SUMMARY

Introduction

Many have contended that American secondary education needs to undergo fundamental reform if it is going to supply the American workplace with a flexible, highly skilled workforce. School reformers focus on two questions: What kinds of skills and knowledge should be taught in high school, and how should schools go about teaching them?

One common answer to the first of these questions is that schools should teach "generic skills"--problem solving, communication, teamwork, higher-order reasoning--as well as skills and knowledge specific to a single academic discipline or occupational field. Another answer is that schools should improve student attitudes toward work. Answers to the second question have implications for curriculum, pedagogy, school organization, and school relationships with other institutions, such as colleges and businesses.

We have conducted two studies on the teaching and learning of generic skills and work-related attitudes at the classroom level. The goal of these studies is to inform the design and conduct of courses that aim to teach generic skills and attitudes in addition to domain-specific skills and knowledge. The first study, reported earlier (Stasz et al., 1990), developed an approach to studying instruction in generic skills, particularly complex reasoning skills, and applied it in the analysis of several vocational classrooms.

The second study, reported here, extends the application of the approach to academic as well as vocational classrooms. This extension permits us to examine whether it is feasible to teach generic skills and attitudes in both settings and, if so, whether effective instruction in each setting is similar.

Because we focus our analysis on the classroom level, we necessarily limited the number of cases we could study. This reduces the generalizability of our findings, but it also provides rich information on teaching practices that practitioners need. In reporting this research, we concentrate on those classrooms in our sample that "work"--i.e., those that appear, on the basis of our observations and student perceptions, successfully to impart generic skills and attitudes.

Field Study Methods

Our research approach included case study, ethnographic, and survey methods. The case study approach permitted the intensive observation and analysis of a limited set of carefully selected sites. Ethnographic methods were used to deepen our understanding of what goes on in classrooms, particularly in the interactions of students and teachers.[1] By triangulating data collection methods, we attempted to strengthen the reliability of our findings.

We used site selection criteria suggested by our previous study: Candidate sites were classrooms that (1) have teachers who claim to teach problem-solving skills, (2) value students cooperating with each other and taking responsibility for their own work, (3) provide opportunities for group and project work, and (4) hold high expectations for student performance. We identified twelve candidate sites and narrowed the sample to eight after site visits revealed that some did not meet all criteria. (One of the eight classrooms, an interior design class "that works," is described in our earlier report [Stasz et al., 1990].) These eight classrooms were housed in three comprehensive high schools, were located in both urban and suburban communities, represented a mix of socioeconomic standings and ethnicities, and included both academic and vocational classes: interior design, landscape, English, electronics, architecture, manufacturing, and chemistry (two classes).

Following established ethnographic methods, our research consisted of five activities:

1. Descriptive observation and questioning to identify key teacher practices and student behaviors;
   
   
2. Focused observations and structured questions to expand and refine the list of practices and behaviors;
   
   
3. Selected observations and contrast questions to clarify differences among distinct practices and behaviors;
   
   
4. Indexing of data to place practices and behaviors in meaningful domains or groupings;[2]
   
   
5. Analysis of relationships among domains and generation of themes that compose the model of instruction for generic skills and attitudes.

Figure S.1--Research Approach for Developing
Model of Generic Skills Instruction

Figure S.1 suggests how these analytic activities were used through the course of the fieldwork. We began with relatively "low inference" procedures--i.e., relatively unguided by theoretical constructs and hypotheses. Over time, increasingly inferential procedures became appropriate and were applied. Throughout the process we employed an iterative approach, cycling through the analytic activities as needed.

An Instructional Model for Generic Skills

Table S.1 displays the components of the model that we developed for the instruction of generic skills and attitudes. The model contains four major "themes": instructional goals, classroom design, teaching techniques, and school context. Within each theme, the model specifies subthemes that emerged from our data. We found the components of this model to be sufficient to permit us to understand and describe the practices and behaviors that we observed in the classrooms we studied.

Table S.1
Components of an Instructional Model for Teaching Generic Skills and Work-Related Attitudes

Instructional Goals	Classroom Design	Teaching Techniques	School Context
Complex reasoning skills	Situated learning	Modeling	Access to knowledge
Work-related attitudes	Culture of expert practice	Coaching	Press for achievement
Cooperative skills	Motivation	Scaffolding	Professional teaching conditions
Domain-specific knowledge, skills	Cooperation	Articulation
	Teacher roles	Reflection
		Exploration

The four themes interact in ways that are suggested by Figure S.2: Instructional goals influence classroom design and teaching techniques; classroom design and teaching techniques influence each other; and school context influences goals, design, and techniques. We traced these interactions in our analysis of the classrooms in our sample.

Figure S.2--Lines of Influence Among the Components
of the Instructional Model for Generic Skills

In the descriptions of classrooms that work we also attend to a fifth aspect that is not represented in the model, namely, student experience of the classrooms. Student perceptions of their classes (e.g., student perceptions of classroom design or teaching techniques) and of their own achievement were gathered through classroom observations and group interviews.

Classrooms That Work

Of the eight classrooms in our sample, five "worked" in the sense that they appeared to impart generic skills and attitudes successfully. We base this conclusion both on our observations of the instructional process and on student perceptions of learning. Brief synopses follow:

• Mr. Price's English class: A senior-level college-prep advanced composition course at a comprehensive high school. Provided an English credit needed for graduation and also met state college and university requirements.
  
  
• Mr. Benson's electronics class: A vocational class at a comprehensive high school. Students included ninth through twelfth graders of heterogeneous ability, one female and the rest male. Fulfilled an elective requirement for graduation. No academic credit.
  
  
• Mr. Benson's manufacturing class: A vocational class at a comprehensive high school. Students included ninth through twelfth graders of heterogeneous ability, all male. Provided a math credit toward graduation but did not meet state college and university requirements.
  
  
• Mr. Benson's architectural drawing class: A vocational elective. Provided a practical arts credit toward graduation but not college admission. Students included ninth through twelfth grade students of heterogeneous ability and a 50/50 mix of girls and boys.
  
  
• Ms. Adams's interior design class: An elective vocational course taught at a comprehensive high school. Male and female students included tenth through twelfth graders of heterogeneous ability and a 50/50 mix of girls and boys. Provided a fine arts credit needed for graduation.

Obviously, as a group these courses have little in common in terms of their subject matter or administrative characteristics. Nevertheless, we found that they resembled each other in important ways in terms of the four themes of our model for instruction in generic skills and attitudes.

Instructional Goals: Target Generic Skills and Attitudes

In all five of these classrooms, the teachers had a mix of instructional goals that included complex reasoning skills, cooperative skills, and work-related attitudes as well as domain-specific skills and knowledge. Relative emphasis among these goals varied by teacher and classroom, but in all cases generic skills and attitudes were explicitly targeted.

In the English class, for instance, writing was taught as a tool for thinking. Students were required to read and write about three difficult Latin American novels, but the focus of the class was not on domain-specific subject matter such as the history of the novel or Latin American literature. Rather, the reading of these books and the researching and writing of a documented critical essay were used as vehicles for teaching generic skills, social skills, and techniques for making work personally significant.

All three teachers strove to instill positive work-related attitudes. These varied by class but included taking responsibility for one's own learning and performance, being bold in decisionmaking, personalizing work in order to make it interesting and rewarding, and valuing lifelong learning.

These teachers stressed cooperative skills. In addition to being an important work-related generic skill, cooperation has benefits in the classroom: It can increase student responsibility for learning by holding the student accountable for contributing to group work and by requiring the student to help others. It can also enhance learning and engagement by enlisting students as additional sources of instruction and motivation for each other.

Although these teachers all taught domain-specific skills and knowledge, they had the freedom to define their instructional domains in broad terms. Their view of relevant class content was not constrained by curriculum frameworks, standardized tests, textbooks, or follow-on courses.

Classroom Design: Situate Learning in Authentic Practice

All three teachers pursued their instructional goals by situating learning in authentic practice: That is, they designed their classrooms so that students learned skills and knowledge by performing tasks that reflected the complexities of real tasks performed by adult practitioners. This meant that students engaged in projects rather than exercises. In the interior design class, students designed and furnished a Victorian house; in the manufacturing class, they designed and manufactured toy trucks. Project work ensured that specific learning was motivated and made useful by the context of a larger goal. Project work was also typically group work, requiring students to learn and apply cooperative skills.

These classrooms promoted a culture of practice, simulating actual working cultures to varying degrees. Mr. Price's English class asked students to participate in the cultures of the reader (the adult who reads fiction for pleasure), the critical writer, and the college student. Mr. Benson's electronics classes drew on the culture of the adult hobbyist. His manufacturing class recreated the culture of the shop floor. Ms. Adams's class most resembled an interior design firm. The cultures were rich enough to permit instructors to teach a full range of both domain-specific and generic skills and attitudes. (This was in contrast to the landscape classroom in our sample, one of those that did not work, which used the road crew as its reference culture.)

Teachers in these four classrooms focused on intrinsic motivation. They deemphasized grades and did not discuss performance criteria in terms of grades. Each has a true avocation for their subject area and modeled enthusiasm, engagement, and persistence for their students. Each expected students to take responsibility for a large portion of their own learning. Students were asked to make choices about what they would do: what topic to research and write about, how to manufacture the truck, what colors and fabrics to use. The classrooms were well-stocked with "tools of the trade" (the problem of acquiring sufficient resources is addressed below).

In classrooms that worked, learning was cooperative and students worked together in self-managing groups. Ms. Adams taught specific techniques to enhance cooperation (e.g., consensus building) and had groups evaluate their own performance. Other teachers had less structured approaches. Cooperative activities were initially most difficult for students in the English class, who appeared to enter the classroom with an expectation that the teacher would provide all instruction and motivation and that students would work in isolation. But Mr. Price successfully taught them to use each other--and himself--as resources.

Teaching Techniques: Foster a Working Relationship

The role of the teacher in these classrooms was predominantly that of master to the students as apprentices. Typically teachers moved from group to group monitoring progress and offered limited assistance, encouragement, or advice, much as an "expert consultant" might. Instruction was offered opportunistically in response to specific student needs.

Teachers did little lecturing. One-on-one tutoring and master-apprentice-like interactions were the main techniques of instruction. As with other master-apprentice relationships, there was no discrete distinction between teacher and student but rather a continuum of expertise (in some areas, some students might have greater expertise than the teacher, a fact that was acknowledged and exploited to the classroom's benefit) and a shared focus on achieving a common goal.

These teachers relied heavily on modeling to demonstrate how an expert practitioner carried out a task. This included the modeling of attitudes, mentioned above, as well as procedures and thought processes. For example, teachers shared heuristics that experts use to help them make decisions, such as how to tell whether one has done enough research for a paper.

These teachers also used "coaching," "scaffolding," and "fading." In his electronics classroom, Mr. Benson primarily used highly interactive coaching, i.e., guiding students through problems with focused questions and suggestions. Mr. Price provided scaffolds in the form of physical supports (diagramming three ways to structure a paper). Fading is the gradual withdrawal of teacher support (coaching or scaffolding) as the group (or student) reaches a point from which they can proceed alone.

All three teachers also asked students to articulate their learning, i.e., verbalizing their perceptions of or conclusions about their own performance. This technique helped students to understand themselves as learners and to integrate their learning. Similarly, reflection was a technique by which students analyze and assess their own performance.

These classrooms permitted a great deal of exploratory learning by students. Learning was highly personalized and not expected to proceed in lock-step according to a lesson plan or textbook. This technique accommodated individual differences in ability and interest. It also required teachers to offer flexible, highly individualized instruction.

School Context: Provide Autonomy and Resources

The classrooms that worked owed their success to their teachers and students. Nevertheless, some elements of school context importantly influence these classrooms.

Access to knowledge in these classrooms was affected by the resources provided by the schools. Ms. Adams's class received additional funds because it was sponsored by a state vocational program. In other classrooms, school-provided resources were supplemented by the teachers themselves and sometimes even by the students. Mr. Price used his own money to purchase books. Mr. Benson arranged to borrow against future class budgets in order to obtain additional equipment. In the manufacturing class, students could build some tools needed for use in later stages of their project. All of these classes would have benefited from additional resources to support learning.[3]

These classrooms also varied in the degree to which their school context supported their press for achievement. Vocational classes were less valued than academic classes in the schools where Ms. Adams and Mr. Benson taught, but their personal views about students and their acknowledged success challenged the school's view.

Similarly, as a vocational teacher, Ms. Adams did not enjoy strong professional teaching conditions. She was isolated from the school faculty generally and did not participate in activities that can foster professional growth, such as collaborative staff planning, intellectual sharing, and teamwork. However, she was strongly supported by the vocational program administrator on campus. Mr. Benson fared better: He socialized with the other members of the faculty and was active in professional organizations. Ironically, the positive aspect of being vocational instructors in comprehensive high schools is that these teachers enjoyed more autonomy than would be typical for academic instructors. This extra measure of autonomy contributed to their ability to design classrooms that worked.

Student Perceptions: A Strong Classroom Culture Engages Students

In all cases except the English course, students entered these classrooms with a wide range of expectations, abilities, interests, and goals. Many were unmotivated to learn or participate. However, according to the students' own reports, these teachers were successful in engaging and teaching them. Moreover, the students came to understand their classrooms: They knew what their roles were, what they were expected to do, what they could expect the teacher to do, why they were learning the way they were, and what was valued. In a word, they had been "enculturated" into the culture of practice in the classroom. They had positive attitudes toward learning by participating in that culture and reported they had learned many of the skills and attitudes that teachers aimed for.

Research and Policy Implications

This study has important lessons for practitioners who wish to design and conduct classes that impart generic skills and attitudes. It also has research and policy implications.

• Generic skills can be taught in academic and vocational classrooms. Although only one of the five successful classrooms that we studied was an academic one, we observed no reason why other academic classrooms could not also target generic skills and attitudes as Mr. Price did.
  
  
• Designin classrooms to provide authentic practice is key. For both academic and vocational classes, the key to imparting generic skills and attitudes is to design classroom instruction around project work that situates learning in a particular context and provides opportunities for authentic practice in a domain. Authentic practice will usually reflect an occupational culture, but an important reference culture for Mr. Price's classroom was that of the college student. The reference culture should be rich enough to permit the learning of complex reasoning and cooperative skills.
  
  
• Situated learning enhances student learning and engagement. When students learn by performing tasks that are situated in authentic practice, their learning is made meaningful by its context. Specific lessons are immediately applied and integrated; success is rewarded by progress toward a larger goal. Learning is not abstract or decontextualized.
  
  
• Teachers need to hold high expectations for students. When teachers do not hold high positive expectations for student performance and behavior, they do not design and conduct the kinds of rich and challenging classrooms that can foster the learning of generic skills and attitudes. The teacher of one of the successful classrooms in our sample also taught the least successful: In the latter, his low expectations for the enrolled students caused him to abandon many of his teaching skills and focus instead on playing "therapist." While this class did in fact include many students with low ability and emotional or behavioral problems, we observed some of the same students behaving appropriately and engaging in learning activities in other classes.
  
  
• Teacher training and staff development need change. Teachers are not currently trained to design and conduct classrooms based on a culture of authentic practice. The teachers in the classrooms that worked had personal avocations or nonteaching professional backgrounds that they could combine with their teaching expertise. Programs that enhance teacher experience in reference culture--for example, through summer apprenticeships in local firms--might increase the number of teachers who are capable of teaching classes reflecting authentic practice.
  
  
• Teachers need autonomy and additional resources. Teachers need the freedom to create a culture of practice within their classrooms that fosters learning and engagement. They also need resources to provide an environment that will support authentic practice and highly individualized, exploratory learning.
  
  
• Assessment needs to measure generic skills learning. We found that teachers can effectively impart generic skills and attitudes both in academic and vocational settings. If school reform is to move in this direction, the incentives must be in place to encourage and reward teachers and students to focus on generic skills. Current standardized assessments do not measure these skills and attitudes.
  
  
• Teaching generic skills connects to other school reforms. We believe that classrooms that successfully impart generic skills could also contribute toward other reforms often called for today, such as improved school to work or college transition and a focus on "foundation skills."
  
  
• Focus on generic skills can help integrate academic and vocational education. Because generic skills and attitudes can be taught in both academic and vocational settings, the focus on generic skills may be an important strategy in the current reform to integrate academic and vocational education. Generic skills and attitudes could provide a common core for an integrated curriculum, and the elements of classroom design and the teaching techniques that we have identified could provide the basis for an integrated pedagogy. In this sense, a focus on instruction in generic skills and attitudes could be one model for integrating academic and vocational education.

[1]We also surveyed students to gather background information and information on their beliefs regarding their own ability to learn and to engage socially, and we linked these measures to student outcomes and background information. The results of this survey are being documented in a separate report.

[2]We identified domains of two types: "folk" domains, which were meaningful to the participants in the classroom; and "analytic" domains, which were meaningful in terms of the theoretical frameworks we drew upon in education research, cognitive science, etc.

[3]Another aspect of access is that these highly successful courses were not available to all students because of constraints imposed by tracking and by course crediting practices.