Abilities that distinguish the effectiveness of five‐year alumna performance across work, family and civic roles: a higher education validation

Abstract

This study demonstrates how academic faculty members are able to connect an undergraduate liberal arts and professions curriculum with the demonstrated performance of multidimensional and complex abilities by five‐year alumnae in professional, civic and family contexts. Alumna abilities scored by researchers were statistically correlated with independent judgments by faculty members of the overall effectiveness of the same alumna performances. Thematic analysis of faculty members' descriptions of the bases of their judgments added to the picture of what types of abilities connect higher education outcomes most strongly with effective alumna performance. Triangulated findings confirmed that a wide range of intellectual, prosocial, independent, and team‐oriented abilities are related to effective alumna performance. From a faculty perspective, effective alumna performance was broadly grounded in the breadth of the frameworks used for constructing action, the flexible use of disciplinary knowledge, a skilled collaboration with others, and a mature capacity for self assessment of one's performance and abilities. The findings and methods have implications for how the ideals of academic faculty can be included in a grounded dialogue with employers and wider publics about the goals and outcomes of higher education.