4.4.1 Organise and clearly present relevant information You need to know how to present information in ways that best suit your purpose, subject and audience, that is how to structure coherently what you say so that a sequence of ideas may be followed easily; how to use a range of techniques to help present information and support your argument (such as diagrams and models), and when to use technical vocabulary and conventions. Check that your work meets relevant guidelines and conventions. You may have guidelines about this at work and different
4.3.4 Monitor and critically reflect on your use of communication skills You need to know how to track and record your progress on your use of communication skills. Try to assess the overall quality of your written and oral work and the way you produced the work. Checklists and criteria provided as part of the project or assignment and those set out in the Bookmark can be very useful tools in helping you to assess for yourself precisely what you are doing and how well you are doing it. Unless you know what you are doing wrong, it is very difficult to improve.
4.3.3 Communicate relevant information A main outcome of this key skill is that you will be able to communicate complex information orally, visually and through writing. Complex subjects are those that include a number of ideas, some of which may be abstract, very detailed, difficult to follow or require you to deal with sensitive issues or the interpretation of others’ viewpoints. Communicating information at this level may involve using technical vocabulary, carefully structuring what you say and/or write, and using diag
4.3.2 Synthesise information Synthesising information is about assessing the new information and prior information in relation to each other, looking for logical relationships in the material, identifying the important ideas, and taking a critical attitude towards the material by relating it to your own views and experiences and thinking about how the material can be used. Synthesising information is not just summarising the information or identifying main points. 3.10 Drawing ideas together This key skill has used a three-stage framework for developing your skills. By developing a strategy, monitoring your progress and evaluating your overall approach, you take an active role in your own learning. But learning does not necessarily follow a path of steady improvement, it involves change: revisiting ideas, seeing things from different perspectives, tackling things in different ways. You are unlikely to be able to complete your work by working through it from beginning to end 3.4.2 Using different ways and approaches to learn Always aim to select the way of learning that fits with what you intend to learn. If your goal is to improve your presentation skills, you need to prepare and practise presenting your work. If you need to relate theory to practise in your job, you need to spend time understanding how theory can relate to practice, perhaps by reviewing and discussing case studies. This may seem obvious but people often make wrong choices out of habit. There is a natural tendency to use ways we feel most famili 3.4 Monitoring progress Monitoring progress is about keeping track of what you are doing and how well you are doing it as you work towards your targets. It is about being able to make an assessment about yourself and being ‘self aware’ about your own capabilities, how you learn best, things that have helped you and so on. One problem in becoming more aware of yourself and making a self-assessment is that you may not know enough terms to describe yourself. Think of the first time you were asked to describe a pain 3.2.6 Achieving your goals Now that you have established what you intend to do and identified specific targets to achieve them, think about how you can meet your targets, taking into account what you are trying to do and looking carefully at the most effective way to do it. This might be by attending a training course or skills workshop, prioritising your time differently, taking an active part in e-tutorials, or checking out resources and giving yourself time to practise new ways of working. Take into account th 3.2.5 Plan how these targets will be met You may be anxious to get on with achieving your targets but think first before you plunge in. In setting targets, think about how they will be achieved by identifying action points and deadlines, prioritising tasks and identifying resources and support from others. Include opportunities to discuss ideas/work with others and build in time to receive feedback and reflect on it. Planning how to achieve your targets involves all of the functions that take place before you start on the actual tas 3.2.3 Identify and research relevant sources of information This is about identifying and tracking down the resources you need – books, reports, manuals, training courses and people. It involves finding out what is available to help you with the task at hand – in this case improving a particular skill. Skills resources may be included as part of your course or you may have manuals and online resources available at work. People represent important sources of information and support, for example your tutor, manager, other students and colleag 3.2.1Review your current capabilities, including your preferred learning style Before you begin to plan in detail what you hope to achieve, it is useful to look at relevant examples of previous work or study as well as the feedback you received from different people. This review should help you to confirm those areas you need and/or want to work on. Feedback from others may also point out areas you need to work on which are different from the ones you expected. These areas might relate to specific skills, such as interrogating a database, or they might be more general, 3.2 Developing a strategy In developing a strategy for this key skill you need to: review your current capabilities and identify what you hope to achieve in the future; identify opportunities for using skills to improve your own learning and performance and the resources you might need, for example, training manuals and people; and draw up a plan of action. 2.3.3 Evaluating your strategy and presenting outcomes This stage is about evaluating your strategy – what you've achieved and judging how well you achieved it-and presenting your work. An evaluation requires you to assess your overall strategy and work in terms of its strengths and weaknesses. Evaluating your strategy, however, is not simply describing what you have done, listing your successes, or even blaming yourself or others for things that didn't go according to plan. Evaluation is about considering how successful were the methods 2.3.1 Developing a strategy A common feature of how effective people work is that they take time to prepare well. They know which aspects they are competent to do and those that they need to work on, plan carefully and identify possible sources of information and support. In other words they develop a strategy. A strategy is a plan for taking you towards and achieving a goal. The purpose of planning is to anticipate opportunities to learn that will improve your performance and develop your capabilities. A strategy 2.3 The key skills framework In this unit each key skill section uses a common three-stage framework to help you develop your skills. The stages of this framework are:
developing a strategy for how you are going to tackle the key skill;
monitoring your progress as you develop your skills;
evaluating the strategy you have used and presenting outcomes of your work. But working on your skills and techniques i 2.1 A framework for learning This section introduces the key skills approach to learning, outlining a three-stage framework to support the development of your skills, and relating this framework to learning tasks you are likely to come across. All of us use key skills as part of our study and work. Working with others in teams, sharing ideas, solving problems, researching information and writing essays and reports are all activities using key skills. Developing our key skills is not about remembering facts – but 1.4 Using this unit There is no single way to use this unit and no single way to develop your key skills. The unit is designed so that you can use it flexibly, moving around the sections to suit yourself. You can also choose when to use the unit, but remember that skills development does not happen in isolation – it requires ‘content’. Therefore, you will find it helpful to use the unit alongside a course or a specific project so that it provides you with opportunities to develop, practise and get feedbac 1.1.1 When do we use key skills? Key skills underpin almost everything we do. In the following table, there are some examples of when we use key skills as part of our studies or in other areas of our lives. As you read through the list, think about how confident you are in each of the key skills. Click on 'View document' below for a printable version of Table 1 that you can fill in. 1.1 What are key skills? Key skills underpin our ability to carry out successfully a wide range of tasks in higher education, employment and whenever and wherever we continue to learn. Developing skills is not a one-off task. It takes time, and is an active blend of actually using the skill and then thinking about what you are doing and how you are doing it. Give yourself opportunities to develop and practise your skills in different contexts – at home or at work, in clubs or societies – as well as during Learning outcomes Having studied this unit you should be able to set skills targets and provide evidence that you have met these in the following areas: own learning and performance; communication; information technology; information literacy; application of number; problem solving; working with others.
