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Show State School Board to Consider 'Basics' "Critical and logical thinking are key issues in the 'Definition of Basic Skills' to be considered by the Utah State Board of Education," Steve Garrett, Cedar City Board member, indicated. The board will adopt a formal definition of basic skills as an outcrop of the minimum compentency requries adopted by the board last year, Garrett said. The State Board will meet in Orem today, Thursday, and Friday. "What we are defining," Garrett said, "is a broad conception of basic skills that school districts may apply in establishing their own minimum competency programs that must be in affect by 1980, the state board member stated. "That means that sophomore studnets in high schools this year will be required to pass competency tests before graduation certificates can be offered," he pointed out. "I'm more concerned about total communication skills than simply mastering reading, writing and arithmetic," arith-metic," Garrett stated. The proposed definition of basic skills offers "breath" that is important in our society, he said. By definition basic skills, if adopted will include: Skills of communication, critical and logical thinking, responsible decision making, arithmetic understanding un-derstanding and performance, per-formance, occupational preparation, getting along with others, and tuilizing the arts as intragel to learning and to encourage cultural and perceptual growth. The rationale behind the identification of bias skills has been brought about by people from throughout the nation that feel that students are less accomplished in the basic skills than they should be. "Therefore the State Board of Education has named 'Instruction in the Basic Skills' as one of Utah's education priorities." If adopted the Basic Skills will consider six areas of competency. Those areas of consideration con-sideration and the expectations ex-pectations of each will be presented to the board as follows: 1. Skills of communications; com-munications; speaking and listening, writing and reading, persuading and interacting, organizing ideas, compsing, enjoying and responding, evaluating. 2. Arithmetic skills: computing, measuring, estimating, understanding, problem solving. 3. Skills in in critical and logical thinking and responsible decision making: seeking, organizing and composing ideas, analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating, memorizing, generalizing interpreting, testing, revising, applying, purposing, imagining, discovering, inferring and creating. 4. Skills in getting along with others which facilitate: personal warmth, consideration con-sideration of others, concern for self, sense of individual worth, confidence, formation for-mation of positive appropriate ap-propriate values, personal and group representation-acts representation-acts and appearances which create personal perceptions for others and contributre to their image of an individual, leadership, followership-commitment followership-commitment to group goals, commitment to leadershiip or loyalty, commitment to law or rules and ethical principles, awareness of other cultures and languages. 5. Skills in occupational perception: career awareness, career ex-ploration, ex-ploration, career preparation specialization, occupational skill improvement. im-provement. 6. Skills in the arts: ability to express thoughts and feelings artistically, ability to make aesthetic decisions that enrich the qualifications of life, ability to use many forms of symbolism to communicate perceptions, mastery of skills relating to such elements as sound, movement, line, pattern, ' forms, space, shape, rhyth-m, rhyth-m, time and energy as used in many disciplines, ability and motivation to pain, to reason, to aspire, to perfect and to create, to have awareness of self as a worthwhile worth-while human being. |