Each unit in Q: Skills for Success begins with a question: What is the best kind of vacation? Does taking risks change our lives? What inspires innovation? Q: Skills for Success is renowned for helping students to achieve academic success in English. The Third Edition helps students to develop the techniques and critical thinking skills they need for academic study with new Critical Thinking Strategies, updated texts and topics and 100% new assessment.
Each unit builds on activities and techniques to develop your students’ critical thinking skills as they answer the unit opener questions, but the questions are directed at the students – and we wanted to hear how you would answer them!
So we asked, and for four weeks, your fellow teachers submitted their responses to a few of the questions. Read on for some of the answers!
How is work changing?
We lost sense of real community, but we have flexibility
– Lilia, Big Rapids
Work is changing with dynamic changes in our routines, our style of variation in working and with an active environment
– MLZS
How do we make decisions?
We make decisions based on the information we have as well as from the people around us. Ideally, we all employ scholarly articles and technical advice to inform our decisions. Inherent in all of these decisions is the bias we bring from our race, culture, and social status among other variables. Understanding our bias is key to making informed and sensitive decisions.
– Amy, Albany
I love teaching students to use the 6 Hats for decision making. Sometimes they like to add a 7th hat (spirituality) and that adds an interesting element. For sure, making decisions should not be based merely on feeling – balance and open-mindedness are key. Making decisions means looking beyond and beneath what is right in front of you.
– Vicki, Visakhapatnam
How does technology affect our relationships?
Technology has been a ‘double-edged sword’ for relationships. On one hand, it has provided the means to stay in touch with family and friends overseas through Skype, Facebook and various other social media platforms. In contrast, it has removed the personal aspect of face-to-face communication. Technology has reduced communication to mere words, and these words – unaccompanied by facial expressions or emotions – can be misconstrued and serve as further de-personification of society.
– Becky, Pittsburgh
This is a question that requires new thinking in creative ways. People will have to describe how they think about this question which will challenge norms. Relationships are complicated.
– Karen, Longmont
It makes us more aware of relationships and sensitive to the fact that we need to support them to make them happen.
– Mara, Pasadena
Technology works both ways. On one hand, it can bring us together. I live in the USA, but I am able to stay in touch with my brother who lives in Europe through free apps, like Signal. On the other hand, technology can isolate people from one another. People who do a lot of gaming, for example, might be isolated in their basements or pods, with their only interactions being people they neither know nor see.
– Kat, Longmont
On the one hand, technology makes it easier to get in touch with people. Social media allows almost instant connectivity, even with people we have considered “long lost” because we haven’t been in touch with them for a while. On the other hand, this abundance of opportunity to connect doesn’t necessarily mean that we have quality connections that are required for good relationships. A video chat might allow us to see someone while talking to them, but it doesn’t mean we’re going to have the same meaningful connection we would have if we went for a walk or got a cup of tea with them. Having more connections might mean spending less time with any one person, thereby resulting in poorer relationships.
– Anna-Maria, Iowa City
I love that we are more connected with each other and we are no longer bound by where we are to be able to make a connection. Technology has been a wonderful tool in allowing me to connect with others especially during the pandemic. I usually use the first few minutes of our online class to do a wellness check and talk about our lives with students. We have been taking classes together for quite some time so our class members know each other quite well. Our online classes also act as a support group as we go through different life experiences. While online learning can be challenging, it allows those with barriers to education to access it so I am thankful for that!
– Tasneem, Fairbanks
In my opinion technology nowadays affects our relationships in many ways. Some of them are good, but some are really bad. Let me explain more in detail. Good example of technology’s effect on relationships is the fact that we all are available nearly 24/7, via different means of communication. …the possibilities that technology brings to lives of modern society are huge. On the other hand, the bad side of using technology in our daily routine in education, work, entertainment, etc., is lack of face to face conversation. People get lost without conversation in person…. It is really hard to balance using technology at the level that will not harm one’s life.…
What future will bring to us as a consequence of technology usage is still not apparent. Is our future bright or dark? We really cannot say yet. But we need to believe that we will handle and cope with the bad side of technology and gain our relationships in a manner featured to only human beings.
– Tomislav, Pitomaca
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Some answers have been slightly edited. These responses do not reflect the position of Oxford University Press.
