The article below provoked my mind to think hard about the skills and the meaning of knowledge.I am quite lucky to attend a few lectures by Prof Dr Syed Naguib Al-Attas and Prof Dr Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud on the topics of knowledge as mentioned in the article below.
Flash back more than three decades ago when I was a student at Sheffield University,I think I have acquired some knowledge and skill on how to acquire knowledge during the lectures,tutorials and lab work.But the emphasis was more on giving me basic engineering knowledge than teaching me skills to continuously acquiring knowledge after I graduated.Below is a comment I received from my learned friend when I sent this posting to him yesterday.
As salam mu alai kum Adib,
Please look at
1.learn about the subject matter (knowledge)
2.practice applying the subject matter (skill development) and
3.independently apply the knowledge or skills (demonstrate competency)
Universities are only responsible for teaching the skill to acquire
the relevant knowledge. The skills and competency(knowledge+ skills+
attitudes) can only be obtained at the workplace.
I personally feel that the less than 20% of the knowledge that we
acquire at the Universities were applied at the workplace. The
Universities role was just to provide the basic knowledge. It is up to
to the individual to apply the knowledge acquired. That why the
ATTITUDE is very important in making a person competent.
Prof Dato Sri Dr Ir Wahid Omar
How about your experience?Please share with me and the other readers of this blog.Thank you.
Notes on photos: The above two photos were taken when I was attending a lecture to seek more knowledge.The photo below was taken when my partner and me were conducting a PMP course.
Tuesday June 3, 2008
Varsities must teach the skill to acquire knowledge
IKIM VIEWS
By Ir Ahmad Jais Alias Fellow, Centre for Consultancy and Training, IKIM
Students should learn about the purpose of
knowledge, and how to acquire knowledge correctly. This will
necessitate lifelong learning.
IN ONE of my
articles written last November, I emphasised the importance of
continuing professional development for graduates beyond their formal
university education.
One of the reasons is to
bridge the gap between what they have acquired during their studies and
the demands and expectations of employers in the job market.
If
we take the opportunity to gauge feedback from employers (or potential
employers), most of them are of the opinion that today's graduates are
not ready for a job requiring a certain command of knowledge that
graduates are supposed to have acquired from their learning process in
universities.
Another common concern is an
apparent lack of skills among the graduates that would enable them to
adapt and adopt new knowledge and skills at their workplace. Hence,
employers have to spend a handsome sum of money to send their graduate
employees for training and enhancement programmes.
These
are two aspects for us to ponder. On the one hand, graduates are
expected to acquire knowledge, at least to a minimum level in their
field of study; while on the other hand, they are expected to be
sufficiently trained in certain skills which will enable them to be
self-sufficient in their jobs.
So, where do we begin to address these concerns?
Perhaps we should begin by trying to understand the difference between the process of learning vis a vis the training process. Which should universities focus more on?
In
acquiring knowledge, one is necessarily referring to the process of
learning, in other words, the cognitive process of acquiring knowledge
or skill. The result of learning correctly conducted is profound
scholarly knowledge.
Prof S.M.N. al-Attas defines
knowledge as “both the arrival of meaning in the soul as well as the
soul’s arrival at meaning”. It is this meaning which allows the seeker
to understand the relation between the subject matter of knowledge, and
knowledge itself.
Therefore, the process of
learning in universities should produce graduates with the ability to
understand the meanings of what they have learned. They should be able
to explain it, elaborate on it, and create a new relationship between
what they have learned and the current and real challenges in the
employment sector.
The process of acquiring
knowledge may be established by means of external and internal senses
and faculties, reason and intuition, and true reports of a scientific
or religious nature and transmitted by their authentic authorities.
Students
should therefore learn about the purpose of knowledge, and how to
acquire knowledge correctly. This will necessitate life-long learning,
and will continue with individual professional development, even at
their workplace.
The question is, does our higher
education system today help to prepare students with regard to how to
acquire knowledge? Or is ‘spoon-feeding’ information still the norm?
As
real knowledge is acquired through training, skills are also developed
by training. There are other meanings to the term skill: “an ability
that has been acquired through training” or “an ability to produce
solutions in some problem domain”.
Normally,
skilled workers are trained in the same activities or sequence of
processes, until they command a certain level of craftsmanship that
enables them to produce successive controlled or similar results.
There
are trade-offs here. If the education system focuses more on producing
skilled graduates in terms of ‘technique’, they may neglect the ability
to acquire knowledge.
In my opinion we should
train students with the skill of acquiring knowledge. Acquiring
knowledge is actually paramount, to be repeated constantly throughout
our life. With the skills to acquire knowledge, a person actually
fulfils the requirements for continuous lifelong professional
development.
All other knowledge, skill and
ability, will henceforth be automatic. The institution of higher
education should perhaps ponder and reflect, and subsequently act.
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