The following information is from an excerpt from "Toward a More Comprehensive Conception of College Readiness". It provides an interesting perspective of the skills that are essential for college readiness.
Intellectual
openness:
The student possesses curiosity and a thirst for deeper understanding,
questions the views of others when those views are not logically supported,
accepts constructive criticism, and changes personal views if warranted by the
evidence. Such open mindedness helps students understand the ways in which
knowledge is constructed, broadens personal perspectives and helps students
deal with the novelty and ambiguity often encountered in the study of new subjects
and new materials.
Inquisitiveness: The
student engages in active inquiry and dialogue about subject matter and
research questions and seeks evidence to defend arguments, explanations, or
lines of reasoning. The student does not simply accept as given any assertion
that is presented or conclusion that is reached, but asks why things are so.
Analysis: The
student identifies and evaluates data, material, and sources for quality of
content, validity, credibility, and relevance. The student compares and contrasts
sources and findings and generates summaries and explanations of source
materials.
Reasoning,
argumentation, proof: The student constructs well-reasoned
arguments or proofs to explain phenomena or issues; utilizes recognized forms
of reasoning to construct an argument and defend a point of view or conclusion;
accepts critiques of or challenges to assertions; and addresses critiques and
challenges by providing a logical explanation or refutation, or by
acknowledging the accuracy of the critique or challenge.
Interpretation: The
student analyzes competing and conflicting descriptions of an event or issue to
determine the strengths and flaws in each description and any commonalities
among or distinctions between them; synthesizes the results of an analysis of
competing or conflicting descriptions of an event or issue or phenomenon into a
coherent explanation; states the interpretation that is most likely correct or
is most reasonable, based on the available evidence; and presents orally or in
writing an extended description, summary, and evaluation of varied perspectives
and conflicting points of view on a topic or issue.
Precision
and accuracy: The student knows what type of precision is
appropriate to the task and the subject area, is able to increase precision and
accuracy through successive approximations generated from a task or process
that is repeated, and uses precision appropriately to reach correct conclusions
in the context of the task or subject area at hand.
Problem
solving:
The student develops and applies multiple strategies to solve routine problems,
generate strategies to solve non-routine problems, and applies methods of
problem solving to complex problems requiring method-based problem solving.
These habits of mind are broadly representative of the foundational elements
that underlie various “ways of knowing.”
These skills are at the heart of how postsecondary faculty members
think, and how they think about their subject areas. Without the capability to
think in these ways, the entering college student either struggles mightily
until these habits begin to develop or misses out on the largest portion of
what college has to offer, which is how to think about the world.
