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The 5th Asan Memorial Lecture
The Asan Memorial Lecture series was established by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies as one of its signature programs, in keeping with the Institute’s mandate to “provide innovative policy solutions and spearhead public discourse on many of the core issues that Korea, East Asia and the global community face.”
On August 8th, 2011, the Asan Institute for Policy Studies invited Professor James Heckman, the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and a 2000 Nobel Laureate in Economics, to deliver the Fifth Asan Memorial Lecture. In his lecture, titled “What Tests Miss: Hard Evidence on Soft Skills,” Professor Heckman criticized contemporary societies for focusing excessively on cognitive test scores to determine individuals’ success. He argued that non-cognitive or “soft” skills are more important predictors of an individual’s future career success and productivity. Based on his research, Professor Heckman proposed several governmental education policies to stress the importance of developing “soft” skills among students.