Helping students learn problem-solving and collaboration skills will be essential to their future job success. In today’s global workforce, employees must be able to work together across geographies and time zones to solve problems, generate solutions, and effect change.
School leaders are charged with empowering students to learn these fundamental competencies through their curricula and programs.
A recent study highlights that students of different cultures and learning environments may be able to help each other strengthen their problem-solving skills in different capacities. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development presented 15-year-old students from 57 countries with collaborative problem-solving tasks to measure their skills.
The findings were interesting. Certain students—like those from Korea, Finland, and Canada—performed high in science, math, and reading assessments and also illustrated strong collaborative problem-solving skills. Others students—like those from Japan, Australia, and New Zealand—performed well on the academic assessments and even better in problem-solving.
Students from the U.S. tended to perform much better in collaborative problem-solving tasks than on academic assessments. And students from China performed well in the academic assessments but often had average scores when it came to problem-solving.
All told, the researchers found that “only 8% of students can handle problem-solving tasks with fairly high collaboration complexity that requires them to maintain awareness of group dynamics, take the initiative to overcome obstacles, and resolve disagreements and conflicts. Still, three-quarters of students show that they can contribute to a collaborate effort to solve a problem of medium difficulty and that they can consider different perspectives in their interactions.”
This study shows that students of different educational backgrounds and cultures could learn much from each other. Despite how they perform academically, students of different capacities, cultures, and expereinces can work together to share competencies, problem-solve, and grow.
The study also revealed that positive attitudes toward collaboration improve problem-solving skills. According to the report, students were asked “how often they engage in communication-intensive activities, such as explaining their ideas in science class, spending time in the laboratory doing practical experiments, arguing about science questions, and taking part in class debates about investigations. The results show a clear relationship between these activities and positive attitudes toward collaboration.”
There are a few things that private-independent schools can take from this report. If your school currently has or is considering an international student program, consider how your entire student body interacts. Are opportunities available for collaboration and problem-solving where students can share skills, attitudes, and competencies?
If you don’t have an international program, consider if one makes sense for your mission and your students. If not, how else can you help students learn from one another and build skills to work together? Activities should always be mission-appropriate, but can help to expand students’ minds and prepare them for their future in a global, collaborative world.
Additional ISM resources:
The Source for Private School News Vol. 17 No. 2 How Are Your International Students Adjusting?
The Source for Business and Operations Vol. 15 No. 6 Building an International Student Program Team
The Source for Private School News Vol. 13 No. 3 International Recruitment Strategies
Additional ISM resources for Gold members:
I&P Vol. 42 No. 4 Your International Student Program, Part One
I&P Vol. 42 No. 5 Your International Student Program, Part Two
