The Importance of Academic Skills - Essay Example

08 July 2007 Academic Skills Academic skills are crucial for every person because they help to acquire new knowledge and continue self-education. such skills as structuring, planning, assessing, analyzing, synthesizing, etc help to master new information and select the most appropriate facts and data The aim of education, then, is the full intellectual, moral and spiritual development of the student. Students should acquire discipline and self-mastery, possess mental skills and have a firm character and goodwill. These dispositions are to serve the proper ends of humankind. Clearly students need practical skills to navigate in the everyday world, but the main orientation is toward the ideal, perfect, transcendent realm which truly defines human existence. Planning is one of the academic skills which helps to organize the education and personal schedule. Planning bridges the gap from "where we are" to "where we want to go." It makes it possible for things to occur which would not otherwise happen. In an overall sense, planning is a function that is intellectually demanding and the most basic of all education functions. Planning should logically precede the execution of the educational goals and strategies of organizing, directing, and controlling. It is a function of management which is unique in that it provides direction for all group effort. The purpose of planning is to provide a student with a framework in which decisions can be made which will have an impact on the learning process. A conscious effort to systematize the effort and to manage its evolution is preferable to an unmanaged and haphazard evolution. The basic planning problem is how to allocate the limited resources. The major benefits to be expected from planning include an improved sense of direction for the learning and a student himself, better performance, increased understanding of the learning and its purpose, earlier awareness of problems, and more effective decisions. Assessment allows a student to choose between alternative and find the most reliable and objective information. Assessment, analysis and synthesis are closely connected with planning seen as a process for setting future direction, a means to reduce risk, and a vehicle for training managers. It is also a process for making strategic decisions, a way to develop consensus among top managers, and a means to develop a written long-range plan. Strategic planning can be defined as a method of guiding studnets so that their decisions and actions affect the future of the education process in a consistent and rational manner, and in a way desired by top management. Planning, assessment and restricting helps me to study the course and effective use my time resources and skills. Planning/thinking entails tactica) planning--the planning of those actions to be taken to put strategies into effect. This type of planning answers the question of how to get the job done. It often consists of specific objectives accompanied by short narrative action plans. Assessment may have two diametrically opposed definitions. One is that it is the overall encompassing effort for total planning of a learning process, meaning that planning is merely a portion or "tool" of learning. Planning and restructuring are a part of the day-to-day implementation of an strategic plan. I suppose that I have a good planning and restructuring skills, but need some practice in assessment and analysis. These skills are s core of the effective management of change within the course. It is the implementation of strategies developed to determine a new direction for the personal development through transition, so it may fulfill its responsibilities in a rapidly changing environment. I suppose that planning is not visionary or futuristic thinking, but an example of process versus substance. Planning is the process that creates a balance between what is desired and what is possible. Assessment enables students to distinguish truly important decisions from less important ones and to build a strategic agenda. It is a process that deals with interdepartmental issues and allows. Academic skills will help me to manage my professional duties and responsibilities, arrange my schedule and plan my career. The development of a pluralistic world view has had a significant impact on our ways of seeing, believing and acting. The more pluralistic our world has become, the more value systems there have been available to us and the more complex our ideas about what constitutes the moral life and how best to achieve it. Recent years, NHS demands innovative approaches and excellent communication skills in order to meet new demands and requirements of patients (Komaromy 132). For some, these difficulties have been compounded by what they refer to as the 'postmodern predicament' wherein, it is assumed, 'we no longer share any common grounds to which we might appeal for the adjudication of our differences'. Decisions need to be made at an early stage as to whether the strategic planning effort will be initially applied on a pilot basis and if so, which functions or programs will begin the pilot process. If the entire organization is to conduct strategic planning, then that decision should be made as well. Similarly, decisions need to be made relative to internal versus community-wide strategic planning efforts. Further decisions should be made relative to the strategic planning process to be followed: Should it be a comprehensive process with a large number of steps or a more abbreviated process (Komaromy 44). Planning, assessment and restructuring will help me to adapt to changing environment and meet industry demands. As the planning process is being contemplated, criteria should be established as to how the plan will be evaluated. Criteria such as reduced cost, improved quality, improved sense of direction, better teamwork, and improved service delivery might be used. The timing of any evaluations should also be considered. It is not enough to point out incorrect opinions and claims. To liberate students from error and falsehood we must also help them to identify the underlying dispositions which create and nourish such opinions. Egocentrism, prejudice and sloth merely begin the list of traits which never give truth a fair chance. Of course, liberation from error and falsehood must be linked with liberation to truth. But teachers cannot be content to have students dutifully memorize a list of important truths any more than they can rest when the students can recite a list of falsehoods to be avoided. Teachers must strive to cultivate in pupils those traits and dispositions which are accommodating to truth. This means that in addition to the love of truth and the fundamental honesty which accompanies it, teachers must stimulate tendencies toward logical thinking, conscientiousness and tolerance, as well as implanting and nourishing a mentality which is supportive of the life of the mind. As a healthcare organization tries to determine whether to pursue one strategy as opposed to another, an assessment of the possible risks and benefits of each strategy is important. This is an area of some uncertainty in the government strategic planning process, however. For NHS, it is important to use objective criteria to assess competing strategies so as to determine their individual cost/benefit and to gain some information about their potential risks. The purpose of medical staff is to provide alternative approaches to use for making such assessments. Political or even personal worlds of medical staff and decision makers can have an effect upon NHS operations. Works Cited Komaromy, C. Dilemmas in UK Health Care (Health and Disease). Open University Press; 3rd edition, 2001. Read More