These core competencies have been developed by the Assessment of Student Outcomes Committee (ASLO) in consultation with Curriculum Committee members and faculty from a variety of disciplines throughout the college. It is important to recognize that these core competencies are a "work in progress" that will inevitably describe what students should have learned when they complete an AA/AS Degree, a Career Certificate or transfer requirements at Long Beach City College. As we apply them to student learning the list will be reviewed, revised, added to and edited.

An appendix of bullet points is included to give more detail and clarity to each core competency. Many departments and programs are defining their curriculum in terms of outcomes. Although this list will not contain every outcome that programs eventually adopt, each program should find its work represented in several competencies on this list. The core competencies are in alphabetical order.

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Every class at LBCC will equip students with specific core competencies to prepare them to become life-long learners. Students who complete an AA/AS Degree or transfer requirements at Long Beach City College will achieve competency in each of the following areas:

Aesthetics:

An appreciation for a range of cultural expression, including art, music, dance, theater, literature, and film.

Civic Engagement:

The ability to participate actively in a democracy that respects the rights of diverse peoples and cultures.

Communication:

The ability to read, write, listen and speak clearly.

Creative Thinking:

The ability to generate useful and original ideas.

Critical Thinking:

The ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate a spectrum of ideas that are represented by theories, images, and concepts.

Goal Attainment:

The ability to achieve one's personal, educational, and career goals.

Information Technology and Computer Literacy:

The skills necessary to find, use, manage, evaluate, and convey information efficiently and effectively.

Numeric Literacy:

The mathematical and arithmetic skills necessary to solve everyday problems.

Science Literacy:

The ability to apply the scientific method to gain an evidenced-based understanding of contemporary issues.

Teamwork and Collaboration:

The ability to cooperate and work effectively with individuals and groups using appropriate social skills.

Wellness:

The ability to make lifestyle choices that promote physical, mental, and social health.

Appendix

• Aesthetics
  • A respect for the arts as a means of personal, cultural, or social expression.
  • An appreciation of design principles common and uniting all of the arts.
  • A willingness to seek out and encounter art, music, dance, and/or theatrical experiences to enhance the student's leisure pursuits.
• Civic Engagement
  • Applying the knowledge, understanding, and skills required to play an active, effective role in public life as informed participants who are socially and morally responsible and who are involved in the life and concerns of their local, national, and global communities.
  • A broadened perspective, fostering an appreciation of other groups' differences; an increased understanding of other groups in order to promote respect and acceptance among people.
  • An appreciation of the social and political processes that sustain our society.
  • An understanding and tolerance of individuals from different cultural, religious, ethnic, social, gender and political backgrounds, as well as of different ideas and beliefs.
• Communication Skills
  • The skills of communication needed to act within the framework of a society based on information and service.
  • The ability to express ideas effectively in written and verbal form.
  • The ability to comprehend verbal and written information.
• Creative Thinking
  • The ability to use creative strategies, such as learning to change perspective in order to generate new ideas.
  • The ability to develop a familiarity with higher levels of thinking such as synthesis and analysis.
  • The ability to use creative thinking for the purpose of enhancing one's original ideas and express one's imagination.
• Critical Thinking
  • Reasonable, reflective thinking, the propensity to engage in an activity with healthy skepticism.
  • Problem-solving decision-making, constructing and deconstructing arguments.
• Goal attainment
  • Ability to navigate the college environment in order to use college resources to achieve one's educational goal.
  • Exploration of career options, enabling one to find, enter and progress in a career suited to one's interests and goals.
• Information Technology and Computer Literacy
  • The ability to function in a computer-enabled environment.
  • The ability to function in existing and emerging technologies applicable to your field.
  • The ability to evaluate the credibility and significance of information.
• Numeric Literacy
  • The ability to utilize mathematical language to describe and interpret situations.
  • The ability to apply basic mathematical concepts and operations in the analysis of situations and the solutions of problems.
  • The ability to appropriately utilize fractions and decimals.
  • A basic familiarity and facility with the fields of arithmetic; geometry; basic algebra; statistics; and probability.
• Science literacy
  • An understanding that the scientific method is a means of gaining a reliable body of knowledge about a given subject area.
  • An understanding that science is an evolving process that involves experimental verification and feedback/correction as necessary.
  • A basic introduction to a field of science to gain an understanding of the world and ourselves.
  • A familiarity with currently accepted major theories of science.
  • The ability to separate fact from opinion.
  • An understanding that science does not use supernatural explanations.
• Teamwork and Collaboration
  • Demonstration of adequate social skills, such as withholding judgment, learning to feel and communicate empathy, apologizing when appropriate, acceptance of other viewpoints, tentative expression of opinions with openness to being influenced by other, and skill in eliciting the views of others.
• Wellness
  • The ability to manage stress.
  • The ability to improve one's energy and reserve capacity for meeting daily demands.
  • The ability to become involved in community and relationships that nurture a supportive environment.