CriteriaforDevelopmentofCoreCompetencyAreas

NationalResourceCenterforMaterialsTechnologyEducation February2009

Corecompetenciesconsistofasetofperformanceindicatorsthatprovideasetof skillsthattechniciansneedtohavetoeffectivelycarryouttheirtasksinaspecific area.Withinacompetencyarea,theseperformanceindicatorsneedtobe specificallyfocusedonprocessorientedbehaviors.Thismeansthatperformance indicatorsandcompetenciesneedtobewrittenwithactionverbstoenablethe readertounderstandspecificallywhatthetechnicianmustbeabletoDO. BasedonBloom'staxonomy,thesebehaviorsmaybepresentedasfollows,with exampleactionverbsshown: 1. Knowledgebehaviorsrelatedrecallingfactsandtoidentifyneeded information.Actionverbsinthisareaincluderecall,identify,describe, recognize,ordistinguish.Anexampleperformanceindicatorwouldbeto Identifymajoradvantagesanddisadvantagesofceramicmaterials. 2. Comprehensionbehaviorsrelatetotheabilitytorestate,reorderorpredict basedonpriorknowledge,suchasbeingabletointerpret,convert,translate ortransformanidea,processorbehavior.Anexamplecouldbeto Interprettechnicaldrawingscorrectly. 3. Applicationofideasorprocessestonewsituationsorenvironmentswould usebehaviorsdescribedbyapply,prepare,perform,demonstrate,measure, explain,show,operate,plan,orrepair.Anexamplewouldbeto Applythescientificmethodtosolutionofatechnicalproblem. 4. Analysisofconcepts,data,ideasorprocessesteststheabilitytoanalyze, estimate,evaluatecompare,observe,explore,distinguish,ordeterminean appropriateprocedureorsolution.Anexamplecouldbeto Exploredifferencesbetweenstrengthofsteelsasafunctionofalloy content 5. Synthesisbehaviorsfocusontheabilitytoputinformationtogetherinaway tosolveaproblem.Thiscouldincludeprocessessuchaswrite,plan,produce, specify,design,build,organize,orpropose.Anexamplemightbeto Organizeasafetytestofplantequipment 6. Evaluationofprocessesorideasisneededtomakejudgmentsusing standardsofappraisal,includingbehaviorsdescribedverify,measure,select, test,check,rank,orevaluate.Anexampleperformanceindicatormightbeto Evaluatestrengthdataincompositestodeterminetheadvantagesand disadvantagesofdifferentlayupprocesses. Withintheseareas,manyactionverbsmaybeused.Thosegivenaboveareonly examples.

Thetaskofdevelopingcorecompetencyareasandspecificperformanceindicators isthusoneofidentifyingareaswheretechniciansneedtobecompetent,then focusingonthespecificbehaviorneeded.Foraspecificprocess,forexample,does thetechnicianneedtobeabletoidentifyit,demonstrateit,designitorperhapstest it?Thespecificallydesiredbehaviororbehaviorsneedtobespecifiedforeach processofinterestandincludedinthestatementofthecompetency. Generally,thecorecompetencyprocessisusedtoidentifycompetenciesthatareto beincludedintechnicaleducation,suchasincollege,technicalorindustrialtraining courses.Thegoalofacompetencystudyistogivedirectiontotheinstructorasto whatthetechnicianneedstobeabletodo.Competenciesshouldthereforebea guideforthedevelopmentofappropriatecurriculumfortechniciantrainingfocused onthesespecificallyneededbehaviors. Acomprehensivesetofcompetenciesandperformanceindicatorsforbasic materialstechnologymaybefoundatwww.materialseducation.org. Reference:"WritingLearningObjectives,"R.AArreola,UniversityofTennessee.