ISEDJ

Abstract: The CC2020 report, Paradigms of Global Computing Education, prescribes competency as the model for curriculum description. CC2020 boldly thrusts upon baccalaureate designers the challenge of reconciling “knowing why” with fifty-years of curriculum guidelines focused on “knowing what.” IT2017 and IS2020 designers have already discovered the depth and breadth of challenge entailed by investing in this epistemological exercise. The adoption of a competency model is no less than a coordinated convergence of aspirations that span anyone invested in, or affected by, computing education: curriculum/program designers; sponsoring academic and governmental institutions; teachers and students; employers and job applicants; accreditors, licensure, and professional societies; as well as the public at large. The thread that binds these aspirants is a reliance upon the character of computing professionals in the delivery of their expertise. A professionalism resting upon a well-formed mindset, of which computing competency is one necessary ingredient. But it is the whole of the recipe of professionalism that we must strive to foster in our baccalaureate graduates. That recipe must enfold more than computing competency; it must nurture recognition of computing’s impact on the systems of society, both technological and human. We argue that competent professional practice must be fully informed in the critical aspects of accountability: risk, responsibility, and consequence, and that the shaping of mindset, habits, and dispositions to this end is not out of scope, but rather is imperative.

Download this article: ISEDJ - V20 N5 Page 67.pdf

Recommended Citation: Waguespack, L., Babb, J., Yates, D., (2022). Beyond Competency: The Imperative to Foster Professionalism in Computing Graduates. Information Systems Education Journal20(5) pp 67-81. http://ISEDJ.org/2022-5/ ISSN : ISSN: 1545-679X. A preliminary version appears in The Proceedings of EDSIGCON 2021