After watching “Most Likely to Succeed” I was reaffirmed in my teaching pedagogy and inspired to continue to focus on skill development in my Careers classes.  I was also inspired to do more research on the development of “soft skills” and how they facilitate career preparation and readiness.

The documentary began by shedding light on the school system in its ‘original state’ which is characterized by cramming material and curriculum content into students and then measuring success with test scores.  As the documentary states, Test scores “show nothing about work, learning, citizenship readiness” (Most LIkely to Succeed, 2015).  

Another perspective of the detriment of this type of structure was learned about in my Specialization in Indigenous Studies that I studied at UVic, as we discussed this idea in great length.  The original structure of the school system is linear, content-heavy, and assessment was primarily in the form of tests.  For many Indigenous cultures, this is a stark contrast from the traditions of learning they are accustomed to.  In traditional Canadian Indigenous cultures, one learns from watching their elders, slowly learning skills through mimicry and daily practice.  Examples include their daily necessary activities: carving, basket weaving, hunting animals, fishing, gathering nuts and berries, and building structures.  The “testing” in these scenarios is highly formative, as kids would learn the mistakes they make along the way by having their elders show them, patiently, and help them correct and navigate their skills.  The ultimate test would be their ability to succeed in the form of creation: can they make a paddle on their own?  Are they able to hunt an animal and skin it?  Are they able to show skill acquisition for the purpose of survival and to thrive as a community member?  As mentioned in the documentary, “Most Likely to Succeed”, the SAT is supposed to test critical thinking as they’ve standardized it.  Students want to answer creatively in multiple approaches and “to do well on the test, you have to answer in a singular way” (Most LIkely to Succeed, 2015).  The idea of content-retention and testing is entirely dichotomous to an Indigenous way of learning and marginalizes our Canadian Indigenous students.

The documentary goes on to provide quantitative data to back their claims that memorization of content does not equate to knowledge retention or skill acquisition.  In a study conducted at the Lawrence Phil Academy, students didn’t remember information three months after a test and “Major concepts that they had “presumably mastered” were gone” (Most LIkely to Succeed, 2015).  As their average grade fell from B+ to an F, the researcher states that 90% of the inert knowledge (information you memorize for a test) is forgotten after one to three months. 

“We’re taught NOT to learn but to MEMORIZE

Nothing could be worse for your future or your soul”

(Most LIkely to Succeed, 2015). 

The documentary highlights the contributors to success aren’t in content-retention and testing but rather in a development of “soft skills”.  I valued their introduction of viewpoints from various successful information technology companies including Google and Khan Academy.  In the documentary, the representative from Google stated that when they’re hiring, they don’t always look at the person with the best grades: “some of the smartest people aren’t necessarily good at working with others” (Most LIkely to Succeed, 2015).  

Khan Academy gave the following skills as their guide for hiring:

  • “giving and receiving feedback
  • what are their logical and critical thinking skills
  • what’s their ability to communicate
  • how curious is this person
  • how self aware is this person”

We shifted the curriculum in 2016 to be more focused on SKILL development, rather than content.  Yet, I walk by classrooms and still see kids sitting, doing worksheets.  I still hear teachers giving quizzes, tests and midterms.  I still see the students being tested on their content knowledge.  There are a couple of teachers I work with that embrace the concepts of skill development and formative assessment with the emphasis on growth rather than perfection.  Many teachers are embracing project-based learning and inquiry.  In the article “Let’s Get Ready For Work – Employability Skills Development in an IS Capstone Project” the researchers solidify that soft skills are preparing graduate students for success in the workplace.  Gafni (2023) states, “The importance of soft skills in the Information Systems industry is not an arguable fact and has been broadly discussed both in the industry and the academic literature. The ability of professionals to collaborate, communicate, manage time, negotiate, solve problems, make decisions, and self-learning, called employability skills, are essential skills needed in today’s industry. The development of these skills during undergraduate studies is essential for graduate students’ readiness for work” (p. 235).  Although they are referencing graduate students in the study, they speak to the same “soft skills” that have been recognized as the focus of our curriculum, by way of our “Core Competencies.”  The core competencies in our British Columbia curriculum are: Communication, Collaboration, Thinking: Creative and Critical, Personality and Social Responsibility.  The “Competency development does not end with school graduation but continues in personal, social, educational, and workplace contexts” (Core Competencies | Building Student Success – B.C. Curriculum, n.d.).  The government perspectives align with the article that states, “The ability of professionals to collaborate, communicate, manage time, negotiate, solve problems, make decisions, and self-learning, called employability skills, are essential skills needed in today’s industry. The development of these skills during undergraduate studies is essential for graduate students’ readiness for work” (Gafni et al., 2023, p. 235). Our students are heading into a dynamic world and an evolving workforce that will require them to have complex critical and creative thinking skills and strong communication skills.  I was enlightened by this documentary and the subsequent research I did to enhance my understanding of soft skills and how they benefit students in their education, workplace, and their futures.

The question that I ask many of my students, often is
 “What defines success?”  For many of my students, they consistently answer with responses like: “To find a job and make lots of money.”  In our current knowledge economy, we don’t “find” jobs; we create them.  It’s possible to go down one particular career path and find yourself doing something else entirely. I am motivated to prepare my students for success and help them navigate their futures.

References:

Core Competencies | Building Student Success—B.C. Curriculum. (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2024, from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies

Gafni, R., Leiba, M., & Sherman, S. (2023). Let’s Get Ready for Work – Employability Skills Development in an IS Capstone Project. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 22, 235–261. https://doi.org/10.28945/5157

Most LIkely to Succeed. (2015). Retrieved January 14, 2024, from https://webapp.library.uvic.ca/videos/view.php?vfn=Most-Likely-To-Succeed-(2015).mp4

TEDx Talks (Director). (2015, December 16). Strengthening Soft Skills | Andy Wible | TEDxMuskegon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkLsn4ddmTs

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