By Meagan Troop, Marcie Theoret, Karen Booth, Erin Stripe, and Anne-Liisa Longmore

In PSB, learners and faculty alike are currently engaged in our BBA program in the development of core technical and business-focused competencies, as well as with practical competencies for life that extend beyond business contexts. More specifically, our PSB “Business Sense” framework draws on and includes interpersonal and intrapersonal dimensions of learning and identity development, metacognitive learning (learning about learning and how and why we learn), as well as the integrated domains (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor), which includes knowledge, habits of mind, values, attitudes, emotions, and skills. These contemporary competencies will prepare our BBA graduates for the workplace and for becoming meaningful contributors to society.

A Competency-Informed Approach: Our Origin Story

Sheridan’s Pilon School of Business initially introduced the development of essential soft skills alongside discipline-specific technical skills in their Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Global Business Management (GBM) degree program. The BBA GBM was granted consent by PEQAB on May 30, 2008 and welcomed its last intake in September 2013. The GBM program focused on core business concepts in addition to three integrated and strategic streams: international financial management, international marketing management, and global supply chain management. In addition, the program incorporated the development of essential skills such as cross-cultural communication and negotiations, leadership, change management, continuous improvement, six Sigma/ISO quality assurance standards, ethical decision-making, and personal growth and development into the curriculum.

The BBA GBM program was foundational and provided important learning in the development of the next generation business degree programs to PEQAB, namely the BBA Accounting, Finance, Human Resources, Marketing and Supply Chain Management degree programs. Consent was granted in 2012 and the programs launched in Fall 2014.

When launched, the BBA model focused on the intention to graduate learners who would have immediate impact in the organizations in which they are employed and the communities in which they live. Core skill areas in areas such as leadership, citizenship, occupational readiness, strategy, creativity, and collaboration were identified as essential for the contemporary undergraduate business degree graduate (See Image below).

Image adapted from Sheridan’s Bachelor of Business Administration Model. Source: PEQAB BBA Accounting Submission (2012) p. 5.

To build the essential competencies, the program adopted a “whole learner development” approach, incorporating Tony Wagner’s 21st Century Survival Skills (2008; 2010) and a Creative Learning Portfolio (Portfolio) to facilitate deeper, holistic learning and student success. The intention of introducing the Portfolio, was to create linkages and sense-making opportunities across the program by facilitating critical reflection on learning experiences and activities, the development of technical skills, mastery of contemporary competencies and highlight academic, creative leadership, professional and personal accomplishments through the intentional selection and curation of learning artifacts (Sheridan BBA PEQAB Submission, 2012).

Image adapted from the Original Sheridan BBA Creative Learning Model. Source: PEQAB BBA Accounting Submission (2012) p. 21.

During the first program review and PEQAB renewal, which took place in 2018-2019, it became clear that a coordinated integration of competencies had not yet been realized, and like many post-secondary business programs, the focus centered primarily on functional and/or discipline specific technical skills as opposed to the desired more holistic concept of competencies (skills, knowledge, and values), which includes interpersonal, intrapersonal, and metacognitive dimensions of learning.

This realization, which came about as a result of the program review process, prompted faculty and administrators to further explore what developments had occurred in industry, as well. We started by reviewing the relevance of the original Wagner’s model with 12 faculty members from the BBA foundation courses who formed an ongoing Community of Practice (CoP), beginning in the Winter of 2022. With the CoP, we have continuously engaged in critical dialogue about what the competencies should be and why, and explored how the framework could be designed as an “entry to professional practice” component of the BBA program.

We created several draft competency frameworks that included multiple layers and received feedback from our Community of Practice and the leadership team. Some of these layers (3Cs and Core competencies) have been confirmed and some of the outer layers or components of the framework are still being developed and emergent in nature (Attributes for Core Competencies, Ways of Being and Becoming). At the same time, we engaged with and continue to involve the leadership team on a regular basis to ground us in our PSB value proposition, strategic vision, and philosophy. We have also looked to industry. For all 5 programs in the BBA, their main governing bodies had produced in-depth competency frameworks of their own, so we did a deep dive into what the industry associations had recently published and coded them as part of a document analysis exercise. Further, we have engaged in conversation with our Program Advisory Council to gain insight into some of the trends and to offer industry-focused perspectives.

Core Competency Development at PSB

Competence is developed through informal and formal learning opportunities with an approach that considers where competencies are discovered, facilitated, practiced, and assessed and the levels at which they are introduced, strengthened, and integrated.

There are currently five core competency areas that have been identified in PSB for integration into our BBA program. The 5 competency areas in our Business Sense framework are:

• Collaboration and Communication
• Research and Innovation
• Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving
• Social Responsibility and Ethics
• Initiative and Leadership

All of these competency areas have reflective practice embedded in the discovery, design, development, and facilitation of teaching and learning experiences.

Competency Inputs

The 3Cs of Curriculum, Teaching, & Learning

At the centre of our Business Sense competency framework is our 3Cs, namely Curiosity, Criticality, and Connectivity. The 3Cs are intentionally woven throughout our curriculum, teaching, and learning experiences in PSB and connect to our transformative-focused vision in PSB.

CURIOSITY

The complexity and uncertainty of our contemporary society points to the need for learners to bring a keen curiosity with them into the learning and teaching environment. In PSB, learners are invited to imagine and generate new ideas, take risks as they experiment in new and unorthodox ways, productively struggle as they pursue areas of inquiry, and eventually revise and iterate—all important dimensions of a creative problem-solving process (Egan, Maguire, Christophers & Rooney, 2017; Elyer, J. R., 2018; Hoggan, Simpson & Stuckey, 2009). The development of curiosity, and by extension creative capacities, will prepare our learners to contribute meaningfully and purposefully at multiple scales and magnitudes in business and in society at large, as they learn to establish connections, work collaboratively, and synthesize ideas (Pink, 2006; Swartz & Triscari, 2011).

CRITICALITY

Criticality is intentionally modeled and embedded throughout our curriculum in PSB. We invite and engage others with a critical stance that involves critical reflection, reasoning, problem-solving, and evidence-informed thinking to better understand business and its intersections with other disciplines and domains, our inner and outer selves, our colleagues and peers, our industry partners, and our local and global communities (Brookfield, 2002; Brown, 2014; Longmore, et al., 2018; Petress, 2004; Swartz & Triscari, 2011). Through critical dialogue, experiential learning and reflection, we question and explore unexamined assumptions, embrace a plurality of perspectives, and continuously extend our current conceptions with openness, candor, empathy, and discernment (Baumgartner, 2019; Troop & O’Riordan, 2017).

CONNECTIVITY

Relationships are at the heart of teaching and learning in PSB. We conceptualize learning as co-created, interconnected, and emergent in nature (Davis, Sumara, & Luce-Kapler, 2008; Longmore, et al., 2018) and engage in relationships to learn with and from one another. We have an overall aim that ties directly to our PSB values to foster accessible and inclusive spaces and places in which to live, learn, and work. Our connectivity is enhanced through choice and access to multiple modalities and with multiple means of engagement, representation, action and expression (CAST, 2018). Our Community of Inquiry approach (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2010) fosters meaningful interaction, with intentional engagement and connection made between learner to content, learner to learner, and learner to facilitator (Wilson & Opperwall, 2020).

Why Competency Development Matters

In response to the changing landscape in post-secondary education, many programs across a diversity of disciplines including business, have shifted to a competency-informed or competency-based educational (CBE) model (Dragoo & Barrows, 2016; Echols, Neely & Dusick, 2018; Rich et al., 2020). The efforts made to innovate curriculum through these approaches point to components that are integral to ensuring rigor, consistency, alignment, and choice for learners and provides a compelling rationale for this transformative shift in PSB that began over a decade ago. The scholarly literature and research on this topic indicate that a competency-oriented approach carries the potential for increased accountability in terms of academic quality with the articulation and assessment of program standards, clear assessment criteria, and competence milestones for entry to professional practice (Johnstone & Soares, 2014; Rich et al., 2020). Moving beyond the identification of critical competencies for 21st century business learner will require a competency-based education model that integrates educational philosophies to support student discovery, learning, and development. In a competency-based model, learners progress through the program curricula at their own rate to achieve the competence required for success. Through multiple and varied formative assessments, students have opportunities to learn and act upon feedback provided. These curricular dimensions in concert with personalization and choice in curricula, and flexible learning that is often not time-bound, will be central to realizing dimensions of a competency-based framework in PSB (Rich et al., 2020).

As Dragoo & Barrows (2016) note, “competencies should be developed through an explicit and transparent process” (p. 377). In PSB, we are indeed engaged in an explicit and transparent process that considers how, as Rich et al., (2020) put it “CBE differs from traditional higher education models concerning structure, pedagogy, assessment, faculty role, student interaction, and credentials.” Many competency-based programs have common characteristics or components, such as: (a) constructive alignment of learning outcomes with assessments and activities (Fink, 2013; Johnstone & Soares, 2014; Treleaven & Voola, 2008; Wiggins & McTighe, 2015), (b) flexibility and variability in terms of modality, format, and timelines (Dragoo & Barrows, 2016; Pichette & Watkins, 2018), (c) competencies that are intentionally embedded throughout the curriculum with reusable, multiple-purpose, open resources leveraged for faculty and learner development (Dragoo & Barrows, 2016; Pichette & Watkins, 2018), and (d) robust and real-world application oriented formative and summative assessments (Dragoo & Barrow, 2016; Fink, 2013; Pichette & Watkins, 2018; Rich et al., 2020). These components in combination provide a heuristic—a solid set of guidelines—to follow in PSB as we continue to design, develop, and integrate competency standards for business education.

Connecting Competencies to Business

Scholarly literature on the topic of competency development, assessment, and implementation points out a widespread issue; that is, clearly defining what is meant by competency (Bawtinheimer, 2020; Rich, 2019). The lack of a universally accepted definition points to an opportunity to explore what has been discussed and shared in the research thus far and to build and address this gap with the aim of enhancing understanding in PSB and in and across the post-secondary landscape (Dragoo & Barrows, 2016). With that in mind, consideration of contextual and situational factors will be involved to gain multiple stakeholder perceptions of competency-informed learning, teaching, and assessment at Sheridan.

We have aligned our PSB competencies with both industry and academic expectations (Bawtinheimer, 2020; Dragoo & Barrows, 2016). According to Johnstone & Soares (2014), the validity of competencies is determined via insights and feedback from students, and employers, as well as other stakeholder groups such as faculty, administration, and staff. As such, we are continuously and intentionally gathering feedback and data to assess our competencies, and we acknowledge the dynamic nature of competency development to maintain professional currency.

Competency Development in Practice

Our learning and teaching community will continue to apply this framework to encourage the intentional discovery, development, facilitation, and assessment of the contemporary Business Sense competencies. In alignment with course and program learning outcomes in PSB, we will connect these competencies in both curriculum mapping and curriculum design processes at program, course, and lesson levels. In the BBA program, competencies will also be scaffolded across the four years with the following levels: introduced, strengthened, integrated.

Introduced (I): Key ideas, concepts or skills related to the learning outcomes are introduced and demonstrated at a foundational level. Instruction and learning activities focus on basic knowledge, skills and/or competencies and entry-level complexity.

Strengthened (S): Learning outcomes are reinforced with feedback; students demonstrate the outcome at an increasing level of competence. Facilitation and learning activities focus on enhancing and strengthening existing knowledge and skills, as well as expanding complexity.

Integrated (IN): Students demonstrate the learning outcomes with an increasing level of independence, confidence, expertise and sophistication expected upon graduation and in preparation for entry into the profession. Facilitation and learning activities focus on and integrate the use of the content, values, and/or skills gained in multiple levels of complexity that demonstrate (w)holistic competence.

(Adapted from Veltri, Webb, Matveev & Zapatero, 2011; Dyjur & Kalu, 2017).

Each competency area will have attributes—qualities or characteristics—that help to define and create parameters for the knowledge, skills, and values that are aligned. 

Ways of Being & Becoming

The Ways of Being and Becoming represent an embodiment of the qualities and attributes of each of the competency areas. Learners will connect and reflect on business-focused and developmentally oriented narratives that they will self-author throughout their journey at Sheridan (Grant, Golnaraghi, & Longmore, 2015).

Reflecting on and revising the ways of being and becoming will offer students a purposeful way to connect to the foundational core competencies that have been both introduced and strengthened in their programs. This process will involve applying critical lenses to question their existing personal and professional narratives. In this process, learners will make choices about identities, roles, and narratives that resonate with their self-concept and grapple with changes that require them to discard prevailing ideologies and dominant discourse from their fields and disciplinary traditions. As they gain experience, these competencies will ideally become more habitual, intentional, and internalized. Learner stories of being and becoming will be created in diverse, multiple formats and shared to illustrate both the map and the terrain of their transformative journey at PSB (Grant et al., 2015).

Longmore et al. (2018) posit that educators are also informed by the engagement of learners in the learning context. Educators may engage metacognitively as they reflect on and make sense of the influence of theories, models, frameworks, principles, and philosophies that inform the decisions that they make. Transformative-focused activities could be part of future faculty development experiences, namely the crafting of ways of becoming through ongoing dialogue with peer colleagues, critical questions, and prompts, and with consciousness raising exercises. The exemplars described in the next section serve as a starting place for educators and learners as they begin the process of crafting and/or facilitating a process of reflection that involves exploring ways of being and becoming. This dimension of the framework is emergent in nature and will continue to be developed in consultation and connection with our PSB community.

CHANGE AGENT

In business education, a change agent holds the capacity and potential to facilitate change within a system. A change agent generatively explores and assesses the current state, identifies and examines differences, opportunities and gaps, locates and co-creates the spaces for transformative exchanges, introduces an intervention, monitors the effect and influence, and then continues iteratively through the cycle. With a growth mindset, a change agent demonstrates their resilience in the face of adversity and challenge, persevering through difficult situations and challenges that come their way. They uncover pathways and possibilities that are both individually relevant and rewarding and those which are socially responsible, ultimately contributing to the greater good in their communities and to society at large.

COLLABORATIVE PARTNER

A collaborative partner co-creates with multiple interest and affected parties (both internal and external) in a generative and reflective spirit. At the heart of co-creation is an ethic of care and the cultivation of relationships. For collaborative partners, there is intentionality in the building, nurturing, and sustaining of both positive and healthy relationships with self, other, and in community. Staying focused and attuned, listening mindfully, and holding space for multiple and diverse voices and perspectives as we seek to understand are all critical qualities continuously cultivated as a collaborative partner.

INTERPROFESSIONAL LEADER

With strong communication skills in a variety of mediums (verbal, non-verbal, social media, written, aural) and contexts (virtual and in-person), interprofessional leaders are persuasive and inspiring, and use their authentic voices to facilitate and negotiate. Breaking down silos and barriers, interprofessional leaders seek to build shared understandings and consensus, with developed skills in clearly articulating intended outcomes, asking critical questions of themselves and others, and modeling social mores. In the context of moving in and across disciplinary boundaries, there is an orientation to learning with and from one another, experimenting with new ways of thinking and being, with the intention of moving toward a shared goal in the service of associated professional organizations and communities.

EMPHATHIC INNOVATOR

Driven by curiosity and creativity, the empathic innovator exhibits a willingness to take risks, explore and experiment, and is enthusiastic about ongoing iteration and enhancement. The empathic innovator is keen to develop and devise multiple strategies to solve problems and engages thoughtfully to ideate and implement practical applications for the business world. By keeping up with the trends and anticipating possible futures, empathic innovators are staying ahead of the curve in business through their exposure to research, experiential, and service-learning opportunities, and through human-centered approaches.