Skills and Educational Jargon

As I noted in my previous blog, it is important that any list of skills uses language that students, parents and employers would use when they talk to each other. I also noted the contrast between the terms used in our 10 skill sets and terms used by government officials, professional educators and academics. As skills trainers, teachers need to have students take responsibility for developing their skills, but in order to do so, students must be able to understand the terms used. Since “taking responsibility” is the first of the 10 skill sets, keeping students in the dark about skills they need to develop does not make sense. If students understand what they are supposed to be learning, they will be more motivated to learn it.