Next steps
Reading is an essential skill for all of us and developing our skills in reading is a good investment. This unit is packed with practical activities which are aimed at making reading more enjoyable and rewarding. This unit also includes sections on how to read actively and critically.
Author(s): The Open University

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5.1.5 Is there an alternative school of thought?
Reading is an essential skill for all of us and developing our skills in reading is a good investment. This unit is packed with practical activities which are aimed at making reading more enjoyable and rewarding. This unit also includes sections on how to read actively and critically.
Author(s): The Open University

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5.1.4 What evidence is offered?
Reading is an essential skill for all of us and developing our skills in reading is a good investment. This unit is packed with practical activities which are aimed at making reading more enjoyable and rewarding. This unit also includes sections on how to read actively and critically.
Author(s): The Open University

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5.1 Critical questions
Reading is an essential skill for all of us and developing our skills in reading is a good investment. This unit is packed with practical activities which are aimed at making reading more enjoyable and rewarding. This unit also includes sections on how to read actively and critically.
Author(s): The Open University

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4.5 When you get stuck
Reading is an essential skill for all of us and developing our skills in reading is a good investment. This unit is packed with practical activities which are aimed at making reading more enjoyable and rewarding. This unit also includes sections on how to read actively and critically.
Author(s): The Open University

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4.4 Questioning what you read
Reading is an essential skill for all of us and developing our skills in reading is a good investment. This unit is packed with practical activities which are aimed at making reading more enjoyable and rewarding. This unit also includes sections on how to read actively and critically.
Author(s): The Open University

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4.3 Does writing on a book seem wrong?
Reading is an essential skill for all of us and developing our skills in reading is a good investment. This unit is packed with practical activities which are aimed at making reading more enjoyable and rewarding. This unit also includes sections on how to read actively and critically.
Author(s): The Open University

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4.2 Notes in the margins
Reading is an essential skill for all of us and developing our skills in reading is a good investment. This unit is packed with practical activities which are aimed at making reading more enjoyable and rewarding. This unit also includes sections on how to read actively and critically.
Author(s): The Open University

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3.2 Reading to learn
Reading is an essential skill for all of us and developing our skills in reading is a good investment. This unit is packed with practical activities which are aimed at making reading more enjoyable and rewarding. This unit also includes sections on how to read actively and critically.
Author(s): The Open University

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2.1.3 Concept cards
Reading is an essential skill for all of us and developing our skills in reading is a good investment. This unit is packed with practical activities which are aimed at making reading more enjoyable and rewarding. This unit also includes sections on how to read actively and critically.
Author(s): The Open University

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2.1.2 Dictionaries
Reading is an essential skill for all of us and developing our skills in reading is a good investment. This unit is packed with practical activities which are aimed at making reading more enjoyable and rewarding. This unit also includes sections on how to read actively and critically.
Author(s): The Open University

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9.8 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
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9.7.2 Assess the effectiveness of your strategy

When you come to make a final assessment of the effectiveness of your strategy, you need to consider aspects such as how progress was made, the quality of the work, the working relationships of the group members, and how difficulties and problems were addressed. If you have been able to maintain good records from meetings, progress reports, and your own reflective comments, you should be able to look back and be objective about the work and strategy that the group developed. Use the goals you
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9.4 Activity: Developing your strategy for using skills in working with others

Develop a strategy for using skills in working with others over a period of time. Your strategy should include:

  • an identification of the opportunities you can use to practise your skills
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9.3.4 Plan work with others for achieving the quality outcomes required

If you are doing this to complete a project as part of your study, check if the work is going to be assessed, and make sure you know how marks will be allocated and what criteria will be used. Take time to read carefully any instructions you have been given on group work for the activity – ask your tutor for advice if you are unsure about anything, particularly if this is the first time you have been set a group task. Check whether you will be assessed as a group or as individuals. Will the
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9.3.2 Identify what you hope to achieve

It is a good idea to know not only what you are trying to achieve, but also when you have achieved it, so it is important that your goals are clear and that you can easily measure your progress against them. Setting realistic targets, planning actions and modifying those plans in the light of experience are all part of developing this key skill, but this time they need to be done and negotiated within the group.

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9.3.1 Establish opportunities for using skills in working with others

You need to identify activities that will provide you with opportunities for working with others over a period of 3 months or so. This could involve both one-to-one and group situations, such as working on a particular project at work, a group project as part of your course or e-conferencing on a group assignment.

Time out


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8.7 Evaluating strategy and presenting outcomes

This stage of the framework focuses on identifying what you have achieved and how well you have achieved it. It involves you in evaluating your strategy and presenting the outcomes of your work. As you evaluate and assess your strategy, identify aspects of your problem-solving skills that you want to develop further. At the end of this stage, use the records in your Skills File to complete the activity ‘Evaluating your problem-solving strategy and presenting outcomes’ and pull togeth
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8.5.1 Generate a variety of ways of tackling problems

Where the best way, or, indeed, any way, of tackling a problem is not obvious, there are a number of tools and techniques which can be useful to stimulate ideas and different ways of thinking:

  • reasoning: reaching conclusions or deciding on paths of action by means-end analysis or critical-path analysis;

  • matching: recognising similarities with other situations, drawing analogies, adapting solutions that have worked or s
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