Equipping graduates with future-ready capabilities: an application of learning theories to higher education

ABSTRACT

Educators are responsible for developing generic graduate capabilities, but the theoretical justification for teaching techniques is infrequently articulated. This conceptual paper aims to provide theory-informed principles to guide teaching practice in developing future-focused generic capabilities. The paper describes future-focused generic capabilities and then considers how cognitive constructivist, transformational and social learning theories inform the development of these capabilities. From these theories, four principles (4Es) for teaching generic capabilities are identified: students need to 1) be Enthused to develop personally relevant generic capabilities, 2) have opportunities to Explore by intellectually and emotionally connecting learning to processes, topics and situations, 3) develop by purposefully Extending their capabilities within varied and progressively more complex contexts, and 4) be given opportunities to Exhibit their capabilities. We contend that the development of generic capabilities can be informed by this set of principles. By unearthing and researching them, educators can become more versatile, informed, and impactful.

摘要

高校教师如今要在教学实践中培养大学生的通用能力。目前有关通用能力培养的研究中 , 各种相应的教学手段层出不穷 , 但其背后的理论依据却尚未被澄清。这篇理论文章旨在为高校教师提供基于学习理论的培养原则 ,  帮助他们培养学生面向未来的通用能力。本文首先概述未来社会所需的通用能力 , 然后依次考量认知建构主义理论、转化学习理论和社会学习理论对通用能力培养的启示。从这些理论中 , 我们提炼出四项通用能力培养原则(4Es) 学生需要: (1)对所培养的与个人相关的通用能力建立热忱感; (2)在思维和情感角度探索学习的过程、议题和情境; (3)在不同的和逐渐复杂的情境中应用并拓展所培养的通用能力; (4)被给予各种展示他们能力发展的机会。我们认为以上这些原则可以帮助高校教师 , 使他们基于通用能力培养的教学实践更加灵活、有据且有影响力。

KEYWORDS:

• Employability
• graduate attributes
• generic capabilities
• learning theories
• university teaching
• future-ready

Acknowledgements

Qian Liu translated the abstract into Chinese. We’d like to thank the reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was co-funded by Ako Aotearoa and University of Auckland.