Article title(no more than 8 words) Concurrent Direct Assessment of Foundation Skills for General Education

 Purpose (mandatory) –The foundation skills required by employers that will enable graduates to integrate and devise promising solutions for the challenges faced by knowledge societies are life skills (communication skills, teamwork and leadership skills, language skills in reading and writing, information literacy), transferable skills (such as problem-solving including critical thinking, creativity, quantitative reasoning), and technology skills (search for knowledge and build upon it). Foundation skills, however, are recognized as difficult to both teach and assess. We describe a performance assessment method to assess and measure these skills in a uniquely concurrent way – the General Education Foundation Skills Assessment (GEFSA).

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Design/Methodology/Approach (mandatory) – The GEFSA framework comprises a scenario/case describing an unresolved contemporary issue, prompts to engage student groups in on-line discussions, and a task-specific analytic rubric to concurrently assess the extent to which students attain the targeted foundation skills. The method was applied in three semesters – during 2016 and 2017. These students were non-native English speaking students in a General Education program at a university in the United Arab Emirates.

Findings (mandatory) – Results obtained from the rubric for each foundation skill were analyzed and interpreted to 1) ensure robustness of method and tool usability and reliability, 2) provide insight into, and commentary on, the respective skill attainment levels, and 3) assist in establishing realistic target ranges for General Education student skill attainment. The results showed that the method is valid and provides valuable data for curriculum development.

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Originality/Value (mandatory) – This is the first methodin published literature that directly assesses the foundation skills for General Education students simultaneously. It provides educators valuable data on the skill level of the students and additionally it is a good teaching tool for the skills.

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Keywords: 21st century skills; measurement; performance task; rubric; transferable skills, soft skills

Introduction

Proficiency in foundation skills is critical for success in 21st century knowledge economies. The foundation skills required of fresh graduates by employers are life skills (skills that assist in developing potential solutions to relevant problems, such as communication skills, teamwork and leadership skills, language skills in reading and writing, information literacy), transferable skills (skills that facilitate application of existing knowledge to new situations, such as problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, quantitative reasoning), and technology skills (such as the ability to search for knowledge and information, comprehend, analyze and discuss advanced use of technology and build upon it) (United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2014). Employers around the world value these skills from entry-level employees as much or more than specific disciplinary knowledge which can rapidly change (Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), 2013; UNESCO, 2012). In addition, the majority of quality assurance organizations at the professional programmatic level and institutional accreditation at the regional or national levels now require programs to show evidence of student attainment of foundation skills outcomes. Examples include, but are not limited to: ABET (formerly known as the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology), the Commission for Academic Accreditation in the United Arab Emirates), Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the Quality Framework Emirates and the Australian Quality Framework.

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To increase the success of fresh graduates becoming the future knowledge workers in knowledge economy workplaces, tertiary education must include ample development of foundation skills. These skills are consistent with the skillset considered essential by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) across all countries for success in living and working, plus employability skills in the information age such as teamwork, problem solving, and self-management (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2008).

The challenge surrounding the foundation skills is that employers value them, students are under prepared in them, and they are considered difficult to teach and assess (National Academies Press (NAP), 2017; Shuman, Besterfield, Sacre & McGourty, 2005). Thus, there is a need for practical and accurate teaching and assessment methods of these skills. Many measurement instruments evaluate each skill distinctly from one another. Incongruent measurement tools not designed to complement one another are insufficient for data-driven curriculum decision making (Schoepp, Danaher & Ater Kranov, 2016). These constraints (need to elaborate – as only one constraint mentioned) can be problematic for accurate and useful assessment of attainment of skills because they do not provide direct measures of deeper learning that integrates multiple outcomes. The method described in this paper enables precise, concurrent and actionable skill development and assessment to address these challenges. This paper summarizes the development of the General Education Foundation Skills Assessment (GEFSA) over a two-year institutional research incentive funded project and describes the findings to-date to create the GEFSA as a robust direct method to demonstrate student attainment of foundation skills for program-level assessment purposes in a General Education environment (i.e. pre-major) at a large public university in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The paper then proposes an extension to the GEFSA framework which would cover a complete baccalaureate program. Such an extension would allow assessment of students’ skill levels at relevant checkpoints throughout their baccalaureate experience.

Regional Context

The assessment of student learning outcomes is crucial when discussing issues of pedagogy, higher education accountability, and employability of fresh graduates. In short, what have graduates learned at the end of their undergraduate education and how do institutions of higher education know that with reasonable accuracy? This learning outcomes focus is also underway in the Middle East Gulf Region as stakeholders continue to advance the priority of student learning and employability.

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Regional governments have recognized the strategic role that a highly skilled and educated workforce can play (UAE, 2010; UAE, 2014). Youth unemployment is a serious issue in the Arab region. Unemployment rates among the (Arab) youth (27%) significantly exceed the global rate (12.6%) (UNDP, 2014). As costs for education have far outstripped inflation, and as consumers (primarily students and their families) have become more educated and demanding, there have been increasing calls for evidence that what is being promised is being delivered. Regionally, the core mission of higher education is ensuring that students become productive members of society with the requisite skills for gainful employment. However, numerous reports point to a notable misalignment between the knowledge, skills, and attitudes demonstrated by university graduates in the Middle East, and in particular the Gulf region, and those desired by employers (UNDP, 2012; UNDP, 2015; Ernst & Young (EY), 2015).

Of 100 employers surveyed for Perspectives on GCC Youth Employment 2014, only 29% percent thought that the public educational systems adequately prepare graduates for the workplace (EY, 2014). Yet, in striking contrast, 68% of UAE youth surveyed thought that the educational system prepared them well for entry-level positions. The set of recommendations from this report are daunting, urging governments to “reform national skills and education models… and rethink how education is provided to deliver the ultimate objective of work-ready young adults” (EY, 2014, p.11).

At our public university in the United Arab Emirates we confront the same graduate skills competency and employability issues. Admirably, the UAE government has been proactive in attempts to address future youth employment. In 2010 the UAE government charted the UAE 2021 National vision. This vision to be one of the best countries in the world is underpinned by four pillars, one of which is a Competitive Knowledge Economy (UAE, 2010). Later, the UAE 2021 vision set national performance indicators (UAE, 2014), two of which relate to the knowledge economy and employment of national youth in the private sector to alleviate citizen unemployment. Respectively, the targets for 2021 are a 5% Emiratization rate in the private sector (from 0.65% in 2013), and the share of Emirati knowledge workers in the workforce to increase from 20% in 2013 to 40%.

Our university is a UAE federal institution with campuses in Abu Dhabi and Dubai that primarily serves Emirati nationals in a gender-segregated environment, with most courses conducted in English. With a student population of approximately 9,500 (8,000 female, 1,500 male), nearly all of whom are undergraduate students aged between 18 and 22 with no work experience, the university strives to deliver programs that meet international standards to ensure graduating students are prepared to contribute to and promote the social and economic wellbeing of UAE society and the professions. Related to these ambitions, the university was established in 1998 as an outcomes-based institution with a focus on quality. This quality commitment has been manifested through attainment of a number of international accreditations. In 2008, the university first became accredited by the United States (US)-based Middle States Commission on Higher Education, and since that time has achieved accreditation through the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, and ABET (formerly known as the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology). Our university’s commitment to an outcome-based approach to education and continuous improvement through assessment of student learning outcomes was recognized officially by the US-based National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment.

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Our university’s institution-wide learning outcomes, Zayed University Learning Outcomes (ZULOs), are intended to be used by colleges to assess student attainment of associated outcomes for both continuous improvement and quality assurance reporting purposes and to guide program curriculum development. The six ZULOs are: Information Literacy (IL), Technological Literacy (TL), Critical Thinking and Quantitative Reasoning (CTQR), Global Awareness (GA), Language (LA), and Leadership (LS), as illustrated in Table 1.

Table 1. Zayed University Learning Outcomes (ZULO’s)

The University College (UC) is responsible for teaching and assessing student attainment of the ZULOs over the course of a mandatory General Education program and all courses are taught in English by faculty across disciplines. The General Education program at Zayed University offers a foundation education experience to students and prepares them for their future majors and eventual employment. The experience is intended to instill in the students a desire for lifelong learning, foster intellectual curiosity, and engender critical thinking. The General Education program initiates the baccalaureate careers of all ZU students. Students over a duration of three semesters take courses in global studies, English writing, mathematics, information technology and science in addition to life skills and innovation/entrepreneurship courses. Because the ZULOs are institutional learning outcomes, they are necessarily broad which, in turn, makes it challenging for instructors to design learning interventions and assessments for meaningful measurement of ZULO attainment in courses. To meet this challenge, the GEFSA has been designed and implemented as a performance assessment task directly aligned with the ZULOs. A definition of each GEFSA foundation skill A through F and the ZULO alignment is outlined in Table 2.

Table 2. GEFSA Rubric Skills, Definitions and Alignment with ZULO’s