ERIC Number: ED251630
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1982-Dec
Pages: 5
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Developing Good Workers. Research Brief.
Peterson, Robert M.
Developing the productive capacities of students is a valid function of schooling and is not in conflict or competition with other educational purposes, such as academic excellence. Employers and young workers in the San Francisco Bay area noted attributes that workers need for success in entry-level unskilled or junior professional jobs. These attributes include basic skills; functional skills such as problem solving, learning and inquiry, interpersonal competence, and task management; social knowledge; social maturity; self-development; and work content skills. Such attributes can be acquired through academic studies if the school is organized and managed as a workplace in which learning is the work to be performed. Adolescent work experience in the commercial world is of limited value in fostering productive capacity and may have the contrary effect. When planned and carried out with appropriate educational supports, direct experience in non-school workplaces can make significant contributions to the development of productive capacity. The development of general skills, understanding, and habits of conduct should be recognized as legitimate and essential preparation for productive adult employment and should receive higher educational priority than the development of specialized occupational skills. (KC)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Practitioners
Language: English
Sponsor: National Inst. of Education (DHEW), Washington, DC.
Authoring Institution: Far West Lab. for Educational Research and Development, San Francisco, CA.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A