Presentation given at the 2015 Northeastern University College of Professional Studies Faculty Conference

1. Personalizing Competencies:
Helping Students Envision and Reflect Upon
the Demands of their Professional Futures
Gail Matthews-DeNatale, Ph.D.
Northeastern University
Graduate School of Education

2. Outline
• Competency Warm-up Exercise
• Competencies and Personalized Learning
• Example Assignment
• Competency Application Exercise
• Example Assignment Results
• Applying the Ideas to Your Own Practice

3. Competency: Working Definition

4. Competency Clusters = Expertise

5. Warm Up Exercise
Think about your field and specific people (colleagues,
collaborators, supervisors/visees).
•Who are the experts? Who do you most respect the
most?
•What has been their most prominent or influential
work? What are the markers of excellence in this work?
•What makes these people and their work so great?
What are their most prominent characteristics? What
are their capabilities and skills?

6. Warm Up Exercise
Now think of a specific people from your present and
past who you would describe as “beginners” in the
profession. Focus on people who are capable in
general, but newbies.
•What were the gaps in their understanding and
abilities?
•If you mentored, coached, or supervised the person,
what areas did you focus on the most?

7. Warm Up Exercise
Use your notes to articulate key competencies in
your profession.
1.Group discrete competencies into thematic
clusters (headings).
2.Elaborate with examples under the headings.

8. For Example
Contextual Cognizance
•Conducts environmental scans to identify
needs and resources, analyze gaps and
strengths, and discover partners and
opportunities.
•Demonstrates responsiveness to organizational
culture, including the capacity to negotiate with
others and manage change.

9. Warm Up Exercise
5 Minutes
•Drawing on you observations about the
difference between experts/novices, use the
handout to author a competencies framework
for your profession.
10 Minutes
•Share with your neighbor to compare and
revise

10. Brief Debrief
• What did you identify?
• Observations, questions?

11. Competency Controversies

12. Competencies: Hopes
Outcomes Beyond Seat Time Multifaceted, Student-Focused

13. Competencies: Fears
Fragmented a la Carte Learning Standards/Assessment-Centric

14. Competency Process as an
Opportunity for Inquiry and Formation
Heidi Elmendorf, Georgetown

15. Professional Competency Model
(PCM) Case Study Example

16. Assignment Context
• Introduced in EDU6319 How People Learn
• Fully online course
• eLearning program gateway and Higher
Education Administration elective
• PCM revisited at Midpoint & Capstone in
eLearning

17. Phase I: Professional Landscape Survey
• What do my “dream job”
employers want?
• What are the implications
of recent research for my
professional aspirations?
• What pressing challenges
in the world are relevant
to this profession?
• Who are the visionaries &
what are they saying about
future directions?

18. Phase I: Professional Landscape Survey
Evidence Sources
•Advertisements
“Dream” Job
•Peer-Reviewed
Research
•White Papers
Challenges &
Opportunities
•Blogs/Opinion Pieces
Visionaries & Future directions

19. Phase II: Competency Comparison
• This is what your
faculty have identified
as essential in your
field.
• How does it square
with your own
background research?
• What else is
important to you and
your professional
vision for yourself?

20. Phase III: Self-Assessment
• Personalize
– Identify additional
competencies
• Assess & Seek Evidence
– Rate current proficiency
– Support assertions with
artifacts & examples

21. Phase IV: PCM Narrative in ePortfolio
• Reflect
Surprises, Patterns
• Self-Represent
Expertise, Growth Areas
• Envision Opportunities
- Course Project Topics
- Electives Selection
- Informal Learning
- Workplace Learning

22. Example
Areas for improvement:
•Needs to strengthen computer skills and knowledge
of graphic design.
•Experience with training, but needs more
experience with Instructional Design.
Strategy:
•Project Management elective
•Summer ‘15 self-paced learning
with Lynda.com in lieu of
coursework
•Fall ‘15 internship with NEU
Global Network

23. Your Turn
Revisit the competencies you identified during the
warm-up. Select one competency (something you
haven’t completely mastered).
•Rate yourself of the scale of novice to expert.
•Identify at least one example of your work that could
be used as evidence to support that assertion.
•Write an explanation. Also consider opportunities for
improvement. What specific experiences would help
you develop your proficiency?

24. Example
Contextual Cognizance
•Conducts environmental scans to identify needs and resources, analyze gaps
and strengths, and discover partners and opportunities.
•Demonstrates responsiveness to organizational culture, including the
capacity to negotiate with others and manage change.
Self-Rating, Evidence, Opportunities
•Rating: 8 out of 10 (based on national award for 2011 M.Ed. redesign)
•Evidence: Environmental scan and M.Ed. redesign documents
•Reflection and Opportunities: Leading change without official authority was
the greatest challenge. Could seek out professional development
opportunities to deepen understanding of leadership and improve skills.

25. Your Turn
Revisit the competencies you identified during the
warm-up. Select one competency you haven’t
completely mastered.
•Rate yourself of the scale of novice to expert.
•Identify at least one work sample or story that could
be used as evidence to support your assertion.
•Write an explanation. Also consider opportunities for
improvement. What specific experiences would help
you develop your proficiency?

26. PCM Assessment
Criteria Definition of Excellence
Wiki Pre-
work
• Draws on all sources to summarize profession’s landscape
• Notes connections, contradictions, surprises among the sources
• Describes potential future direction of the field
Introduction • Positions professional aspirations within professional landscape
• Describes requirements of professionals in the field
• Envisions field’s future and ramifications for needed competencies
Competencies • Provides personalized working definition and clarification of
competencies
• Identifies additional competencies specific to personal vision
Ratings • Range of ratings indicates the author has sincerely considered
personal level of expertise
• Ratings are grounded in evidence (examples from practice)
Summary • Describes patterns of strength and areas for development in ratings
• Considers formal/informal opportunities to pursue development
Indicates genuine insight gained from the exercise

27. Evidence of Assignment Impact
Carolyn Harris
M.Ed. in Higher Education
Administration Program
30 years to complete B.A.
Defines education as a
“work in progress”
Professional purpose is to
understand “how a student
defines personal and
academic success”

28. Carolyn’s PCM Highlights
Strengths
•Explores inner workings of
departments other than own
•Has ideas for designing new systems
and processes
Growth Opportunities
•Confidence speaking to groups
•Tends to accept methods put forth
by others when believes there are
more effective ways
Professional Landscape: Observations and Vision
•Students need to feel engaged with the advisor, the process, and
the results
•As opportunities for earning a degree have transformed,
academic advising also requires transformation
•What should or could this look like for fully online and older
learners?

29. Evidence of Impact
Chance Favors the
Prepared Mind
- Lois Pasteur

30. Debrief
• What did you gain from the experience?
• What was most challenging?
• How might this firsthand experience influence your
approach to engaging students in self-assessment
and reflection?
• What opportunities in your program do you see for
extending the process of student reflection and
strategic professional development?

31. Final Thoughts
Work with competencies should
•Engage students in inquiry &
visionary thinking
•Create opportunities for
generative self-critique
•Be interpreted, applied, &
connected
•Promote dialogue on
possibilities for the future self
“I believe exposing my weaknesses
now is the only way to turn them
into strengths later.”
“It was instrumental in aligning my
previous work experience,
educational goals, qualifications,
projects, and skills into an integrated
assessment of my professional
strengths and limitations.”
“This is an exercise in self-regulated
learning [that] gave me a an
opportunity to reflect on my
academic goals in relation to my
professional goals.”

32. Thank You!
Gail Matthews-DeNatale, Ph.D.
Graduate School of Education
Northeastern University
g.matthews-denatale@neu.edu
This workshop is based on a presentation given at the 2015
AAEEBL conference on ePortfolios in higher education. I wish to
thank the Northeastern CPS Faculty Fund for the financial support
to attend that conference.