On Becoming: Why Disposition Distinguishes Education from Training

In 2020, the IEEE/ACM Computing Curricula 2020 report, the ACM/AIS/ISCAP Undergraduate Model Curriculum, and the AASCB Standards for Business Accreditation were all released. Each refers more prominently to dispositive aspects of the knowledge, skills, and capabilities that a curriculum is used to shape, hone, and prepare graduates. Both the CC2020 and IS2020 reports specifically recommend a competency-based curriculum in which dispositions are both a relatively new addition as well as an addition that may be fraught as the consideration and/or adoption process proceeds. New curricular guidelines, model curricula, and accreditation standards provide an occasion for assessment and reflection such that foundational assumptions may be reviewed. The competency model challenges Information Systems curriculum design in two key aspects that are the subject of this paper. First, the dispositive dimension poses key challenges in the Information Systems discipline and provides a new area of focus in the literature on Information Systems curriculum development. Second, the inclusion of dispositions in the CC2020/IS2020 competency model provides an opportunity to explore interconnections that can be more informative than course containers, course descriptions, and lists of topics. Dispositions provide an opportunity to also consider students’ learning and growth by analyzing what facilitates the development of competency beyond the application of knowledge and skills. We promote the uptake of the CC2020/IS2020 competency model by focusing on and advocating for dispositions as a means of accounting for, and designing for, students’ ‘becoming’ in their advancement in the application of skills and knowledge in the task environment. The dispositive component of the competency model promises extended expression, facility of comparison, and clarity in exchange to bring utility and understanding in the Information Systems curriculum development process.