UNDERGRADUATE COMPETENCIES WHICH FACULTY VALUE

Concern about the quality of higher education in the United States has led to vigorous debate about desired outcomes and assessment methods. Identifying desired outcomes in behavioural terms is one way to proceed to evaluation.

What general competencies should undergraduates attain? The purpose of this research was to identify the commonalities in what faculty value as desired characteristic behaviours for undergraduate students.

Performance evaluation provides a specific method for Identifying explicit behaviours which are associated with successful performance of a given role. Faculty at Drake University in Des Molnes, Iowa, were asked to rate the Importance of 111 selected behaviours. Factor analysis was used to analyse the data. The first seven factors were Personal Development, Research Activities, Conscientiousness, Self‐Confidence, Student Activities and Community Service, Oral Communication Skills, and Questioning.

Comparison of these research results with desired outcomes Identified by four other American universities shows many similarities. This method could be used by other universities to provide faculty with a research‐based beginning toward formulating competencies for a common core curriculum for undergraduates.