From the History Classroom to the World: Skills, Competencies, and Their Transferability

Back in 2013, I worked with my colleague Dr. Kevin Cramer to develop a matrix for thinking about how the discipline of History develops competencies and skills that translate to the professional and civic domains. We developed five categories for thinking about skills and competencies: 

1.  Critical rationality
2.  Design, plan, and implementation
3.  Persuasive communication
4.  Creative Analysis
5.  Collaboration

More recently, I have extended these to align with our campus’s Profiles of Learning for Undergraduate Success as well as the American Historical Association’s History Tuning Project. 

We initially developed the chart below for internal use, but we thought that it might be valuable to faculty, students, administrators, and advisors as they talk about the discipline of History and its value to learners. As you will note, this graph does not address specific content knowledge, but it can easily be extended to connect to the learning outcomes of specific courses.

In the process of developing this chart, we consulted with other scholars in our department and want to mention Dr. Danna Kostroun, Dr. Jack Kaufman-McKivigan, Dr. Anita Morgan, and Dr. Thomas Mason for their insights. 

We encourage you to adapt this chart for your own needs, but please cite the original in all derivatives: Kelly, Jason M., Kevin Cramer, Danna Kostroun, Jack Kaufman-McKivigan, Anita Morgan, and Thomas Mason. “From the History Classroom to the World: Skills, Competencies, and Their Transferability.” (2013/2024).

Discipline-specific, professional, and civic competencies and skills developed for IU Indianapolis History courses. These skills and competencies align with IU Indianapolis' Profiles of Learning for Undergraduate Success and the American Historical Association's Tuning Project. Note that this graph does not address specific content knowledge, but rather the skills and competencies that the program helps to build.
			Transferable Skills and Competencies				Alignment with IUPUI Profiles of Learning for Undergraduate Success (PLUS)	Alignment with American Historical Association's History Tuning Project
	Disciplinary		Professional		Civic		Each Profile provides students with various opportunities to deepen disciplinary understanding, participate in engaged learning, and refine what it means to be a well-rounded, well-educated person prepared for lifelong learning and success.	The AHA's project to describe the skills, knowledge, and habits of mind that students develop in history courses and degree programs
	Skills (measurable and scalable)	Competencies	Skills (measurable and scalable)	Competencies	Skills (measurable and scalable)	Competencies
1.  Critical rationality	Information comprehension and analysis: primarily as it relates to historical textual and visual media Retrieval, verification, evaluation, and comparison of historical data Comprehension of social, institutional, and cultural systems and how they affect historical change	Comparative analysis Historical, Geographical, and Cultural Awareness and Literacy Logical processes Judgement and Ethics Evaluation Investigation Comprehension	Information comprehension and analysis: primarily as it relates to textual and visual media Information retrieval, verification, evaluation, and comparison Comprehension of social, institutional, and cultural systems and how to usefully engage with them	Comparative analysis Logical processes Judgement and Ethics Evaluation Investigation Historical, Geographical, and Cultural Awareness and Literacy Comprehension	Information comprehension and analysis of multimedia texts Retrieval, verification, evaluation, and comparison of data related to social and political life relevant to an engaged citizen Socially conscious decision making	Investigation and comprehension Historical, Geographical, and Cultural Awareness and Literacy Judgement and Ethics Comparative analysis Logical processes	Problem Solver: Problem solvers work individually and with others to collect, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information to implement innovative solutions to challenging local and global problems. The problem solver: Thinks critically; Collaborates; Analyzes, synthesizes, and evaluates; Perseveres	Build historical knowledge --Gather and contextualize information in order to convey both the particularity of past lives and the scale of human experience. --Recognize how humans in the past shaped their own unique historical moments and were shaped by those moments. --Develop a body of historical knowledge with breadth of time and place—as well as depth of detail—in order to discern context. --Distinguish the past from our very different present. Develop historical methods --Recognize history as an interpretive account of the human past—one that historians create in the present from surviving evidence. --Collect, sift, organize, question, synthesize, and interpret complex material. --Practice ethical historical inquiry that makes use of and acknowledges sources from the past as well as the scholars who have interpreted that past. --Develop empathy toward people in the context of their distinctive historical moments.
2.  Design, plan, and implementation	Identification of historically relevant research problems and questions Feasibility analysis and planning (identification of available resources and time to complete a project) Short and long term project planning, including identifying goals and targets Project implementation and completion, including quantification of progress	Problem Solving Long term strategizing Time management Project management Dependability and commitment Adaptability	Short and long term project planning, including identifying goals and targets   Problem identification and solving Feasibility analysis and planning (Identification of available resources and time to complete a project) Project implementation and completion, including quantification of progress Capacity to respond to unintended exigencies and adapt accordingly	Time management Problem Solving Long term strategizing Project management Dependability and commitment Adaptability	Ability to identify questions and problems relevant to civic life Ability to transfer design, planning, and implementation processes to effecting meaningful civic action Ability to identify processes and resources necessary to effecting social change	Time management Problem Solving Long term strategizing Project management Dependability and commitment Adaptability	Problem Solver: Problem solvers work individually and with others to collect, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information to implement innovative solutions to challenging local and global problems. The problem solver: Thinks critically; Collaborates; Analyzes, synthesizes, and evaluates; Perseveres Innovator: Innovators build on experiences and disciplinary expertise to approach new situations and circumstances in original ways, are willing to take risks with ideas, and pose solutions. Innovators are original in their thoughts and ask others to view a situation or practice in a new way. Innovators are good decision makers, can create a plan to achieve their goals, and can carry out that plan to its completion. Innovators use their knowledge and skills to address complex problems to make a difference in the civic life of communities and to address the world’s most pressing and enduring issues. The innovator: Investigates, Creates/designs, Confronts challenges, Makes decisions
3.  Persuasive communication	Evidence-based persuasive writing Written, graphical, and oral argumentation Synthesis and presentation of evidence and arguments Ability to articulate the transferability of skills across professions Ability to communicate in a variety of traditional and new media platforms	Argumentation Logic Rhetoric Grammar	Ability to present complex data and analysis through textual, visual, and oral communication Ability to communicate in a variety of traditional and new media platforms	Argumentation Logic Rhetoric	Ability to articulate an argument or problem using evidence-based persuasive argumentation in multiple media platforms	Argumentation Logic Rhetoric	Communicator: Communicators convey their ideas effectively and ethically in oral, written, and visual forms across multiple settings, using face-to-face and mediated channels. Communicators are mindful of themselves and others, observe, read thoughtfully, listen actively, ask questions, create messages with an awareness of diverse audiences, and collaborate with others and across cultures to build relationships. The communicator: Evaluates information, Listens actively, Builds relationships, Conveys ideas effectively	Create historical arguments and narratives. --Generate substantive, open-ended questions about the past and develop research strategies to answer them. --Craft well-supported historical narratives, arguments, and reports of research findings in a variety of media for a variety of audiences.
4.  Creative Analysis	Ability to abstract and taxonomize historical and geographical data Ability to show connections between disparate events and data sets Ability to trace historical change and possible interconnections and causation Reconstruction of historical event using incomplete data sets Ability to see historical contexts from multiple subjective perspectives Ability to understand, adapt, and integrate methods, perspectives, and theories from multiple disciplines into historical analysis	Synchronic and diachronic pattern recognition Abstraction Design, Modelling, and Visualization Extrapolation Interpretation Capacity to recognize and work with ambiguity Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity	Capacity to generalize skills and knowledge to new contexts Capacity to anticipate emerging trends, problems, and needs Capacity to target message to multiple audiences Application of appropriate tool to task Ability to understand, adapt, and integrate methods, perspectives, and knowledge from other fields into work	Synchronic and diachronic pattern recognition Abstraction Design, Modelling, and Visualization Extrapolation Interpretation Capacity to recognize and work with ambiguity	Ability to see the world from multiple subjective perspectives Ability to see current trends in science, technology, business, culture, and politics as part of larger historical processes	Synchronic and diachronic pattern recognition Abstraction Design, Modelling, and Visualization Extrapolation Interpretation Capacity to recognize and work with ambiguity	Problem Solver: Problem solvers work individually and with others to collect, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information to implement innovative solutions to challenging local and global problems. The problem solver: Thinks critically; Collaborates; Analyzes, synthesizes, and evaluates; Perseveres Innovator: Innovators build on experiences and disciplinary expertise to approach new situations and circumstances in original ways, are willing to take risks with ideas, and pose solutions. Innovators are original in their thoughts and ask others to view a situation or practice in a new way. Innovators are good decision makers, can create a plan to achieve their goals, and can carry out that plan to its completion. Innovators use their knowledge and skills to address complex problems to make a difference in the civic life of communities and to address the world’s most pressing and enduring issues. The innovator: Investigates, Creates/designs, Confronts challenges, Makes decisions	Recognize the provisional nature of knowledge, the disciplinary preference for complexity, and the comfort with ambiguity that history requires. --Welcome contradictory perspectives and data, which enable us to provide more accurate accounts and construct stronger arguments. --Describe past events from multiple perspectives. --Explain and justify multiple causes of complex events and phenomena using conflicting sources. --Identify, summarize, appraise, and synthesize other scholars’ historical arguments. Apply the range of skills it takes to decode the historical record because of its incomplete, complex, and contradictory nature. --Consider a variety of historical sources for credibility, position, perspective, and relevance. --Evaluate historical arguments, explaining how they were constructed and might be improved. --Revise analyses and narratives when new evidence requires it. Use historical perspective as central to active citizenship. --Apply historical knowledge and historical thinking to contemporary issues. --Develop positions that reflect deliberation, cooperation, and diverse perspectives.
5.  Collaboration	Ability to give peers constructive criticism relevant to historical analysis and argumentation Ability to work in groups to solve complex historical problems Ability to work in groups to design projects related to historical questions	Social intelligence Emotional literacy Teamwork Negotiation and compromise Professionalization	Team organization and communication Complex planning Effective listening and note-taking Peer-to-peer development Meeting management	Cooperation Mutual respect Flexibility and adaptability Interpersonal communication and networking Emotional literacy	Ability to effectively cooperate in civic life Ability to disagree, discuss, and argue in a civil manner Ability to manage, organize, and plan group activities	Social awareness Emotional literacy Cooperation Mutual respect Flexibility and adaptability Interpersonal communication and networking	Community Contributor: Community contributors are active and valued on the campus and in communities locally and globally. They are personally responsible, self-aware, civically engaged, and look outward to understand the needs of society and their environment. They are socially responsible, ethically oriented, and actively engaged in the work of building strong and inclusive communities, both local and global. The community contributor: Builds community, Respectfully engages their own and other cultures, Behaves ethically, Anticipates consequences	Use historical perspective as central to active citizenship. --Apply historical knowledge and historical thinking to contemporary issues. --Develop positions that reflect deliberation, cooperation, and diverse perspectives.