Core Skills (Communication) and the Science curriculum

Mark HetheringtonSenior Lecturer, Communication and

EnglishStevenson College, Edinburgh, Scotland

Structure

• SUSSOL as a vehicle to deliver communications skills• What are Core Skills?• Communication for Science students• A collegiate approach• Examples • Q and A

SUSSOL as a vehicle to deliver communications skills

• Researching written information from a variety of sources• Putting a proposal / summary together• Report writing • Presentation skills• Discussions skills• All applied to issue of Sustainable

Solutions

What are core skills?

• ‘Core Skills’ are a group of five skills that are key to learning and working in today's world.

• The five Core Skills are: Communication, Numeracy, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Problem Solving and Working with Others

Communication for Science students

• We teach and assess students on the following areas: reading, writing, speaking and listening

• Communication skills underpin almost all personal, social, learning, and working activity.

• They are essential in clarifying student’s thoughts, in interacting with others, in expressing thoughts, in conveying information, feeling and opinions

Reading

• Reading – relevant magazine or newspaper articles where the students are taught how to summarise, analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of a text

• Subject matter – science based

• New Scientist magazine articles

Writing, Speaking and Listening

• Integrated pieces of work in line with the Science curriculum.

• Our role is to assist with structure, formality, tone, referencing, suitable for purpose.

A collegiate approach

• Working with the students

• Working with the Science lecturers

• Working with the Head Librarian

• Working as a team

Examples

• In your pack you have the following:

• Examples of some of the reading pieces the students analyse and discuss

• Some exemplar work from students

• A copy of the research slides put together working with the Head Librarian at SCE

Any questions?