Behind CATALYST’s Skill-Based Assessment Framework
CATALYST pushes students to think beyond traditional limitations. Learn more about CATALYST's unique skill-based assessment criteria to see how we do it.
We feel strongly that assessment should be the foundation for helping students to develop a growth mindset, seeing any challenge as an opportunity to take risks and learn from mistakes. In this spirit, we encourage failure.
We believe that tomorrow’s capabilities will not only be defined by qualifications, but also by capability and character. Resilience, cooperation, and the power to think critically will be ever-more important. Shouldn’t we be assessing students on skills and mindsets that will serve them well beyond university?
The assessment criteria upon which CATALYST programmes are designed go beyond typical project- or exam-based scoring. Yes, we assess student work through CATALYST programmes, but we also assess how students work. ‘How’ implies that there is always room for improvement; ‘if’ implies that something is a 0 or a 1.
CATALYST's key competencies reflect a range of the skills required both in our programmes, at university, and beyond. Whatever the student’s ambitions, we believe the following skills are essential to success:
Negotiation and resolution - understand, articulate, and assess different perspectives to build consensus
Narrative defence - establish bulletproof arguments
Effective communication - tell your story in a simple, easy-to-understand way that anyone can access
Quantitative fluency - use numbers as main characters in your stories
Empathetic collaboration - work with others to make them part of the solution; create champions
Critical analysis and problem solving - grasp the problem from first principles, design a solution that works
Negotiation & resolution
CATALYST students are assessed on their ability to:
Achieve win-win outcomes (or at least outcomes that feel like win-win)
Clearly articulate their negotiation goals
Compel, persuade, and motivate others
Demonstrate situational awareness
Assess and leverage both explicit and implicit information and context
Understand, articulate, and assess different perspectives to build consensus
Narrative defence
CATALYST students are assessed on their ability to:
Articulate their narrative in a way that others easily understand
Proactively self-identify where their narrative is weaker and/or stronger
Clearly consider the audience, their perspectives and beliefs
Craft narratives with few - if any - intellectual gaps
Establish bulletproof arguments
Effective communication
CATALYST students are assessed on their ability to:
Deliver their message across channels - written, verbal and non-verbal, visual, etc
Craft messages, regardless of channel, in a precise and concise manner
Listen to and understand others' messages across channels
Code-switch to match situational or audience context
Tell their story in a simple, easy-to-understand way that anyone can access
Quantitative fluency
CATALYST students are assessed on their ability to:
Tell compelling stories using numbers
Quantify outcomes and goals in a way that is easily understood by others
React to new quantitative information in real-time
Quickly analyze data to arrive at accurate conclusions
Use numbers as main characters in their stories
Empathetic collaboration
CATALYST students are assessed on their ability to:
Suspend judgement and bias, drawing on an asset-based mindset
Balance confidence and humility
Contribute to creating a space that is safe and allows for vulnerability
Build authentic rapport and relationships
Work with others to make them part of the solution; create champions
Critical analysis & problem solving
CATALYST students are assessed on their ability to:
Analyse problems both qualitatively and quantitatively
Distil problems to foundational assumptions, reasoning from first principles
Design solutions that account for intended and unintended consequences, minimising negative externalities whenever possible
Approach problem-solving with a bias to solutions that are actionable
Grasp problems from their first principles, designing a solution that works
We currently focus on these six key competency areas as we believe that they establish a strong foundation from which students can further develop at secondary school, university, and the workplace.
