Writing Competencies

To be effective, Programme Competencies should aim to be

Meaningful
Written in jargon-free language that can be understood by all stakeholders and consistently interpreted by them.
Relevant
Aligned with the four domains of relevance to student futures: academic, life-long personal, professional, and societal.
Enhanced
There must be an activity or output that allows students to evidence their level of competence that is quantifiable.
Valuable
Recognised by key stakeholders as being necessary for the personal and professional future of the students.

The structure of a competence

The following example of competence was included in a final programme document for the University of Hull Biosciences degrees. It represents one of ten programme competencies we expect students to have evidenced as part of their degree.

Information Literacy. Find, read, evaluate and use appropriate literature; be able to analyse, synthesise and summarise information critically. With recognition that much of what they are taught is contested, subjective, and provisional, particularly in the light of continuing scientific advances.

Prior to teaching the degree, it made a lot of sense and aligned well with the available CBE frameworks. However, in practice this is a very complex construct made up of multiple concepts and outcomes. At the time, not much consideration was given to how we would ask students to evidence the competency or how it would contribute to a percentage grade. Students struggled to understand where they had done this within the course and how it might apply to their futures.

In order to facilitate the construction of more effective Programme Competencies, we attempt to describe a structural approach to creating them for your programme. We do this by breaking down the structure of a programme competence into three/four components:

1. Student Action

A verb that describes what the student can ‘do’

2. Disciplinary Knowledge

Disciplinary content, data, legislation, and practices as well as the appropriate sources of information that support them

3. Assessable Outcome

A clear statement of what has been evaluated to indicate the level of competence the student has evidenced

Additional concepts that underpin effective competencies (although they do not need to be expressed within each competence statement):

  • Relevant Contexts – The authentic context for the competency that explains how the competency is expressed within and outwith the discipline.
  • Levels of competence – An understanding of how expectations of what students can do changes between levels of study and across grade boundaries.

So, Information Literacy could become two separate competence statements:

Find, sort, and use appropriate sources of disciplinary knowledge to develop and communicate an appropriately detailed and correct understanding of the subject.

AND

Critically analyse, evaluate, and synthesise appropriate sources of disciplinary knowledge to develop and communicate an evidence-informed position on complex topics that acknowledges relevant perspectives (i.e. with recognition of the contested, subjective, and provisional status of ‘knowledge’).

This structural approach is designed to help you develop programme competencies that can be taught and assessed effectively (constructive alignment). As well as help all stakeholders understand how they add value to the curriculum. This structure has been chosen to create a stream-lined method of outlining the complex relationships being knowing, acting, and being in a way that they can be taught and assessed.