Non-Cognitive Skills
Non-Cognitive Skills are skills that cannot be measured in academic tests.
They are focused as skills that determines the quality of life.
5 important non-cognitive skills are called "Big 5". It includes Conscientiousness, Openness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Emotional Stability.
Perseverance, Social Competencies (including leadership), Creativity, Metacognitive Strategies (the ability to recognize your own status), Self-Control, Motivation, Self-Perceptions are also included in non-cognitive skills [GS].
Experience to reinforce non-cognitive skills are not only limited to childhood.
They can also be trained in adulthood. For example, Self control can be improved by doing something repeatedly.
・Schools and non-cognitive skills
According to an analysis of the GED test, students who didn't go to school but passed GED have lower employment rates and annual income than students who graduated from high school. If academic skills are the only one important component, this result can never occur [HHK].
On the other hand, it is known that (regardless to the level of high school) students who got better grades have lower dropout rates in university [BCM].
These studies suggest that schools are not only a place to improve academic skills but also a place to train non-cognitive skills.
・Leadership
Leadership is the action of
1. suggest ideas to reach goals,
2. suggest to team members to increase their involvement.
Not only leaders but also everyone in team should have leadership.
A person with leadership can easily get a job and obtain a positive growth circle.
・Self-Efficacy
When a person takes action, the following estimations come up in mind:
1. Estimation for the result of action
2. Estimation for the efficacy of action
These estimations are called self-efficacy[B]. In other words, self-efficacy is "reliability to yourself", so this is one type of non-cognitive skills.
References
[GS] Gutman, L. M., & Schoon, I. (2013). The impact of non-cognitive skills on outcomes for young people. Education Endowment Foundation, 59.
[HHK] Heckman, J. J., Humphries, J. E., & Kautz, T. (Eds.). (2014). The myth of achievement tests: The GED and the role of character in American life. University of Chicago Press.
[BCM] Bowen, W. G., Chingos, M. M., & McPherson, M. S. (2009). Crossing the finish line: Completing college at America's public universities (Vol. 52). Princeton University Press.
[B] Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological review, 84(2), 191.
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