Promote learning and skills for young people and adults Education is about giving people the opportunity to develop their potential, their personality and their strengths. This does not merely mean learning new knowledge, but also developing abilities to make the most of life. These are called life skills — including the inner capacities and the practical skills we need. Many of the inner capacities — often known as psycho-social skills— cannot be taught as subjects. They are not the same as academic or technical learning. They must rather be modeled and promoted as part of learning, and in particular by teachers. These skills have to do with the way we behave — towards other people, towards ourselves, towards the challenges and problems of life. They include skills in communicating, in making decisions and solving problems, in negotiating and asserting ourselves, in thinking critically and understanding our feelings. More practical life skills are the kinds of manual skills we need for the physical tasks we face. Some would include vocational (职业的) skills under the heading of life skills — the ability to lay bricks, sew clothes, catch fish or mend a motorbike. These are skills by which people may earn their livelihood and which are often available to young people leaving school. In fact, very often young people learn psycho-social skills as they learn more practical skills. Learning vocational skills can be a strategy for acquiring both practical and psycho-social skills. We need to increase our life skills at every stage of life, so learning them may be part of early childhood education, of primary and secondary education and of adult learning groups. Importance in learning Life skills can be put into the categories that the Jacques Delors report suggested. This report spoke of four pillars of education, which correspond to certain kinds of life skills. Learning to know: Thinking abilities, such as problem-solving, critical thinking, decision:making, understanding consequences. Learning to be: Personal abilities, such as managing stress and feelings, self- awareness, self-confidence. Learning to live together: Social abilities, such as communication, negotiation, teamwork. Learning to do: Manual skills, such as practicing what are required for work and tasks. In today’s world, all these skills are necessary in order to face rapid change in society. This means that it is important to know how to go on learning as we require new skills for life and work. In addition, we need to know how to cope with the flood of information and turn it into useful knowledge. We also need to learn how to handle change in society and in our own lives. Nature of life skills Life skills are both concrete and abstract. Practical skills can be learned directly as a subject — for example, a learner can take a course in laying bricks and learn that skill. Other life skills, such as self-confidence, self-esteem, and skills for relating to others or thinking critically cannot be taught in such direct ways. They should be part of any learning process, where teachers or facilitators are concerned that learners should not just learn about subjects, but learn how to cope with life and make the most of their potential. So these life skills may be learnt when learning other things. For example: Learning literacy may have a big impact on self-esteem, on critical thinking or on communication skills; Learning practical skills such as driving, healthcare or tailoring may increase self- confidence, teach problem-solving processes or help in understanding consequences. Whether this is true depends on the mode of teaching — what kinds of thinking, relationship-building and communication the teacher or facilitator exhibits and promotes among the learners. Progress towards this goal This goal would require measuring the individual and collective progress in making the most of learning and of life, or assessing how far human potential is being realized, or estimating how well people cope with change. It is easier to measure the development of practical skills, for instance by counting the number of students who register for vocational skills courses. However, this still may not tell us how effectively these skills are being used. The psycho-social skills cannot easily be measured by tests and scores, but become visible in changed behavior. Progress in this area has often been noted by teachers on reports which they make to the parents of their pupils. The teacher’s experience of life, of teaching and of what can be expected from education in the broadest sense serve as a grid through which the growth and development of individuals can be assessed to some extent. This kind of assessment is individual and may never appear in international tables and charts. Current challenges The current challenges relate to these difficulties: We need to recognize the importance of life skills — both practical and psycho-social — as part of education which leads to the full development of human potential and to the development of society. The links between psycho-social skills and practical skills must be more clearly spelled out, so that educators can promote both together and find effective ways to do this. Since life skills are taught as part of a wide range of subjects, teachers need to have training in how to put them across and how to monitor learners’ growth in these areas. Policy options — what governments should do Recognize and actively advocate for the transformational role of education in realizing human potential and in socio-economic development; Ensure that curricula and syllabuses address life skills and give learners the opportunity to make real-life applications of knowledge, skills and attitudes; Show how life skills of all kinds apply in the world of work, for example, negotiating and communication skills, as well as practical skills; Through initial and in-service teacher training, increase the use of active and participatory learning/teaching approaches; Examine and adapt the processes and content of education so that there is a balance between academic input and life skills development; Make sure that education inspectors look not only for academic progress through teaching and learning, but also progress in the communication, modeling and application of life skills; Advocate for the links between primary and (early) secondary education in recognition that the prospect of effective secondary education is an incentive to children, and their parents, to complete primary education successfully. Policy options — what funding agencies should do Support research, exchange and debate, nationally and regionally, on ways of strengthening life skills education; Support innovative (创新的) teacher training initiatives in order to embed life skills promotion into subjects across the curriculum and as a fundamental part of what school and education are about; Recognize the links between primary and secondary education in ensuring that children develop strong life skills; Support, therefore, the early years of secondary education as part of basic education. Children’s progress in psycho-social skills has often been indicated by______.
A. tests and scores
B. teachers’ ability in teaching
C. teachers’ experience of life
D. teachers’ reports to their parents
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Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked, and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
A. The man is against the latest tax increase.
B. The woman is indifferent to the tax increase.
C. The woman is for the latest tax increase heartily.
D. Personally, the woman doesn’t like the tax increase.
Passage One Questions 52 to 56 are based on the following passage. Each year Universum, a Swedish consulting firm, asks American MBA students where they would most like to work. The 2007 survey showed a few surprises in its top 50 companies named: Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems had fell, while old reliables such as General Electronic, Coca-Cola and General Mills had jumped up the list. But the most desired industry remains consulting, despite the beating it has taken since the end of the dotcom boom, and the top firm remains McKinsey. Perhaps the reason is: in recent years McKinsey has done as much as any company to provide MBA graduates with increasingly better and more profitable positions. The reason for this was the firm’s popularization of a concept known as "war for talent". It advocated finding the best and brightest and rewarding their innovations (创新) in proportion to "talent" instead of their performance or seniority (资格). But what is talent And how does a company measure its employees’ talent, especially when assigning them to new projects The "war for talent" recommends a careful assessment of the inner skills and characteristics ready for success but gives few clues as to what those inner skills might be, which might make the war standardless. For a company focused on quick growth, one shortcut could be young hires who had already been rewarded for their talent by receiving MBAs from well-respected schools. Thus as the idea of finding talented employees who could quickly learn the skills took off, so did the asking price of the star MBA graduates. Unfortunately, now the "war for talent" seems less of a brilliant idea. The economic downturn, bringing with it less competition for the available talent, also did its part to control in indulgent (纵容的) employers. Similarly, Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer emphasized that cultivating a talent means not just hiring the most effective performers, but being able to deal quickly and firmly with the least effective C performers. But he adds that the C refers not to the person but to the individual’s performance in a given job. Some low-performing managers were A or B performers earlier in their careers — and may attain that level of performance again. MBA programs will remain attractive recruiting areas, but the MBA model itself has come under increasing criticism. Prof. Pfeffer, in a 2007 article found little evidence that an MBA had much effect on future salary or career. Future MBA students might need to provide more evidence of their talent to impress potential employers. What is Professor Pfeffer’s attitude towards cultivating a talent
A. Only the A performers is worthy to be hired.
B. How to do with the C performers also needs attention.
C performers cannot change into A or B performers.
D. There is no difference among the A, B and C performers.
Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage. Child maltreatment (虐待) is a global problem with serious life-long consequences. There are no reliable global estimates for the common existing of child maltreatment. Data for many countries, especially low- and middle-income countries, are lacking. Child maltreatment is complex and difficult to study. Current estimates vary widely depending on the country and the method of research used. Nonetheless, international studies reveal that approximately 20% of women and 5-10% of men report being sexually abused as children, while 25-50% of all children report being physically abused. Additionally, many children are subject to emotional abuse (sometimes referred to as psychological abuse) and to neglect. Every year, there are an estimated 31,000 homicide (他杀) deaths in children under 15. This number underestimates the true extent of the problem, as a significant proportion of deaths due to child maltreatment are incorrectly attributed to falls, bums and drowning and other causes. Child maltreatment causes suffering to children and families and can have long-term consequences. Maltreatment causes stress that is associated with disruption in early brain development. Extreme stress can impair the development of the nervous and immune systems. Consequently, as adults, maltreated children are at increased risk for behavioral, physical and mental health problems such as depression, smoking, unintended pregnancy, alcohol and drug misuse, etc. Via the behavioral and mental health consequences, maltreatment can contribute to heart disease, cancer, suicide and sexually transmitted infections. Beyond the health consequences of child maltreatment, there is an economic impact, including costs of hospitalization, mental health treatment, child welfare, and longer-term health costs. A number of risk factors for child maltreatment have been identified. These risk factors are not present in all social and cultural contexts, but provide an overview when attempting to understand the causes of child maltreatment. It is important to emphasize that children are the victims and are never to blame for maltreatment. A number of characteristics of an individual child may increase the likelihood of being maltreated: being either under four years old or an adolescent; being unwanted, or failing to fulfill the exceptions of parents; and having special needs, crying persistently or having abnormal physical features. One reason for the difficult situation in the global estimates of child maltreatment is that different ______ are used.
Passage Two Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage. While still catching up to men in some spheres of modem life, women appear to be way ahead in at least one undesirable category. "Women are particularly susceptible to developing depression and anxiety disorders in response to stress compared to men," according to Dr. Yehuda, chief psychiatrist at New York’s Veteran’s Administration Hospital. Studies of both animals and humans have shown that sex hormones somehow affect the stress response, causing females under stress to produce more of the trigger chemicals than do males under the same conditions. In several of the studies, when stressed-out female rats had their ovaries (the female reproductive organs) removed, their chemical responses became equal to those of the males. Adding to a woman’s increased dose of stress chemicals, are her increased "opportunities" for stress. "It’s not necessarily that women don’t cope as well. It’s just that they have so much more to cope with," says Dr. Yehuda. "Their capacity for tolerating stress may even be greater than men’s," she observes. "It’s just that they’re dealing with so many more things that they become worn out from it more visibly and sooner." Dr. Yehuda notes another difference between the sexes. "I think that the kinds of things that women are exposed to tend to be in more of a chronic or repeated nature. Men go to war and are exposed to combat stress. Men are exposed to more acts of random physical violence. The kinds of interpersonal violence that Women are exposed to tend to be in domestic situations, by, unfortunately, parents or other family members, and they tend not to be one-shot deals. The wear-and-tear that comes from these longer relationships can be quite devastating." Adeline Alvarez married at 18 and gave birth to a son, but was determined to finish college. "I struggled a lot to get the college degree. I was living in so much frustration that that was my escape, to go to school, and get ahead and do better." Later, her marriage ended and she became a single mother. "It’s the hardest thing to take care of a teenager, have a job, pay the rent, pay the car payment, and pay the debt. I lived from paycheck to paycheck." Not everyone experiences the kinds of severe chronic stresses, Alvarez describes. But most women today are coping with a lot of obligations, with few breaks, and feeling the strain. Alvarez’s experience demonstrates the importance of finding ways to diffuse stress before it threatens your health and your ability to function. What does Alvarez mean by "I lived from paycheck to paycheck" (Lines 5-6, Para. 5)
A. She cared about nothing but making money.
B. Her salary barely covered her household expenses.
C. She got paychecks from different jobs.
D. She paid practically everything by check.