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3 Assessing Interpersonal Skills
Pages 39-62

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From page 39...
... For example, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills includes numerous interpersonal capacities, such as working cre atively with others, communicating clearly, and collaborating with others, among the skills students should learn as they progress from preschool through postsecondary study (see Box 3-1 for the definitions of the relevant skills in the organization's P-21 Framework)
From page 40...
... workshop report that offered a preliminary definition of 21st century skills described one broad category of interpersonal skills (National Research Council, 2010, p.
From page 41...
... Nevertheless, appreciation for the importance of these skills -- not just in business settings, but in sci entific and technical collaboration, and in both K-12 and postsecondary education settings -- has been growing. Researchers have documented benefits these skills confer, Fiore noted.
From page 42...
... It is useful to consider 21st century skills in basic categories (e.g., cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal) , but it is still true that interpersonal skills draw on many capacities, such as knowledge of social customs and the capacity to solve problems associated with social expectations and interactions.
From page 43...
... 43 ASSESSING INTERPERSONAL SKILLS TABLE 3-1 Taxonomy of Interpersonal Skills Interpersonal Skill Description Related Skills Communication Skills Paying close attention to Listening with empathy Active Listening what is being said, asking the and sympathy; listening for other party to explain exactly understanding what he or she means, and requesting that ambiguous ideas or statements are repeated Sending verbal messages Enunciating; expressing Oral constructively yourself clearly; Communication communicating emotion; interpersonal communication Writing clearly and Clarity; communicating Written appropriately intended meaning Communication Directly expressing one's Proposing ideas; social Assertive feelings, preferences, needs, assertiveness; defense of Communication and opinions in a way that rights; directive; asserting is neither threatening nor your needs punishing to another person Reinforcing or replacing Expression of feelings; Nonverbal spoken communication perception/recognition of Communication through the use of body feelings; facial regard language, gestures, voice, or artifacts Relationship-Building Skills Understanding and working Adaptability; shared Cooperation and with others in groups or teams; situational awareness; Coordination includes offering help to performance monitoring those who need it and pacing and feedback; interpersonal activities to fit the needs of the relations; communication; team decision making; cohesion; group problem solving; being a team player An individual's faith or belief Self-awareness; selfTrust in the integrity or reliability disclosure; swift trust of another person or thing; willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that certain actions important to the trustor will be performed continued
From page 44...
... 44 ASSESSING 21ST CENTURY SKILLS TABLE 3-1 Continued Interpersonal Skill Description Related Skills Appreciating individual Acceptance; openness Intercultural differences among people to new ideas; sensitivity Sensitivity to others; cross-cultural relations A set of basic individual Exceeding customer's Service Orientation predispositions and an expectations; customer inclination to provide service, satisfaction skills; ability to be courteous and helpful in to maintain positive dealing with customers, clients, client relationship; and associates selling; building rapport; representing the organization to customers and the public Process by which individuals Self-expression; faceSelf-Presentation attempt to influence the saving and impression reactions and images people management; managing have of them and their ideas; perceptions; self-promotion managing these impressions encompasses a wide range of behaviors designed to create a positive influence on work associates Guiding people toward Business etiquette; Social Influence the adoption of specific reasoning; friendliness; behaviors, beliefs, or attitudes; coalition building; influencing the distribution of bargaining; appeals to advantages and disadvantages higher authority; imposing within an organization through sanctions; networking; one's actions persuasion, positive political skills Advocating one's position Conflict-handling style; Conflict Resolution with an open mind, not taking conflict management; and Negotiation personally other members' conflict prevention; disagreements, putting oneself compromising; problem in the other's shoes, following solving; integrative rational argument and bargaining; principled avoiding premature evaluation, negotiation; cultural and trying to synthesize the negotiation; mediation best ideas from all viewpoints and perspectives SOURCE: Klein, DeRouin, and Salas (2006)
From page 45...
... More specifi cally, Figure 3-1 sets up a way of thinking about these skills in the contexts in which they are used. The implication for assessment is that one would need to conduct the measurement in a suitable, realistic context in order to be able to examine the attitudes, cognitive processes, and behaviors that constitute social skills.
From page 46...
... asked members of work teams in science and technical contexts to rate one another on five general categories: contribution to the team's work; interaction with teammates; contribution to keeping the team on track; expectations for quality; and possession of relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities. Another approach, Fiore noted, is to use situational judgment tests (SJTs)
From page 47...
... has suggested the value of a similar continuum for interpersonal skills. Inspired by the craft guilds common in Europe during the Middle Ages, Hoffman proposed that assessment developers use the guidelines for novices, journeymen, and master craftsmen, for example, as the basis for operational definitions of developing social expertise.
From page 48...
... These distinctions, he observed, are a useful reminder that examining the interactions among different facets of interpersonal skills requires clarity about each facet. ASSESSMENT EXAMPLES The workshop included examples of four different types of assess ments of interpersonal skills intended for different educational and selec tion purposes -- an online portfolio assessment designed for high school students; an online assessment for community college students; a situ ational judgment test used to select students for medical school in Bel gium; and a collection of assessment center approaches used for employee selection, promotion, and training purposes.
From page 49...
... Online Portfolio Assessment of High School Students3 Bob Lenz described the experience of incorporating in the curriculum and assessing several key interpersonal skills in an urban high school environment. Envision Schools is a program created with corporate and foundation funding to serve disadvantaged high school students.
From page 50...
... Lenz showed examples of several student portfolios to demonstrate the ways in which 21st century skills, including interpersonal ones, are woven into both the curriculum and the assessments. In his view, teaching skills such as leadership and collaboration, together with the academic content, and holding the students to high expectations that incorporate these sorts of skills, is the best way to prepare the students to succeed in college, where there may be fewer faculty supports.
From page 51...
... Cooperative learning opportunities are key to developing social skills and knowledge. For the skills that are both social and technical, students need practice with reflection and feedback opportunities, modeling and scaffolding of desirable approaches, opportunities to see both correct and incorrect examples, and inquiry-based instructional practices.
From page 52...
... Sample social skill characteristic task features: The assessment task will be scenario-based and involve a group of individu als charged with solving a work-related problem. The assessment will involve a conflict among team members and require the social processes of listening, negotiation, and decision making.
From page 53...
... . They settled on an interview format, which they called EvidenceCentered Assessment Reflection, to begin to identify the specific skills required in each field, to identify the assessment features that could pro duce evidence of specific kinds of learning, and then to begin developing specific prompts, stimuli, performance descriptions, and scoring rubrics for the learning outcomes they wanted to measure.
From page 54...
... Assessing Medical Students' Interpersonal Skills6 Filip Lievens described a project conducted at Ghent University in Belgium, in which he and colleagues developed a measure of interpersonal skills in a high-stakes context: medical school admissions. The proj ect began with a request from the Belgian government, in 1997, for a measure of these skills that could be used not only to measure the current capacities of physicians, but also to predict the capacities of candidates and thus be useful for selection.
From page 55...
... . The two interpersonal skills addressed -- in 30 items -- are building and maintaining relationships and exchanging information.
From page 56...
... 0.60 Cognitive test 0.50 0.40 0.30 0.20 SJT 0.10 0.00 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 Year 7 Figure 3-2.eps FIGURE 3-2 Correlations between cognitive and interpersonal components (situational judgment test, or SJT) of thebitmap school admission test and medical medical school GPA.
From page 57...
... Lievens summarized a few points he has observed about the addition of the interpersonal skills component to the admissions test: • While cognitive assessments are better at predicting GPA, the assessments of interpersonal skills were superior at predicting performance in internships and on the job.7 • Applicants respond favorably to the interpersonal component of the test -- Lievens did not claim this component is the reason but noted a sharp increase in the test-taking population. 7 Lievens mentioned but did not show data indicating (1)
From page 58...
... While not making a causal claim, Lievens noted that the increased pass rate may be due to the fact that universities have also changed their curricula to place more emphasis on interper sonal skills, especially in the first year. Assessment Centers8 Lynn Gracin Collins began by explaining what an assessment center is.
From page 59...
... Some examples of the skills assessed include the following: • Interpersonal: communication, influencing others, learning from interactions, leadership, teamwork, fostering relationships, con flict management • Cognitive: problem solving, decision making, innovation, creativ ity, planning and organizing • Intrapersonal: adaptability, drive, tolerance for stress, motivation, conscientiousness To provide a sense of the steps involved in developing assessment center tasks, Collins laid out the general plan for a recent assessment they developed called the Technology Enhanced Assessment Center (TEAC)
From page 60...
... Providing behavioral summary scales, which describe the actual behaviors associated with each score level, also help the assessors more accurately interpret the scoring guide. She also noted considerable information is available about the valid ity of assessment centers.
From page 61...
... One advantage of assessment center methods is they appear not to have adverse impact on minority groups. Collins said research documents that they tend to be unbiased in predictions of job performance.


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