Developing Whole Learners and Leaders
Social
and Cognitive Development
What are the social and cognitive skills necessary to succeed in every area of society from science to education to business and government? And, are we teaching these social and cognitive skills in our schools from K-12 through college? Are we teaching collaborative problem solving skills that will help the graduates of our schools work through issues and problems as a group? Also, do our graduates have the critical thinking skills that can only be attained through collaborative learning to succeed in the real world? In addition, are our young college students learning the leadership and team building skills that will help them to contribute to the success of organizations? Finally, do our graduates of our colleges and universities have the learned abilities to help others to be the best they can be in order to lead them to higher levels of productivity and performance? The overwhelming evidence suggests that the graduates of most of our American colleges and universities do not have these important abilities that are intrinsically tied to the success of groups and organizations in every area of society.
Most elementary schools focus on the fundamental cognitive skills of reading, writing and arithmetic with regular lessons and testing measurements of success. However, very few schools help their students to develop the social, collaborative and critical thinking skills through group work and team projects that will allow them to learn these skills successfully and complete their cognitive development as whole persons. In high schools teachers teach to the test and gear students for the college entrance exams by depositing as much information into their heads as possible. And, in college students focus on narrow technical disciplines and are taught to see their fellow students as rivals and competitors with little understanding or appreciation of how to work with each other as collaborative team members. In each of these learning environments, there is considerable focus on only part of the cognitive development of the students with very little attention to their all important social and collaborative development. And, the critical thinking abilities of the students which require both a social and a cognitive learning process are generally ignored in favor of a more competitive approach to education.
The results of this educational process have become very clear in recent years with graduates who are entering the workforce with little knowledge of how to work with each other as a team to achieve a goal. And, these same graduates, without true critical thinking skills, have little patience to listen to each other and benefit from diverse points of view that will lead to better problem solving and higher levels of success. Instead, our graduates from even our most prestigious universities have a self-serving and competitive approach to their work and their fellow workers. Even though they appear to be cooperative on the outside, they are always looking for a competitive advantage instead of ideas and solutions that will benefit everyone and improve the organization. The results are becoming catastrophically clear. Decisions are being made that are primarily self-serving with little regard for the social implications or benefit of others. In many cases even the organization, itself, is second to the self-interest of key management personnel. This fact is clearly evident by the increasing frequency and size of the golden parachutes for executives from companies they have helped run into the ground and from the huge bonuses given to employees of companies that are on the fast track toward bankruptcy.
This trend, as devastating as it is, can be reversed with greater attention given to developing students as whole individuals through both a social and cognitive learning process. Clearly, we can no longer continue to ignore the complete social and cognitive development of our students. Through better efforts to teach collaborative learning and leadership skills as well as better critical thinking and team building knowledge, we will enable our students to understand and appreciate the values of working together successfully to solve problems and achieve group goals. This social and cognitive effort requires the ability to think of others first and this can only be learned through collaborative teamwork. How can we expect to change the self-serving and even ruthless approach in today’s workplace that diminishes group performance if we are teaching students to treat each other as competitors who cannot be trusted? American society that was founded on the highest principles of service to each other and the democratic values of equality and citizen participation deserves much better from our educational system.
Having progressed through this competitive educational process, I have had a good amount of success competing for grades and memorizing enough to do well on tests all the way through the rigor of my Ph.D. work. And, over the years I came to respect and appreciate all aspects of learning. However, I can now say without reservation that it was not until my graduate work and particularly my work on my Ph.D. that I really learned to work through problems as a group and engage my fellow students as collaborative learners. And, I can also say with considerable assurance that it was those classes with teachers and professors who were able to engage the students and allow us to participate successfully by sharing our knowledge and experiences that I learned the most. Those teachers who were able to use rich examples and help students to connect with the learning material through cultural context, human experience or democratic values were the most successful throughout my academic career. This success by teachers at the graduate level can and must be replicated throughout our schools and educational systems if we want our graduates to become successful life long collaborative leaders and learners who know how to put the interests of the team members and organization first.
Note: This article is based upon the concepts and examples found in the published work, "A Collaborative Model for Organizational Transformation" by Timothy Stagich, Ph.D. as published in the International Journal of Value-Based Management and the Oxford University Center for the Study of Values in Education and Business.
Discussion Questions
- What are the social and cognitive skills that are necessary for working together and helping to build successful organizations?
- What is critical thinking and how does collaborative learning help people to think critically and work through problems?
- Why are most schools focusing only on the cognitive learning and development of students and overlooking the important social and collaborative learning abilities necessary for success in society?
- What are the reasons that students need to be taught as whole learners?
- What are some of the consequences in society of neglecting to teach collaborative and team values as well as the social and democratic learning skills in schools?
- How can the social and collaborative learning skills be added to curriculum?
- Discuss some of the benefits
of developing whole learners and leaders?
