaknesses of an individual student is the foundation necessary for the student to navigate and explore various opportunities for solutions in their individual lives. Students have to be trained to understand that most opportunities for contribution exist within the weakness in the infrastructure.
Students are required to contribute their strengths to their partner’s weaknesses. (For example) Student A and Student B utilize a research sheet listing a series of self-evaluation questions. The activity of obtaining the series of answers revealed to the students, from the questionnaire provided by the instructor, creates a system of tolerance and support between students and community/classroom.
The students are given a series of questions by instructor/teacher within a particular subject matter. The instructor/teacher is empowered the most by the research data accumulated by the students. The research data gives the teacher an opportunity to understand the students as individuals and to design the curriculum and assessments to maximize strengths and overcome weaknesses.
The students have to analyze what tools are needed to achieve answers for the list of questions. What are tools? Tools are entities which give an individual access for a solution or completion of the task. Being posed by the
instructor/teacher with the question or challenge the students are required to analyze what tools are available in an environment which will enhance their chances of finding a solution or answer.
The students have to assess their strengths and weaknesses as it relates to utilizing the tools needed to answer the questions. With a strong focus on technology, the teachers/instructor will create a system within the parameters of the student’s strengths and weaknesses to access the Internet, books from the local library, and knowledgeable people within the community to gain answers/solutions for their questions.
Students have to create cooperative roles within their teams to maximize each other's skill sets to best utilize the tools needed to answer the questions. Learning and practicing proactive tools within a group learning effort between students serves to benefit the student far outside of the classroom and into the work force and community living.
Upon achieving an answer the team presents their answer to the rest of the teams in the classroom (community). Sharing solutions is the basis of all technological and social innovations students will learn hands-on how to apply this tool of sharing into their lives.
The students watching the presentation are required to analyze the similarities and differences within the methods used by their peers in achieving their solution as well as the steps within the process of revealing the answer. Studying the success and failures of others is the basis of all historical learning and the foundation of future innovation.
Using their analysis, the students (community) are challenged by the teacher/instructor to see if any of the methods used by the other presenting teams could have helped their team (home) to produce a better solution. In this exercise the students are taught by the instructor how to see the positive attributes in a created system or process and how to discard the inefficient processes within the same system.
In conclusion:
Networking
Interpersonal relationships
Research and implementation
Are statistically proven as the new skill sets needed by individuals seeking to contribute optimum value in the job market. This learning structure is applicable to any subject matter an instructor desires to teach of group of students.
