Competencies in English

Academic Literacy: A Statement of Competencies Expected of Students Entering California’s Public Colleges and Universities

Spring 2002

Composed 20 years after the 1982 "Statement of Competencies in English Expected of Freshman, the Academic Literacy: A Statement of Competencies Expected of Students Entering California’s Public Colleges and Universities" redefines some of the expectations in ways that could not have been foreseen by the original report.

In addition to taking into account the sweeping changes that California’s educational landscape has undergone, through changes in pedagogy and advances in technology, this report makes use of extensive faculty responses to a multi-discipline survey. Using the survey responses and other professional statements, the report discusses what faculty members believe make a student successful from classroom behaviors to successful intellectual practices. While the report concedes that in many areas today’s students are more diligent than yesterday’s, it also reports a disturbing trend of a seeming lack of curiosity and diminished demonstrations of critical thinking. This report summarizes responses to the survey and describes patterns within the responses that are supported by research and enhanced by the task force’s own professional experiences. By examining the 1982 Statement of Competencies through the lens of the faculty’s classroom experiences, the report adjusts the competencies so that they reflect the realities faced by today’s educators and students.

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