Cognitive Domain

These are the skills that support thinking processes. Each PROCESS consists of multiple CLUSTERS. Simply click any process to open its clusters. Each CLUSTER consists of multiple SKILLS. Simply click any cluster to view its skills.

Process 1 Information Processing (managing data and information for efficient use)

Generating Data (producing valuable information)(toggle to view skills)
  1. Observing

    Observing

    A literature student listens to a poem and can hear the rhyme scheme it uses.

    A biology student watches cell division, seeing the stages previously described.

    A math student sees that as x increases, the value of y increases proportionally.

    : using the senses to pick up on details of an object, dynamic, or relationship
  2. Memorizing

    Memorizing

    A math student commits the acronym PEDMAS to memory to help recall the correct order of operations in math class.

    An anatomy student commits the names of the bones in the human hand to memory.

    : intentionally committing information to memory
  3. Recording

    Recording

    A chemistry student records the number of drops of titrant required to successfully titrate different solutions in her lab notebook.

    A sociology student takes notes during the practice interviews, recording both interviewee names and occupations.

    A triage nurse looks for patients who require im-mediate attention.

    : capturing information and representing it in some medium
  4. Measuring

    Measuring

    A botany student counts the number of different plant species found in a 10-foot square area.

    An organic chemistry student used a litmus strip to measure the pH of a solution.

    A nursing student learns to take an accurate blood pressure, using a sphygmomanometer.

    : producing accurate and precise readings from an instrument
Locating/Searching (obtaining needed information)
  1. Identifying need

    Identifying need

    A history student analyzes a term paper prompt to determine the characteristics of references required.

    A chemistry student determines that they need values of electronegativity to determine whether a bond is polar.

    An engineering student wants to find existing tools to aid in a design project.

    : defining the specific characteristics of the information required
  2. Recalling

    Recalling

    An organic chemistry student remembers axial and equatorial configurations for functional groups.

    An optical engineering student recalls the geometrical optics propagation equation.

    A foreign language student recalls the articles for nouns.

    : retrieving from memory
  3. Filtering

    Filtering

    A physics student chooses between classical and quantum mechanics.

    A musical performance student selects a subset of recordings for study.

    A nursing student reviews bloodwork for relevant diagnostic factors.

    : eliminating irrelevant information or focusing on specific information
  4. Searching

    Searching

    A vocal performance student finds sopranotenor duets from operas.

    A chemistry student uses the index of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics to find the enthalpy of formation of a compound.

    An engineering student uses parametric analysis in a design tool.

    : seeking specific information
  5. Scanning

    Scanning

    A student quickly reads a text to identify important vocabulary terms.

    An acting student observes the response of the audience at key points.

    : quickly searching a resource or situation to identify critical words or prompts
Organizing Data (providing structure to one’s own information)
  1. Categorizing: classifying or grouping data
  2. Systematizing: organizing information resources for use
  3. Tagging: labeling an informational object with key words
  4. Archiving: selecting and preserving aged data for potential future use
Cleaning Data (ensuring accurate, complete, and high-quality data)
  1. Finding errors in data: determining which values must be corrected/addressed
  2. Validating sources: rating obtained resources based on quality and credibility
  3. Identifying irregularity: seeing outliers, anomalies and violations of rules
  4. Ensuring sufficiency: making certain that a data set meets requirements
  5. Inventorying: checking that a data set is complete
Transforming Data (restructuring data/information to gain new meaning)
  1. Translating: changing the frame of reference
  2. Converting: changing to one-to-one mapping based upon a rule
  3. Changing representation: presenting the same object in a new form
  4. Combining: creating new data from existing data by following functions or rules
  5. Reducing: collapsing a data set according to rules
  6. Sorting: reordering data according to rules

Process 2 Critical Thinking (increasing meaning, comprehension, and understanding)
Analyzing (characterizing individual parts)
  1. Deconstructing: breaking into parts
  2. Identifying similarities: recognizing shared attributes of items
  3. Identifying differences: recognizing distinctive attributes of items
  4. Inquiring: asking key questions
  5. Identifying schemas: finding existing models to characterize a phenomenon
Reasoning (revealing meaning by thinking about implications of knowledge)
  1. Interpreting: adding meaning for better understanding
  2. Deducing: deriving specific conclusions from general principles
  3. Inducing: arriving at a general principle by observing specific instances
  4. Inferring: drawing conclusions from evidence and logic
  5. Being logical: applying a rational pattern of thinking
Synthesizing (creating new configurations from elements)
  1. Bounding: determining the limits and constraints of the validity of a theory or model
  2. Recognizing patterns: recognizing and describing the structure of repeating elements
  3. Making connections: reorganizing elements to reveal insights that are of greater value
  4. Summarizing: representing the whole in a condensed statement
Decision Making (making the best choice for a situation)
  1. Predicting: forecasting from experience and current knowledge
  2. Estimating: approximating from mathematical models
  3. Identifying consequences: seeing effects that flow from a possible decision
  4. Analyzing risks: identifying external sources/impacts of error
  5. Deciding: making a determination based on available information
Self-Regulation of Thinking (linking awareness, analysis, and control of thinking)
  1. Thinking agilely: choosing the appropriate cognitive skills for the context
  2. Thinking tangentially: exploring related ideas sparked from current thought
  3. Redirecting focus: moving back and forth among different processes and contexts
  4. Thinking skeptically: testing against fundamental principles/schemas
  5. Accepting assumptions: explicitly recognizing reasonable logical premises
  6. Incubating: Letting ideas percolate in your subconscious
Validating Meaning (ensuring results are applicable and accurate)
  1. Recognizing contradictions: identifying when results violate fundamental principles/schemas
  2. Verifying scope: testing that understanding is equivalent to what can be inferred from data
  3. Validating completeness: testing that data address the boundary conditions
  4. Recognizing limits: acknowledging what you currently don’t know and can’t resolve

Process 3 Generalizing (elevating knowledge so it applies in multiple contexts)

Contextualizing (applying knowledge to a specific situation)
  1. Clarifying conditions: sizing up a situation
  2. Clarifying expectations: defining a desired standard of quality or outcome
  3. Examining existing knowledge: surveying relevant data/information
  4. Strategizing: mapping out a way to use knowledge
  5. Transferring: using ideas, analogies, or patterns in a new context
  6. Identifying contextual prompts: identifying the most relevant cues for action in a situation
Modeling (building an abstraction of reality or a representation of an abstraction)
  1. Identifying factors: recognizing the important contributions to a situation
  2. Identifying relationships: defining how categories or variables are connected
  3. Analogizing: representing similar elements in a dissimilar context
  4. Simplifying: reducing to a minimal set of primary components and variables
  5. Abstracting: capturing the essence from concrete examples or instances
  6. Quantifying: representing with numbers or equations
  7. Diagramming: clarifying relationships through visual representations
Systems Thinking (recognizing patterns of relationship within a context)
  1. Defining function: clarifying purpose with objectives
  2. Exemplifying: showing with a concrete example
  3. Visualizing: creating a mental image of how parts make a whole
  4. Designing systems: representing components and relationships within certain constraints
  5. Using schemas/frames: locating the appropriate structure to provide effective orientation
  6. Appreciating randomness: detecting unsystematic (stochastic) variables
  7. Being process-oriented: creating and using methodologies
Validating Results (ensuring outcomes are effective, efficient, and meet expectations)
  1. Following principles: ensuring the compatibility of knowledge with context
  2. Testing: analyzing/enhancing results to satisfy quality expectations
  3. Capturing evidence: constructing compelling and documented value sets
  4. Capturing value: seeking broader impact from results
  5. Ensuring fitness: checking that results match parameters of a situation

Process 4 Problem Solving (resolving a situation that has unmet expectations)

Clarifying the Problem (defining a situation and future desired state)
  1. Identifying the problem: seeing and describing the gap between expectations and perceptions
  2. Defining the problem: specifying the targeted end state of resolution
  3. Identifying issues: pointing out things that must be addressed to get to end state for all stakeholders
  4. Identifying assumptions: discovering the implicit presumptions or beliefs that may be operative in a given context
  5. Identifying constraints: determining the restrictions required for a solution to be acceptable
Structuring a Problem (strategizing directive action of the process)
  1. Subdividing: separating the problem into manageable sub-problems
  2. Selecting tools: integrating resources that increase effectiveness
  3. Defining a solution’s specifications: clarifying the form of resolution that satisfies all stakeholders
Creating Solutions (building and implementing a resolution)
  1. Reusing solutions: adapting prior approaches to the current situation
  2. Identifying viability of sub-solutions: establishing that each partial resolution will work
  3. Harmonizing solutions: integrating sub-resolutions with clean interface into a whole
  4. Implementing: applying an accepted solution
Improving Solutions (resolving issues and gaps in current and future resolutions)
  1. Troubleshooting: identifying and fixing specific issues
  2. Testing robustness: validating under varying conditions to determine solution strength
  3. Optimizing a solution: making changes that further close any gap
  4. Generalizing a solution: modifying a resolution for broader future use

Process 5 Discovering, Creating, and Innovating (making new, unique things)
Identifying Direction (establishing a path to an outcome)
  1. Defining the current state: identifying relevant characteristics from the present condition
  2. Visualizing the future state: imagining desirable characteristics of a future condition
  3. Justifying need: establishing the merit of filling gaps between current and future states
  4. Identifying research questions: proposing lines of inquiry
  5. Clarifying impact: predicting implications of the change in state
Grounded Exploring (trying paths to determine viability)
  1. Reviewing literature: researching the current state of knowledge
  2. Surveying: systematically sampling what exists or is perceived
  3. Challenging assumptions: identifying and questioning current theory or conventional wisdom
  4. Investigating: testing different trials or approaches for viability
  5. Ruling out alternatives: determining that an explanation is stronger than others proposed
  6. Forming hypotheses: proposing possible explanations for observations
  7. Probing frameworks: selecting direction using theory, schemas or collective experiences
  8. Proposing: laying out a path for moving forward to realize merit and impact
Creative Thinking (generating novel ideas)
  1. Expanding creative mindset: imagining and playing with the seemingly impossible
  2. Being open minded: welcoming a wide range of ideas
  3. Brainstorming: Using a diverse group to do open-end idea generation
  4. Using divergent thinking: taking a variety of viewpoints to stimulate ideas
  5. Using lateral thinking: generating new ideas from associations
  6. Transforming representation: manipulating objects or models to gain new insight
  7. Making novel assumptions: trying out new premises to stimulate the investigative process
Innovating (building new upon old or creating where none exists)
  1. Evolving innovative mindset: embracing new ways and strategies to overcome constraints
  2. Envisioning: sharing key details of impact to help visualize the future existence
  3. Creating schemas: developing novel conceptual models
  4. Using appreciative inquiry: pursuing transformational change though focus on building on and broadening what is already working
  5. Using tools inventively: working with an existing object or resource in a novel way
  6. Developing new language: creating terms, signs, symbols, gestures, and rules
  7. Being entrepreneurial: using vision and persistence to bring a viable product to market
Designing (creating processes, systems or products with pre-determined needs)
  1. Evolving design mindset: wanting to meet stakeholder needs efficiently and effectively
  2. Using creative application: artfully integrating all skills to produce a concrete design
  3. Writing specifications: translating stakeholder needs into requirements that guide the design process
  4. Creating tools: fashioning instruments to investigate new areas
  5. Prototyping: physically representing the proposed product
  6. Field testing: measuring performance of the finished product to determine if it meets specifications
Researching (process of creating new knowledge that adds to the body of knowledge)
  1. Advancing research mindset: seeing opportunities and methods to produce evidence supporting new knowledge
  2. Selecting methods: choosing appropriate, acceptable procedures aligned with research community
  3. Experimenting: producing a design process for extracting reproducible evidence
  4. Testing hypotheses: validating that the evidence supports conclusions
  5. Constructing theory: proposing explanations with broad implications
  6. Validating discoveries: checking if the discoveries connect in your community before making them official
  7. Being parsimonious: reducing to the simplest explanation consistent with empirical observations
  8. Defending scholarship: positioning research results effectively to propagate research agenda
  9. Peer reviewing: providing justification for acceptance or rejection based on quality and standards
Social Domain

These are the skills that are concerned with communicating, relating with others, living in society, managing, and leading. Each PROCESS consists of multiple clusters. Simply click any process to open its clusters. Each clusterconsists of multiple SKILLS. Simply click any cluster to view its skills.

Process 1 Communicating (producing and receiving messages)

Receiving a Message (using techniques to process a transmission of information)
  1. Active listening: maintaining attention on what is being said with interaction
  2. Rephrasing: restating—illustrating what was heard by honoring and then enhancing the message
  3. Reading body language: gathering information from non-verbal signs
  4. Gaining perspective: adopting new points of view based on the message
  5. Being perceptive: being attuned to what is happening during communication
  6. Identifying key ideas: determining the important components of the message
Preparing a Message (structuring the information for a given audience)
  1. Defining thesis: specifying central theme for a message
  2. Knowing the audience: understanding the background and interests of receivers
  3. Articulating an idea: distilling the essence of the message
  4. Building credibility: generating trust that the message is true
  5. Structuring a message: sequencing elements for the desired impact
  6. Phrasing: using words and expressions suitable for the audience or context
  7. Choosing medium: selecting the means or channel of communication
Delivering a Message (maximizing the value of the communication)
  1. Timing delivery: picking the right time and place to present a message
  2. Explaining: clarifying the message with specifics to increase understanding
  3. Illustrating: enhancing a message with images, props, drawings or body language
  4. Storytelling: affirming or informing with an anecdote
  5. Exposing vulnerability: being willing to speak publicly
Writing a Message (using techniques to enhance textual communication)
  1. Documenting: capturing the details of something (a solution, a discussion, an incident, etc.)
  2. Writing to think: exploring meaning through expressing what comes to mind
  3. Using correct grammar: forming sentence structure using established syntax
  4. Writing critically: considering evidence from diverse sources to make reasoned conclusions
  5. Writing technically: using applied or professional language to communicate specialized knowledge
  6. Writing formally: following specific conventions and formatting standards
Orating (applying verbal skills in delivering a formal speech)
  1. Generating presence: delivering a message in a way that impresses or entertains an audience
  2. Being dynamic: using rhetorical devices or vocal strategies
  3. Using dialectic skills: arguing to arrive at truth rather than convincing or winning
  4. Responding to an audience: dynamically changing communication tactics based on how others are reacting
  5. Appealing to emotions: persuading an audience by intentionally triggering feelings
Communicating Informally, Orally (applying communication skills to engage with others)
  1. Checking perception: testing to see if what you think is happening is happening
  2. Speaking to think: exploring meaning by talking about what comes to mind
  3. Opining: speaking from one’s perspective, value or beliefs
  4. Conversing: engaging others while exchanging information
  5. Influencing: intentionally affecting an audience’s belief or frame of reference
  6. Discussing: arguing for a specific point of view through the exchange of information

Process 2 Relating with Others (engaging effectively with people)

Relating Informally (connecting with others in a casual manner)
  1. Greeting others: initiating welcoming interactions with people
  2. Being personable: having a congenial manner with diverse people
  3. Being courteous: following conventions of politeness
  4. Using body language: projecting messages with the gestures, stance, and expressions
  5. Taking interest in others: initiating inquiry about another to show they are important
Relating Formally (connecting with others in an official context)
  1. Hosting: staging an event that welcomes, includes, and produces enjoyment
  2. Being respectful: showing regard and consideration
  3. Accommodating: being flexible to best meet others’ needs
  4. Seeking mentoring: asking for guidance/support from an expert to grow performance
Relating Meaningfully (deepening relationships with others)
  1. Befriending: initiating a supportive relationship
  2. Trusting: having faith or belief in another
  3. Committing to others: assuring that one will provide aid and support as promised
  4. Esteeming individuals: interacting for shared meaning in achieving a result
  5. Collaborating: working together for mutual benefit
  6. Compromising: negotiating to achieve common ground
  7. Comforting: attending to uplift others’ physical or mental state
  8. Showing gratitude: letting others know how much you value them
Performing in a Team (working together to achieve common goals)
  1. Performing in a role: fulfilling requirements of a particular position
  2. Cooperating: acting jointly to achieve goals
  3. Supporting the team: upholding collective performance
  4. Achieving consensus: agreeing on decisions based on shared input
  5. Challenging groupthink: Stopping team when self-reinforcing shuts out alternative ideas
  6. Resolving conflicts: finding common ground to move past disagreements

Process 3 Living in Society (dealing with all dimensions of social systems)

Being a Citizen (participating in civic processes)
  1. Accepting civic responsibility: performing roles supporting governance
  2. Obeying laws: complying with legal requirements
  3. Politicking: actively influencing decision-makers and stakeholders
  4. Supporting institutions: contributing respectfully to communities and organizations
Living in a Community (being a member of a group by adhering to common expectations)
  1. Recognizing conventions: behaving within the unwritten rules/social norms
  2. Gaining acceptance: interacting to discover like-minded people and groups
  3. Networking: interacting/forming strategic relationships
  4. Giving back: finding meaningful ways of bettering the status quo
  5. Volunteering: giving altruistically for the greater good
Performing in an Institution (thinking and comporting oneself within an organization)
  1. Being professional: meeting expectations within one’s organization
  2. Being assertive: projecting self-assurance and self-confidence
  3. Negotiating: pursuing advantageous agreements
  4. Using resources: sizing up and using available tools, information, people and system
  5. Being principled: applying or standing by your values, convictions, and beliefs in the face of adversity
Being a Family Member (managing day-to-day interactions with immediate relatives)
  1. Respecting parents: valuing your parents for their role in your life
  2. Nurturing: warmly and respectfully guiding the development of family (and community) members
  3. Putting family first: giving priority to the needs of relatives (parents, siblings, children, etc.)
Performing in a Culture (demonstrating competence in diverse societies, ethnic groups and communities)
  1. Analyzing a culture: determining the key societal differences
  2. Honoring traditions: observing/revering societal customs
  3. Being socially adept: reacting skillfully to changing cultural norms
  4. Appreciating myths: understanding/welcoming folklores
Mentoring (Facilitating the growth of others through a formal relationship)
  1. Believing in someone: transparently providing substance so they believe in what they can become
  2. Advising: helping a person discover their best possibilities for improvement and success
  3. Challenging: raising expectations of others to increase their quality of life
  4. Advocating: pro-actively providing support for someone with hardship or opportunity
Living in the World (existing in a global society)
  1. Integrating history: assimilating/incorporating past events into current situations
  2. Seeking social justice: working towards a fair distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges
  3. Supporting sustainability: safeguarding future viability through present actions
  4. Acting globally: being guided locally by awareness of interdependency with the world community

Process 4 Managing (leveraging people, resources, and time to accomplish specific outcomes)

Managing Individuals (setting people up for successful performance)
  1. Acquiring personnel: selecting qualified personnel for specific functions
  2. Motivating: stimulating someone’s interest or enthusiasm to do something
  3. Assigning tasks: matching duties to performer skills and time
  4. Supporting needs: identifying and effectively responding to observed lack of resources
Managing Teams (setting groups up for successful performance)
  1. Building teams: forming groups by identifying the characteristics, functionality, and resources for success
  2. Assigning roles: aligning/matching positions or duties to member skills
  3. Sharing authority: agreeing on how to manage selected tasks
  4. Mediating: engaging with disputants to facilitate resolution of conflicts
Managing Human Systems (ensuring effective organization performance)
  1. Designing an evaluation system: creating performance standards and measures
  2. Recognizing strong performance: publicly distinguishing excellence
  3. Increasing productivity: increasing quality and quantity while also decreasing costs
  4. Providing Professional Development: identifying growth needs and sources for supporting it
Managing Resources (planning, providing, and monitoring assets and capital)
  1. Identifying essential resources: recognizing appropriate funding, scheduling and staffing
  2. Being financially astute: understanding key fiscal parameters
  3. Budgeting: planning for and managing resources
  4. Using information technology: taking advantage of data management tools
Managing Communications (overseeing internal and external information flow)
  1. Staying informed: intentionally acquiring information for decision making
  2. Marketing: initiating messages to persuade clients of the value of something
  3. Informing stakeholders: communicating with key individuals at appropriate times
  4. Being diplomatic: responding to divergent stakeholders’ needs without damaging relationships
  5. Systematizing communications: building and utilizing social networks for sharing information
Managing Projects (overseeing the development of end results or products)
  1. Chartering: proposing and gaining support prior to project design
  2. Initiating: ensuring start of a project
  3. Monitoring: periodically reviewing established milestones
  4. Generating results: producing useful or successful outcomes
  5. Meeting deadlines: making sure that critical milestones are met in timely manner
Facilitating group process (helping others achieve a set of outcomes)
  1. Developing connectedness: developing the shared experiences as agency
  2. Building cohesiveness: evolving solidarity in your community
  3. Creating a growth culture: Building an environment for increasing individuals’ capabilities
  4. Running a meeting: making sure that collective interests are efficiently served

Process 5 Leadership (accomplishing a mission by guiding others)

Envisioning (projecting a path to an end state)
  1. Forecasting: visualizing future status based on trends and logic
  2. Perceiving implications: describing the operational social impacts of future trends
  3. Balancing perspectives: avoiding tunnel vision by considering different points of view
Building a Following (establishing a group who will bring a vision to fruition)
  1. Sharing a vision: using empathy and imagery to help others see a future state
  2. Involving stakeholders: inviting key individuals to share perspectives and participate in significant activities
  3. Inspiring: motivating and encouraging others
  4. Demonstrating integrity: responding to issues with clear and consistent principles
Establishing Culture (creating an environment that supports a vision)
  1. Forming shared values: developing consensus on important principles
  2. Obtaining commitment: securing willingness to tackle challenges required for a vision
  3. Maintaining transparency: ensuring open access to information, data, and strategies
Maintaining a Commitment (helping the continuance of group dedication in order to achieve the vision)
  1. Taking meaningful stands: publicly embracing positions based on principles
  2. Being charismatic: displaying a confident flair and presence that motivates others
  3. Being accessible: being readily available to others
  4. Garnering resources: obtaining resources needed for implementing the vision
Facilitating Change Process (Leading a community/institution in a new growth area)
  1. Thinking opportunistically: using positive strategies to optimize advantage
  2. Responding to change: being flexible in strategic thinking
  3. Preparing for change: facilitating training needed for readiness
  4. Leading change process: effectively modeling, advocating, supporting and transforming a culture
  5. Sustaining change: taking actions that ensure the ongoing engagement of stakeholders
Empowering (inspiring and allowing others to carry out the vision)
  1. Grooming future leaders: mentoring and promoting a diverse and talented team
  2. Encouraging ownership: engaging others to accept a stake in the vision
  3. Practicing servant leadership: using the power of ones influence to enhance the well-being of others
  4. Preparing succession: ensuring that future leaders have a viable path forward
Affective Domain

These are the skills that have to do with emotion, processing emotions, and acting as a result of that processing. Each Process consists of multiple clusters. Simply click any process to open its clusters. Each cluster consists of multiple SKILLS. Simply click any cluster to view its skills.

Process 1 Engaging Emotionally (increasing affective capacities)

Observing Self (attending to present emotions)
  1. Listening to self: tracking the focus of your inner voice
  2. Perceiving emotions: recognizing and identifying your own affective responses
  3. Discovering motives: finding situations that lead you to act
  4. Valuing the emotion: understanding the power of an affective response
Checking Emotions (changing your reactions to emotions)
  1. Noticing outlier reactions: discerning when your emotions are extreme for the context
  2. Controlling judgmental self-talk: confronting and changing negative inner messages
  3. Calming: soothing yourself
  4. Energizing: invigorating or rousing yourself, especially from boredom or lethargy
  5. Inhibiting impulses: consciously restraining sudden urges
Expanding Emotions (establishing affective connections to life)
  1. Finding humor: being amused by new sources of delight
  2. Trusting: expanding the ability to recognize authentic expressions of support
  3. Being loyal: showing allegiance to those you trust
  4. Responding to loss: adjusting to ongoing feelings related to disappointments and grief
  5. Risking disapproval: willingness to put yourself in contexts where others may judge you
Engaging Situationally (being ready to experience what contexts have to offer)
  1. Being open: seeking and seeing novelty in situations
  2. Being curious: scanning for novelty or being motivated to explore
  3. Being focused: being attentive to what is happening
  4. Being careful: reducing the likelihood of bad outcomes
  5. Being active: energizing yourself into the situation
  6. Being positive: initiating activities or changing situations to maintain confident emotional energy
  7. Seeking new experiences: actively searching for enjoyable and rewarding adventures
  8. Living vibrantly: being mindful in every moment and appreciating what it offers
  9. Caring: valuing another because they are important to you
Freeing Emotions (opening yourself up to fully feel emotions)
  1. Laughing: freely reacting to humorous fun
  2. Loving: unconditionally caring about someone
  3. Accepting love: taking in and appreciating the unconditional caring of others
  4. Feeling secure: having an inner sense of belonging
  5. Feeling joyful: appreciating what life is offering
  6. Crying: allowing yourself to feel emotions, both positive and negative, that trigger tears
  7. Playing: enjoying an activity
  8. Enjoying pleasure: taking delight from sensually relaxing experiences
Being Resilient (dealing with life’s unpleasant outcomes; showing grit)
  1. Persisting: continuing on a reasonable path despite low mood or mounting difficulties
  2. Adapting: changing direction when feedback to do so is reasonable and trusted
  3. Seeking help: accepting that you need outside assistance and asking for it
  4. Grieving: processing a major loss
  5. Addressing adversity: standing up to the complexity of life’s difficulties
  6. Using failures: looking for a “lesson” from each setback
  7. Coping: dealing effectively with a situation or issue that is difficult
  8. Toughening self-esteem: strengthening self-worth by overcoming difficulties and struggles
Creating an Emotional Pathway (collecting memorable situational examples)
  1. Identifying unfamiliar feelings: discerning an emotion and what it is informing you
  2. Being stoic: accepting that life situations often create discomfort for a time
  3. Recognizing triggers: connecting upsetting experiences to negative conditioning
  4. Writing to reflect: journaling life experiences to explore emotions
  5. Experiencing role identities: integrating new daily understandings from each life role’s activities
  6. Creating memories: intentionally storing positive instances or occasions

Process 2 Expanding Self-Efficacy (having belief in one’s own potential)

Preparing for a Performance (readying yourself before a display of skill)
  1. Recognizing unmet need: finding what is “empty” (missing) in the current situation
  2. Setting goals: Identifying the purpose and the associated outcomes
  3. Planning: generating structured tasks that promote a successful performance
  4. Managing time: effectively and efficiently deciding how to allocate daily efforts
  5. Being organized: knowing what is needed and where to obtain it
  6. Being prepared: going over highlights and reminders about an upcoming performance
Performing in Real-time (taking charge of performance)
  1. Being disciplined: setting and following priorities and schedules
  2. Being decisive: choosing the time to move forward
  3. Practicing deliberately: refining a performance to improve probability of success
  4. Working hard: maintaining intensity of work over time
  5. Being fully engaged: being completely immersed in an experience
  6. Owning performance: wanting to excel by doing it your own way to produce quality
  7. Satisficing: knowing the minimum requirements necessary to achieve a goal
  8. Bringing closure: wrapping up a current effort and moving on
Managing One’s Emotions (being skilled in self-care and uses of feelings)
  1. Sensing emotional confusion: realizing that unclear feelings must be dealt with
  2. Supplying a missing emotion: using a different or changed affective response required for success
  3. Identifying stressors: having a clear sense of work, home, and life pressures
  4. Managing daily stressors: dealing effectively with work, home, and life pressures and conflicts
  5. Renewing: recharging yourself for future performance
  6. Disengaging emotionally: taking a time out when feelings dominate rational thought
Managing Performance Emotions (taking charge of achievement-related issues)
  1. Accepting uncertainty: being ready to deal with unpredictable outcomes
  2. Dealing with negative outcomes: accepting and learning from poor results
  3. Managing frustration: controlling negative emotions in the face of challenges
  4. Managing anxiety: letting go of worry over things beyond your control
  5. Exhibiting self-confidence: smoothly adjusting performance to meet changing needs or goals
Practicing Social Management with Others (personally engaging with individuals)
  1. Competing: intentionally performing in a way that could lead to gaining or winning
  2. Being a good sport: enjoying performing and reacting with equanimity, regardless of who wins
  3. Responding to requests: respectfully accepting or rejecting appeals to help
  4. Supporting: affirming and publicly acknowledging the value of others and their contributions
  5. Being non-defensive: being verbally and nonverbally calm in the face of judgmental challenges
  6. Acting: presenting a different self-representation for a performance
Practicing Social Management (relating emotionally within collective systems)
  1. Accepting external expectations: agreeing to quality expectations and time constraints
  2. Handling distress: effectively dealing with extremely unsettling social or emotional experiences
  3. Challenging the status quo: publicly questioning the validity of something commonly accepted
  4. Managing finances: keeping expenses within income sources over time
  5. Using resources effectively: incorporating materials required for an effective performance
  6. Being responsible: taking ownership for upholding your commitments
Practicing Intellectual Management (taking initiative to seek truth without bias)
  1. Reducing self-bias: being conscious of how your values and feelings influence your thinking
  2. Preventing biases: choosing strategies to avoid known types of misjudgments
  3. Enjoying productive struggle: finding satisfaction in working on unclearly defined problems
  4. Managing dissonance: seeking consistency when addressing unresolved intellectual conflicts
  5. Suspending closure: avoiding premature judgements caused by assumptions or unfamiliarity
  6. Questioning conventional wisdom: challenging the way things are usually done
  7. Having intellectual humility: working to not overestimate strengths or underestimate weaknesses
Discerning Reality (separating valid judgment from emotional reaction)
  1. Managing a judgment: realizing that traits often are unreliable predictors of capabilities
  2. Controlling overreactions: striving for moderation in responses
  3. Acknowledging error: using reason to publicly concede invalid emotion-based judgments
  4. Reprocessing without emotions: setting aside the feeling element in reviewing an experience
Strengthening Self-Efficacy (increasing expectation of one’s own competence)
  1. Believing in your potential: generalizing from achievements to validate a growth trend
  2. Analyzing performance: objectively assessing current capacity in a performance area
  3. Self-challenging: getting out of your comfort zone to increase growth opportunities

Process 3 Clarifying, Building, and Refining Values (strengthening core personal beliefs)

Discerning Values (recognizing habits, desires, and principled beliefs)
  1. Discovering the norm: determining the relationship of your values to other’s values
  2. Clarifying habits: articulating the “why” in consistent actions to define implicit values
  3. Sensing wrongness: noticing reactions inconsistent with what you believe and value
  4. Emulating others: mirroring behavior of others that matches what you value
  5. Identifying personal values: recognizing what matters most to you as an individual
  6. Establishing an ethical code: achieving an orderly system of values for life decisions
Valuing Independent Self (focusing on what you want to become)
  1. Clarifying interests: discovering what is deeply engaging for producing individual value
  2. Accepting ownership: being responsible about what you promised to contribute
  3. Staying healthy: assuring long-term well-being of mind, body, and spirit
  4. Being true to self: Walking the walk of your values; following your inner compass
Valuing Self in Relation to Others (relating your standards to external influences)
  1. Trusting self: knowing that your values and capabilities are the most relevant to your situation
  2. Committing to self: believing that the value of your life is as important as anyone else’s
  3. Associating with high performers: seeking out those with integrated achievements and values
  4. Accepting forgiveness: feeling and showing gratitude when others pardon your wrongdoing
Valuing Others (expressing social values)
  1. Empathizing: sharing, emotionally, the pain and joy of others
  2. Valuing family: integrating family history and influences as a critical aspect of your life
  3. Valuing service: actively advancing or protecting the interests/well-being of others
  4. Being tolerant: valuing that others’ values are as important to them as yours are to you
  5. Valuing sanctity of life: believing that each person has intrinsic worth
  6. Being socially active: publicly pursuing equity in relationships, organizations, and communities
Valuing Intellect (appreciating the unlimited capacity and spirit of humans)
  1. Valuing knowledge: learning from any source at any time for any purpose
  2. Valuing alternate perspectives: wanting to know others’ ways of reasoning and making meaning
  3. Valuing thinking: appreciating the power of cognitive processes
  4. Being evidence-based: intentionally focusing on facts and data vs. feelings and opinions
  5. Valuing best practices: being willing to assimilate and integrate what others’ do effectively
  6. Enjoying complexity: finding satisfaction in fully engaging with the natural intricacy of life
Integrating Cultural Values (enhancing your life by infusing human creativity)
  1. Integrating music: experiencing music as a sharing of emotional and cultural reactions
  2. Assimilating art: enjoying representations that are diverse in style, theme, content, and purpose
  3. Appreciating history: using data and narrative to connect with people and events of the past
  4. Valuing the written word: entering worlds of meaning created by diverse authors and poets
  5. Appreciating culinary experiences: exploring the cultural and creative aspects of food and nutrition
  6. Valuing traditions: seeking opportunities to share in rituals and customs different from your own
Valuing Life Opportunities (expanding by exploring new dimensions)
  1. Traveling: journeying in order to explore new places and experiences
  2. Seeking diversity: intentionally looking for value in varied and different contexts
  3. Embracing change: thriving on the inconsistencies of life and the unpredictability of the future
  4. Valuing creativity: appreciating using imagination and original ideas to create something
  5. Valuing growth: appreciating opportunities for increasing your capacity
Valuing Daily Life (making positive changes in your habits and attitudes)
  1. Valuing sensory wonders: mindfully taking in beauty in your environment
  2. Valuing aloneness: valuing time away from others for following personal interests and reflecting
  3. Preventing harm: making choices that reduce negative treatment of people, animals, and nature
  4. Living sustainably: minimizing your footprint on the environment by conscious daily actions
Expanding and Validating Your Value System (living the life you want)
  1. Validating accomplishments: designing your vita/resume to show what you have achieved
  2. Validating personal impact: recognizing the effect you have
  3. Validating added value: recognizing the worth you have contributed
  4. Extending Values: challenging your principles in new situations and with diverse people
  5. Making meaning: valuing experiences or insights that push you beyond your current concerns

Process 4 Personal Growth (maturing into the person you value through self-determination)

Clarifying Your Personal Identity (growing individuality from the roles you play)
  1. Prioritizing role identities: focusing on the parts you play that produce the most value for your life
  2. Strengthening role identities: prioritizing the most important parts you play
  3. Motivating self: setting up conditions that lead to desired actions
  4. Interpreting personal responses: capturing instances that clarify your values
  5. Being passionate: flourishing by doing those things that create the greatest meaning in your life
  6. Clarifying external identity: discovering how you are regarded across varied social contexts
Visioning Future Self (identifying the person you value and want to become)
  1. Updating life vision: mapping new paths to realize your identities in achieving goals and dreams
  2. Setting growth goals: identifying direction to increase capacity with plans to do so
  3. Gaining perspective: navigating among multiple vantage points to obtain true understanding
  4. Being philosophical: gaining deeper understanding of the nature of life and its meaning
Facilitating Self-growth (gaining the skills to pursue personal development)
  1. Accepting consequences: agreeing to bear or own the full outcome of an action or decision
  2. Changing reactions: purposefully trying out new or alternative reactions to specific feelings
  3. Changing behaviors: deliberately responding in a new way to old feelings and situations
  4. Being independent: seeking an appropriate level of autonomy in each role identity
  5. Committing to success: devoting yourself to accomplishing your goals or triumphing in a challenge
Self-Regulation (maintaining energy to keep running the marathon of life)
  1. Maintaining balance: practicing moderation
  2. Prioritizing: consistently putting the most important things first
  3. Being patient: waiting with equanimity when timing, conditions, and readiness are not right
  4. Getting unstuck: recognizing the lack of movement towards life’s goals and updates strategies

Process 5 Facilitating Growth Beyond Oneself (expanding meaning in life for humankind)

Moving Out in Front (making more of a difference)
  1. Feeling empowered: having all the factors needed to make a significant endeavor possible
  2. Being private: keeping your personal affairs out of the public sphere
  3. Being “thick-skinned”: reacting with patience and non-defensiveness when ideas are attacked
  4. Championing: working on behalf of those denied equity or who are victimized
  5. Enduring: abiding, even in the face of adversity or a long-term challenge
Moving Beyond Yourself Emotionally (creating meaning and value for others)
  1. Transforming narratives: ending an unproductive impasse by creating a new, positive story
  2. Being a catalyst: causing or being the impetus for a significant action or outcome to occur
  3. Providing second chances: helping those who hurt or failed you in the hope that they can do better
  4. Committing to community: helping a group thrive through your significant involvement
  5. Behaving honorably: exhibiting the highest standards of virtue and integrity
Moving Beyond Yourself Socially (facilitating growth outside of yourself)
  1. Creating traditions: initiating a custom or ritual to make or mark meaning for a group
  2. Being patriotic: accepting call of duty for your nation
  3. Backing supporters: providing needed, timely help for those who have taken risks on your behalf
  4. Using one’s social power: exerting influence on others to achieve broad goals
  5. Setting personal narrative: assertively defining yourself so others can’t inaccurately define you
Moving Outside of Yourself (creating meaning and value beyond your life)
  1. Self-sacrificing: using your time, effort, and opportunities to help others
  2. Being courageous: taking action in spite of fear
  3. Developing spiritually: practicing what reflection tells you about bringing meaning to life
  4. Being compassionate: being moved by suffering and motivated to show sympathy, kindness, or caring
Assessment and Evaluation of Quality Domain

The hierarchy within this domain is structured to support the development of quality and is organized in a sequence of processes which helps users focus on the practices that produce improved quality in performances or products.

Process 1 Defining Quality (identifying what impacts the consumer’s affective satisfaction)

Defining receiver needs (identifying quality from a user or client perspective)
  1. Analyzing needs: finding the qualities a receiver desires
  2. Defining characteristics: determining the key factors that impact a receiver’s affective reaction
  3. Raising expectations: influencing receiver’s mindset towards wants, desires or anticipation
  4. Forecasting needs: determining the new or adapted future desires
  5. Writing measurable outcomes: documenting a project or process set of expectations for quality
Defining quality of results (identifying desired characteristics in a product or experience)
  1. Defining product characteristics: identifying key features of an entity
  2. Defining experience characteristics: identifying key features of a happening or an event
  3. Setting criteria: choosing the important characteristics that represent quality
Defining quality in performance (identifying key characteristics of processes/actions)
  1. Describing performance: preparing a picture of expected actions or steps in process(es)
  2. Defining performance characteristics: recognizing key features of actions or nuances in the process(es)
  3. Valuing performance: acknowledging excellence in performances
  4. Writing performance criteria: documenting descriptive expectations of desired quality
Determining the quality of match (alignment of desired quality to actual quality)
  1. Determining unmet needs: identifying desired characteristics lacking for receiver
  2. Realizing the excess quality: identifying actual characteristics not desired by receiver
  3. Determining future match: identifying actual characteristics that cover future needs

Process 2 Measuring Quality (selecting and using scales for determining excellence)

  1. Selecting measures: establishing a minimal working set of scales for a purpose (what matters)
  2. Ensuring completeness: validating that measures include key sources of variability in quality
  3. Ensuring robustness: making sure measure captures full range of variability in quality for the context
  4. Ensuring reliability: consistency in measuring level of quality by different measurers
  5. Ensuring validity: verifying that selected measures produce intended results for its purpose

Process 3 Assessing Quality (producing meaningful feedback to make future improvements)

Preparing for Improvement (setting the foundation for effective implementation)
  1. Having assessment mindset: focusing on improvement without judging quality
  2. Being proactive: seeing opportunities for initiating improvement
  3. Pre-assessing: analyzing preparation of a performance to improve readiness
  4. Designing an assessment: collaborating with assessee to structure the specific process
Implementing assessment (producing meaningful improvement feedback)
  1. Applying criteria: aligning observations (evidence), analyses and feedback to focus areas
  2. Identifying SII Opportunities: picking the most valuable areas for analyzing and including in feedback
  3. Developing action plans: creating short and long-term strategies for improvement
  4. Using summative assessment: analyzing a process or project quality for future benefit

Process 4 Evaluating Quality (judging the level of quality using a standard)

  1. Establishing standards: specifying the level of quality for each measurement scale
  2. Benchmarking: creating standards from existing external comparable entities
  3. Critiquing: analyzing and determining quality using established standards and conventions
  4. Being fair: being objective and not letting biases, values and petitions influence judgement
  5. Maintaining standards: refraining from subjectively changing evaluation criteria/standards after a performance

Process 5 Providing Feedback on Quality (positively influencing a performer’s future quality)

  1. Maintaining objectivity: focusing on reporting the evaluation, not responding to personal reactions
  2. Being non-judgmental: withholding or avoiding using one’s personal standards or opinions
  3. Providing growth feedback: supplying key observations, meaningful analysis, and implications
  4. Giving Consulting feedback: causing action in assessee through timely, valuable, expert analysis
  5. Highlighting sub-standard performance: providing evidence justifying judgment with consequences

Process 6 Enhancing Quality (determining what produces greater value to specific audiences)

  1. Interpreting feedback: figuring out why and what the assessor/evaluator is trying to say
  2. Transforming strategies: developing ownership of action plans for gaining the improved quality
  3. Fine-tuning characteristics: incorporating receiver feedback to increase satisfaction
  4. Identifying new qualities: finding new dimensions that enhance value for an audience
  5. Positioning quality: placing a specific thing with an audience who will value it
  6. Promoting quality: highlighting how something impacts the needs of an audience

Process 7 Self-Assessing (measuring and analyzing one’s own performance for improvement)
  1. Focusing on self-improvement: taking on the mindset of continuously improving one’s own performance
  2. Seeking feedback: asking for assessment/evaluation to adjust and strengthen self-assessment
  3. Accepting feedback: being receptive to the perspectives and analysis of others on your performance
  4. Self-monitoring: having a continuous camera on every performance so it can be replayed and assessed
  5. Being self-honest: recognizing when one’s own filters and assumptions reflect known/new biases
  6. Self-mentoring: engaging in intentional self-assessment leading to analysis of self for improvement

Process 8 Reflecting (having mindfulness of your learning skills and states of being)

  1. Being self-aware: appreciating opportunities for engaging in reflection
  2. Self-evaluating: being honest about who you are and where you are with respect to your life vision
  3. Seeing prompts: knowing when reflection is needed and will produce significant value
  4. Being metacognitive: stepping back to better understand one’s thinking, affective, and social learning skills
  5. Practicing reflection: increasing apprehension of new truths about identities, values, feelings and actions
  6. Introspecting: using systematic analytical and assessment tools to produce greater meaning about self
Welcome to the Classification of Learning Skills

Learning skills are at the heart of Process Education:

Process Education (def.) a performance-based philosophy of education which integrates many different educational theories, processes, and tools in emphasizing the continuous development of learning skills through the use of assessment principles in order to produce learner self-development.

Learning skills are aptitudes, abilities, and behaviors related to increasing quality of learning performance. Learning skills are distinct from disciplinary content and each skill in this Classification is universal because it applies across all contexts of performance. As performance quality increases it enhances self-efficacy, the positive expectation that one can add new performance capabilities, enhance efficiencies and effectiveness of performances, and can use insights from assessment to raise the quality of performances in ways consistent with one’s goals. Self-growth is the increase in the quality of one’s learning process in all aspects of life: there is no limit on the extent and quality of development possible. Individual learners can improve their ability to learn by developing learning skills through personal experimentation and intentional practice but also are encouraged to develop mentoring and peer support strategies to increase performance quality.

The learning skills are divided into four different domains: Cognitive, Social, Affective, and Assessment & Evaluation of Quality. Use the navigation wheel at left to explore the CLS.

Cognitive Domain Social Affective Evaluation and
Assessment of Quality

Each DOMAIN is divided into PROCESSES. Each process is divided into CLUSTERS. Each cluster contains multiple LEARNING SKILLS. All processes and clusters are clickable.



To view ALL learning skills at once, click here.