Curriculum designer combines the knowledge contents to be learned and skills set to be developed in designing the syllabi and creating positive learning environments. One school of thought is the skills set first. When students conduct active independent learning engagements, they develop the skills through their actions and *THEREAFTER* acquire knowledge.
Another school of thoughts considers knowledge an "a priori" requirement to develop skills.
Very likely, a third group would say both elements are essential like the two sides of a coin.
*I AM THINKING OUT ALOUD AND WELCOME YOUR OPIONIONS. PLEASE ELABORATE YOUR CONTEXT.*
Dear Francisco:
Like always you have posted a very interesting and intriguing question. I congratulate you to let us learn from learned opinions. Certainly scholars may take different positions depending socioeconomic conditions surrounding them. To me SKILL DEVELOPMENT relates application of certain skills to solve a practical problem like repairing computers, cars, having skills necessary in hospitality, skills to treat a patient or develop a device. Some of these and many more skills require either no particular knowledge for instance a computer operator or some basic knowledge to understand what is what and how can be handled for example a physician or surgeon has to learn biology, anatomy and many other things necessary for his skills. similarly to make a car or some other machine or building, one has to have some knowledge of physics, chemistry and mathematics, but all this knowledge is not his aim, his aim to understand how a machine, engine etc. works, may be constructed and repaired. In this with all apologies due to all, these persons may be said to be half educated.
On the other hand, knowledge means acquiring of specialty in a branch of knowledge with deep insight into related and peripheral areas so that his mental horizon is broaden and his/her knowledge experience is enriched. In this process he/she may develop a number of skills as how to operate an apparatus, if it is malfunctioning how to to repair and calibrate it and several others.
I have come to know that during Soviet era, brilliant students used to be retained as teachers in schools, colleges and universities, while others used to be trained according to their aptitude in different useful skills or professions.
I am of the school of "both sides of the coin". The craftsperson may approach the object of interest/study without any knowledge of the object, and not have the set of skills to achieve a manipulation of the object. However, as the craftsperson engages with the object, acquires increasing knowledge and skills towards manipulation of the object. Pragmatic approaches to problem solving result in dynamic movement towards and away from the object of interest until -- one could say -- mastery of the object is achieved. The outcome is simultaneous and complimentary acquisition of both knowledge and skill.
@ Mohammad Firoz Khan and @ Jonathan Edwards - I will give my personal opinions on the basis of my experiences and reflections *IN BITS AND PIECES*. People reading our discussions may find them "opinionated*. :-)
PERSONAL OPINION #1. Authorities and standards have set knowledge parameters (knowledge contents) and demand that the teacher covers them and assesses them. To ensure their comforts that students are really learning, the "rules" even cover percentage of coverage in assessment for specific contents.
Take for example Accounting. My personal conception of Accounting is as "salt." To illustrate, salt becomes more valuable when it is used as an essential component in cooking. Therefore Accounting is valuable when it is learned in interdisciplinary context. The PIECE (accounting) is valuable when it is part of the WHOLE.
Take again the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) which have become a jungle in itself. When I was teaching in Central Asia, my MBA students wanted to learn from experts. Some of them exhibited animosity when I told them that I do not even regard myself as an expert. Even if I am really an expert in a sense (and I am really an expert in that sense), I cannot and I do not consider myself an expert because the IFRS has become a beast. The knowledge content keeps on evolving to a point that an expert has to LEARN, RELEARN, and even UNLEARN the "trees" in the "jungle." (Besides, life is so short to devout learning of man-made knowledge that keeps on changing.) The unstability of the knowledge contents in IFRS will be meaningful only if the learner (the LIFELONG LEARNER in this instance) develops the right skills to cope with the learning now and into the future. Furthermore, each of the IFRS standards becomes meaningful if it is applied in actual context.
I am positively bias in favor of teaching less for students to learn more. I imagine the knowledge contents as a T shape with many shallow topics and one or few deep topics to learn. But authorities or standards imagine the contents as a long line written unevenly (some parts of the line are thick and others are thin) but nevertheless very long. Their traditional conception of "what good education is" contradicts my radical conception of authentic education.
Thus, as a curriculum designer, my challenge is to strike a balance in the acquisition of knowledge contents (e.g., T share or long uneven line) and development of skills.
What a great question! And what insightful answers! Tank you.
I agree with Francisco regarding the balance between the acquisition of knowledge contents and development of skills. Memorising facts (like city capitals, river names, or the times table) is quite useless... until you have a problem to deal with and those facts are put into action in the process of finding a solution. So, I would say that problem solving is a central skill to be developed. In maths education that also happens. Some authors believe that barely every mathematics can be learned by problem solving, so maths teachers can and should implement three kinds of methods: teaching for problem solving, teaching about problem solving and teaching trough problem solving.
But another issues arises when we consider the usefulness of some content, procedure or fact, again, in maths education. Up to mid 20th century, literacy was considered to be a fundamental leverage in facing the social and economical challenges. I think that after Paulo Freire's work (mid 60's and onward), it has become clearer that literacy - ant therefore, the outcome of every schooling intentions - is of vital importance at a political level.
I believe that, in these days, educational changes are huge political forces that governments use at their will to envision a certain perspective of society and prosperity. For instance, I see that a government that has a more liberal and socialist view may improve the access to education and stimulate critical thinking and therefore the development of skills. A government that has a more conservative view, promotes an educational system that aims at closing the access and selecting only the most fortunate ones and therefore the raw acquisition of knowledge, per se.
Dear Francisco & Helia:
Certainly you both are correct in your opinion with respect to a balance between knowledge and skill development. Let me again share with you that it has become phenomenon world over with governmental support (curriculum designing etc.) to place emphasis on skill development. It is especially in less developed or newly developed economies because theses are skills which accrue foreign exchange in the form of remittances or add to national GDP. In nutshell our education system is driven by economy. In my country, when a university department send its progress report, it is considered to write something about patents got by the department. There is also question regarding university and industry relationship in two senses: campus recruitment and financing by industry to projects. Society always respond to the government's initiative as it is question of livelihood. When government was major employer all the students prepared for administrative and clerical jobs. Then with development need of health care skills and engineering arose and everybody started to run after them. After liberalisation and globalisation management courses and software engineering became the focus. Of course, all these works and skills are necessary but in the process people (students) don,t know what they want to become themselves, they are moving like sheep herd and meanings of knowledge are lost. Helia, irrespective of governmental ideology, important point of yours is “access to education and stimulate critical thinking and therefore the development of skills.”
@ Mohammad Firoz Khan and Helia Jacinto - I need your insights.
Personally, I believe on development of skills first and the acquisition of knowledge next.
However, a government controlled polytechnic has collaboration with universities worldwide. These universities are "rigid" in their curricula and knowledge contents, such that the curriculum must be designed with emphasis on summative assessments in the form of examinations.
I do not believe in examination. So, during the second semester in Kazakhstan, I designed my curriculum radically for students to be active in learning in group and in a community of co-teachers and co-learners. The emphasis of assessment was the learning portfolio, project, mind maps, discussions, etc. About 2/3 dropped the course. Those who remained realized that they were able to maximize their learning that they have never experienced before. (But the "leaders" in the school were not that happy, I perceived.)
After reflecting on my experience and the demand of this polytechnic, which emphasizes knowledge contents, I have to adjust myself to balance both skills development (first) and knowledge contents (last). In this new academic environment, I might be criticized for being too radical. To them, it is knowledge first and then skills next. And not vice versa.
@ Jyotsna Vijapurkar and Helia Jacinto - I agree to your perspective. I should shift my linear perspective of Skills First (like critical thinking) and Knowledge Next. Instead both should be viewed as two sides of a coin. As you said, "they go hand in hand." This is the benefit of ResearchNet. We can think aloud and share and interact with people and everybody wins. I will not forget and am always reminded of what Helia said: "improve the access to education and stimulate critical thinking and therefore the development of skills."
Hello everyone! And thank you for your comments!
Francisco, the experience you described seems very interesting and I encourage you to continue it. Maybe those 2/3 who quit weren't used to think for themselves and weren't ready for such responsibility. It takes time to change...
Again regarding maths education, I believe in "mathematics for all" as a subset of "education for all". This means that every child should be allowed to study (maths) and to develop one's skills at its own pace in order to be a concerned and interventive citizen. I also think this is possible to envision because I am lucky enough to live in a free country, where human rights are mostly guaranteed and there are (almost) no gender issues...
This said, I totally agree with Jyotsna: maybe the best approach is a kind of an intertwining of knowledge and skills.
In fact, there may be a language issue that its worth discussing. What does "skill" means to you? In Europe the concept of "competence" arose a few years ago (see the work of Perrenoud, for instance) and it has influenced curriculum in many European countries. But I think there are (at least) two levels of skills or competences to consider: the ones that are broader (as "learn to learn", creative reasoning or critical thinking), and then there are the more specific ones, content related. So, regarding the latter, I see that the development of those skills are entirely related to the acquisition of knowledge.
And, again pursuing Jyotsna's idea, one can solve a mathematical problem (skill) if one has the appropriate mathematical tools (knowledge) and the knowledge is only apprehended or learnt when we put it into action. Are you familiar with Cultural-Historical Activity Theory applied to teaching/learning?
Knowledge with out skills is of no use. Skills can not be mastered and refined without knowledge.
@ Helia Jacinto - You have said that may be these 2/3 students are not used to thinking. In fact, not being used to thinking is inherent to a culture. For example, Hofstede found that Malaysia (first), Philippine (fourth), Russia (probably fifth or sixth) have very high Power/Distance index in the world. Culture with high PD does not want to think. They simply want to be told what to do. Without being exposed to different cultures, I would not have the chance to go deeper into the cultural implications of Hofstede.
Bibliography
Hofstede, G. (n.d.). What about the Russia? , 29 April 2013, from http://geert-hofstede.com/russia.html
Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J., & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and Organizations: Software for the Mind. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hi, Knowledge and skills are major elements of education. How knowledge and skills are applied is called attitude or it is the art of application of knowledge and skills. Knowledge, skills, and attitude refer to competence. Attitude counts cultural element. Knowledge and skills both exist in education process and attitude added into it. But which comes first, knowledge or skills depends on the curriculum design.
The way I think about this question is to consider both knowledge and skills as (internal) resources for action. There are two kinds of resources: internal (an individual’s existing knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivations, etc.) and external (human – e.g. teachers, parents, colleagues, etc. – and material – e.g. documentation, the internet, reference books, a computer, etc.). We judge a person to be “competent” on the basis of her actions (or “performance”) in typical situations that she is likely to encounter in her domain of expertise. To be “competent” is more than simply possessing the requisite repertoire of knowledge and skills; it is the ability to use (i.e. integrate, coordinate and mobilize) the appropriate knowledge and skills (from a wide variety of disciplines) in order to deal with the problem at hand.
The problem with the traditional curriculum, I believe, is not whether it emphasizes either knowledge or skills, but rather that (a) it organizes and isolates items of knowledge and skill into discrete subjects or disciplines (as if the minds of learners were like filing cabinets, with math in one drawer, science in another, language in yet another, and so on); (b) it then breaks down and sequences subject-matter content into discrete micro units from simple to complex; (c) by implication, the role of the teacher is to “transmit” these discrete units bit-by-bit, from simple to complex, on the assumption that once learners have gradually “accumulated” all the bits and pieces (of knowledge and skills), they will automatically be able to USE them intelligently to solve whatever problems they confront in their professional or personal lives.
The principle behind all this is “learn first (in school), and apply later (in life)”. The problem is that things don’t work this way, because knowledge and skills learned in isolation (through memorization and highly structured practice exercises in a classroom context) do not transfer to the complexities of real life. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Knowledge is about ‘why’ aspect of learning, whereas skills are about the procedural aspects of learning, i.e., about how aspects. As in other discussion on how to assess learning, knowledge is not merely about facts, it is about why that specific knowledge is important. When students make conceptual understanding of the knowledge-based behind a skills. To quote from the discussion “literature has shown that when someone understands WHY something is important to know, it becomes much easier to teach because they have context and can conditionalize what they are learning”. That is to conclude, a skill learned after master the conceptual frame underlying would a real skill learning.
How to assess learning: https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_much_is_one_years_worth_of_learning/2 [accessed Sep 15, 2015].
Each of them is important and cannot be underestimated. The acquisition of the knowledge, skills and attitudes are interconnected to help learners function very well in the world of work and as responsible members of the society.
Knowledge and concepts are a first step in teaching and acquiring skills.
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