BC’s Core Competencies incorporate the various qualities, skills, knowledge, and actions involved in the learning process. They connect to the foundations of the big ideas and curricular competencies embedded within BC’s curriculum and allow for students to be aware of their learning and actively participate in their own development as individuals. Students can reflect on their growth as educated citizens through their self-assessment with the core competencies.
Each of the 3 Competencies: Communication, Thinking, and Personal/Social involve sub-competencies that specify development into facets, profiles, and illustrations of progress.
You will be assessing your competence and development with the following skills. Read over each Core Competency and select from the prompts located underneath each to complete your self-assessment. Near the end of this post, you will also find the Documenting Your Self-Assessment section to see different ways you can illustrate your self-assessment if you’d like to use a form of representation other than a written reflection.
Communication Competency
Sub-Competencies of Communication: Communication & Collaboration
Below are the Communication prompts to guide your self-assessment.
Communication Prompts:
- This is how I select images and words to create impact for different audiences:
- My strategies for collecting relevant information for specific tasks include…
- Evidence that I can acquire information about complex and specialized topics from various sources, synthesize it, and present it with thoughtful analysis can be found in…
- Examples of where I communicate clearly and purposefully can be seen in…
- As an active listener, I notice that I … (describe some behaviours such as make connections between the speakers ideas and ___, ask higher level questions such as…)
- In discussions and conversations, I help to build and extend understanding by…
- The ways I communicate at school differ from how I communicate at ____ (soccer/ work/ hockey/ piano lessons/ family events/etc) in these ways:
Collaboration Prompts:
- I am clear on the difference between simple “group work” and collaboration as evidenced by…
- One of the ways I ensure my group is clear on the common purpose is to…
- If there is disagreement within the group, I find it helpful to…
- I show others that I truly value their contributions by…
- Some things I think about before dividing tasks among group members include…
- I show that I value feedback from others in my group by…
- I make an effort to include missing voices/ perspectives by…
- I know the group is working well together when I hear/ see…
- If the group is not productive, we can …. in order to get things moving in the right direction.
- When I need to work collaboratively with people I don’t know well, I…
- If I notice …, that’s a sign that my group needs help and we can get support by…
Thinking Competency
Sub-Competencies of Thinking: Critical and Reflective Thinking & Creative thinking
Below are the Thinking prompts to guide your self-assessment.
Critical and Reflective Thinking Prompts:
- Topics or concepts for which I can offer detailed feedback or analysis include…
- I use evidence to make judgements or decisions as demonstrated in this…
- I seek, develop and weigh options as demonstrated by…
- I used to think…and now I know…because I … (explored…, gathered other perspectives, learned about…)
- I can describe how … (this thing I learned at school) relates to this experience I had where…
- I can contribute to and work with criteria to improve my own work; evidence of that is…
- Others find my feedback useful because I…
- I remain open minded as I explore viable options or alternative approaches, like when I…
- I compile and synthesize information to draw reasoned conclusions, such as when…
- When I place my work / thinking in a broader context, I can describe implications and/or next steps. For example…
Creative Thinking Prompts:
- One strategy or activity that stimulates my imagination is…
- An example of where I built upon someone else’s ideas is…
- An example of something I have spent a lot of time learning about is…
- Some skills I have developed to make my creative activities better are…
- When it seems the good ideas just won’t come to me, I …. to help calm myself or create space in my mind to…
- An example of where I took a significant risk in my thinking or the expected process was when…
- When faced with ambiguity or setbacks, I… to advance the development of my ideas.
- An example of an idea I developed that was new to my peers is…
- This______ is innovative and useful to my community because…
- An area of study in which I feel confident to regularly challenge assumptions and develop new ideas is in…
- I am so curious about … that I am excited to learn more about how I could… to make it even better.
Personal and Social Competency
Sub-competencies of Personal and Social: Personal Awareness and Responsibility, Positive Personal and Cultural Identity, & Social Awareness and Responsibility
Below are the Personal and Social prompts to guide your self-assessment.
Personal Awareness and Responsibility Prompts:
- When I need to boost my mood or re-focus, I…
- When I am sad, angry or frustrated, doing… helps me be more productive or calm.
- I respectfully advocate for my needs by…
- I have valuable ideas to share about… and do so by…
- To celebrate an accomplishment such as ____, I …
- I know that _________ can have both positive and negative consequences, including…. so I adjust my actions to…
- I appreciate feedback on… and prefer it comes in the form of…
- I am willing to explore controversial issues such as…in order to imagine and work toward change in myself or the world, including…
- Some of the things I do to stay mentally and physically healthy include…
- My support network is helpful to me because they…
- Some short/ long term goals for myself include… and my plan to achieve them is… (include where you might seek help from others)
- I make ethical choices such as…in order to…
- Some of my traits/ skills that make me a leader in the area of ____ include…
- Some of my preferred strategies for maintaining a healthy, balanced lifestyle include…
Positive Personal and Cultural Identity Prompts:
- My cultural background/ upbringing contributes to who I am as a (writer, cellist, gamer, hockey player, employee, etc.) in that…
- My values around ______ inform my decisions about…
- My strengths as a __________ contribute to my community (classroom, club, city, etc.) through/ because…
- I think my experiences such as…. influenced my choice of course/hobbies/ teams because…
- Although I am challenged by…, I can get through these challenges by tapping in to…
- I am curious as to whether I will continue to… and about what might shift my perceptions over time.
Social Awareness and Responsibility Prompts:
- Some of the ways I work to build and maintain relationships are…
- I notice when people feel left out and do this… to make sure they feel included.
- Some of the intentional actions or decisions I take to make my community better include…
- By doing…in the classroom, I make a positive difference to my peers.
- Because I know____ can have a negative impact on (the environment, my peers, my family, etc.), I make sure that I… to help reduce any problems.
- I understand that ethical decisions are rarely “black and white” and so I … to make sure that I make the best decisions for the most people.
- I know I have privilege in terms of… and I advocate for others by…
- The benefits of my diverse (age, gender, interests) relationships include…
- I can represent and address multiple perspectives in this _____ by…
Documenting Your Self-Assessment
