Introduction to Pentabilities

In a rapidly changing world with AI and other technologies, the set of skills honoured in the labour market will change, too. Certain types of cognitive abilities that were extremely important in the past are on the decline. E.g., you just have to love this account of Ken Arrow—one of the greatest minds the economics profession has ever seen—on many dimensions. In this context, just look for the part where he writes about inverting 8×8 matrices for the U.S. Navy’s weather forecasts during World War II. And about how computers took over a decade later. Another sixty years down the road, computers have penetrated far beyond such mechanical tasks.

Instead, the important cognitive abilities will be things like being creative, making connections between previous knowledge in new environments, etc.. Put differently, we will need to be able to adapt and learn in a social context. These changes are already underway, see this QJE paper. Even though most study programmes mention these types of skills prominently, few people will be able to tell you how exactly they are shaped and what you can do to improve them.

We strive to do exactly that. We will make use of the Pentabilities system and the corresponding App, which has been designed with top-notch economic concepts in mind. Bill Hewlett, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, famously said: “You cannot manage what you cannot measure”. At the same time, it is pointless trying to manage things that cannot be changed. The Pentabilities have been carefully designed so that all of them are malleable: If you realise you could do better on a certain dimension, you will be able to take conscious actions to do so.

This document describes the concept of Pentabilities and the corresponding workflow. In a nutshell, the workflow is follows:

• After each group work session, we will set aside some time for you to evaluate yourself and your peers. This will be done for the five major and emotional skills, called the Pentabilities, and for a set of concrete behaviours that come with them.

  Consequently, everyone in a group work session will thus receive evaluations from three groups:

  • Self-evaluations

  • Peers’ evaluations

  • Evaluations by a member of the teaching team (if resources permit).

• At mid-term and after the course, you will receive personalised feedback documents. Each consists of a summary of the recorded evaluations of the socio-emotional skills and behaviours that justify them.

• After the mid-term evaluation, you will write a document reflecting on your performance and setting goals for the second half of the course.

We will describe all of this in detail now, followed by how to use the App and a set of FAQ’s.

The Pentabilities and corresponding behaviours

The Pentabilities system is designed to develop the five major social and emotional skills, called the “pentabilities”: Responsibility, Cooperation, Autonomy and initiative, Emotional management, and Thinking abilities. Each of these pentabilities comes with a set of behaviours, which are observable during group work.

I have used the system before. Personally, I find it extremely valuable to seriously read through the sets of Pentabilities and behaviours and think about how they are important in group work. As with the programming part of the course, developing a common language will expand the set of things that we can have meaningful conversations about.

1. Responsibility

Includes the actions directed to accomplish the set goals.

• Works in a constant manner

• Stays connected to the group’s activity – paying attention to the task at hand, instead of being attentive to other unrelated issues (friends, smartphone, window, interior world, …)

• Makes comments or engages in activities related to the task at hand – things the student visually does or says are related to the task

• Performs tasks efficiently – efficiency involves a measure of the quality work and the use of time, producing desired results with minimal waste of time, material and/or energy. This encompasses all types of tasks – coding something, explaining a bug, writing documentation, proof-reading texts others have written, etc.

• Performs tasks carefully – Proceeding with attention to detail, caution and thoughtfulness to avoid mistakes.

• Perseveres in the face of difficulties – Not being stopped by difficulties, keeping the work to do the task, in spite of not being correct right away. It is the opposite of giving up or not trying.

• Respects the rules – that is, respects the agreements reached on how to interact and use shared spaces, and the codes of practice in particular contexts.

2. Cooperation

Actions that facilitate task performance in a group; includes listening, common decision making and conflict resolution.

• Listens to others

• Incorporates what others say – this implies listening AND taking into account what others say to add, build, or think upon. How do you see that? You can not see the mental process of thinking or building upon other’s comments, but you do in the actions that follow: changing an argument, writing it down, modifying a piece of a construction, asking for clarification, etc.

• Encourages peers’ participation – This can be shown in many different forms: inviting someone to talk by waiting to start talking one self, by a gesture or direct invitation, posing open questions to the group, etc.

• Engages in group decision making – Shares his comments and performs activities in a way that facilitates that the group reaches decisions that push the project / problem / learning forward.

• Facilitates conflict resolution – by avoiding tensions, moderating discussions, setting a tone of relation that leads to efficient conflict resolution (being generous, kind, avoiding judgments or harsh comments).

• Recognizes personal responsibilities and those of others – this involves taking responsibility, and also respecting and facilitating that everyone’s role is clear, valued and that it can be done. People that do everything because others don’t, are very responsible, but have not been able to build together an environment of collaboration, and will therefore not be rated highly on this behaviour. This is highly dependent on the group, of course, but if the same behaviour appears with different groups, is indicative of a personal tendency.

• Helps peers selflessly – This implies caring about people beyond the work that needs to be done, demonstrating care, empathy and attention to others.

3. Autonomy and initiative

Skill that involves the capacity to work independently, without  the need of supervision and asking for help when required. Also involves actions that indicate initiative and self confidence to push things forward: bringing up ideas and being able to look for solutions when needed.

• Brings up ideas

• Asks questions when stuck – a high rating is given when necessary questions are observed: those to avoid being stuck and to be able to moe forward. A low rating is given if the questions are to avoid to think or to use available resources, due to lack of attention or if someone does not ask questions when they are needed.

• Plays an active role in group decision making – The contributions made to the group are important to push things forward.

• Is able to convince others of his/her approaches – uses ways of doing, bringing up arguments, discussing, presenting things that convince others.

• Works with determination – this is a rather complex behaviour, that includes ways of doing that reflect enthusiasm, energy, commitment and drive in the task at hand. It is the exhibition of enthusiasm directed to the activity / project at hand. What does working with determination look like? Being actively engaged: posing questions and looking for answers; proposing solutions and putting them in practice to see if they work; looking and choosing for information and reading it thoroughly, etc.

• Believes that he/she can initiate changes – this is an indication of self-confidence, and it is manifested by the way the person participates and engages in actions: showing a possibilistic attitude in what he/she proposes, bringing the ideas to actions, and the actions to positive outcomes. This behaviour is also related with internal locus of control: that self can exert successful control over its outcomes.

4. Emotion management

Is aware of his/her emotions and those of others, and manages them well.

• Transmits cheerfulness – confers a positive environment, lifting the surrounding spirits; through good humor, own enjoyment, encouraging others through positive talk.

• Remains calm under pressure – remains relaxed, performs well under stressful situations. It is the contrary of being worried about things.

• Controls emotions when conflict arises – regulates temper, anger, frustration in the face of conflicts.

• Accepts the possibility of making mistakes – does not get upset or discouraged in the face of an error. It is the opposite of being irritated or angry in front of a mistake.

• Accepts that his/her approaches do not prosper – does not get upset, discouraged or irritated when his/her proposals and ideas are not followed. Shows flexibility.

• Adapts behaviour to circumstances – shows understanding of the surroundings and adapts the behaviour to respond and /or contribute to it in a positive manner.

5. Thinking abilities

Open to intellectual, cultural and/or aesthetical stimuli. Intellectual inquiry, generation of ideas and metacognition skills.

• Relates new content with previous knowledge – making connections with previous topics, own experiences, other disciplines to analyse situations and to reason.

• Makes good reflections on the content – applying rationality, good thinking, to construct, express, verify, justify, contrast arguments or statements related with the content at hand.

• Makes good reflection on internal personal processes – showing awareness of how one feels, thinks, proceeds and reacts.

• Asks good questions (to improve understanding or to move forward) – questions that show curiosity and interest  for knowing, understanding.

• Has creative ideas (explores alternative paths) – produces original, alternative ideas that lead to  a positive contribution. The contrary is common or conformist ideas.

• Proposes good strategies for problem solving – problem solving includes understanding and translate the proposed problem to the language and parameters of a particular area of knowledge; use the specific concepts, tools and strategies to solve the problem.

• Plans and prioritizes tasks - identifies relevant actions and determines their order and timing according to their importance to achieve a task, given the available resources and knowledge.

• Willing to discover different perspectives – showing flexibility, being open-minded in examining different perspectives rationally; for example, look at different sides of a complex issue, being interested in examining different points of view or in learning new facts. This is a behaviour that indicates critical thinking. It is the contrary of showing inflexibility, rigidity, intolerance and showing prejudices.

• Expresses ideas effectively (correction, precision and structure) – the expression can be oral, written, conceptual maps, graphs, formulas, musical interpretations or drawing.

Feedback

At mid-term and after the course, you will receive personalised feedback documents. Each consists of a summary of the recorded evaluations of the socio-emotional skills and behaviours that justify them. The analysis will include your self-assessment, your peers’ assessment, and teachers’ assessment.

It is important to understand that the report shows data collected in a specific course, with a specific group and in specific circumstances: it is not a judgement of who you are, but a collection of behaviours that yourself, your peers, and your teachers have observed in this particular environment.

Reflection

Reflection is an essential ingredient for life-long learning and personal growth: it transforms individual raw experiences into personal meaning and collective value.

Within a day after the lecture on 1 June, those who participated regularly will receive a personalised feedback document. The feedback consists of a summary of the recorded evaluations of the socio-emotional skills and behaviors that justify them. The analysis will include self-assessment, peer assessment, and teacher assessment. It is important to understand that the report shows data collected in a specific course, with a specific group and in specific circumstances: it is not a judgement of who you are, but a collection of behaviours that yourself, your peers, and your teachers have observed in this particular environment.

We ask you to write a reflection based on the mid-term feedback. You will receive 2 extra points if it is executed in a reasonable fashion. Note that regular participation in Pentabilities until 28 May is a prerequisite.

It is irrelevant whether the assessment you receive is good or bad. What matters are the personal insights and self-awareness that you are able to extract from it. The reflection is about your skills in the course; therefore the reflection is about your socio-emotional skills embedded in your work for, learnings from, and performance in the course. Remember: socio-emotional skills drive our actions, motivation, and performance.

Here are some guiding questions you would ideally address in your reflection.

1. How do the assessments I received reflect how I perceive I have worked, how I contributed to, and what I got out of this course? Are there any significant surprises? Which? Why?

2. What am I good at? How have I become good at it?

3. What skills do I need to develop? Why do I think it is important that I do so? How do they affect my work and personal progress?

4. Based on your previous answer, write a road map that guides you from where you are to where you want to be in the following sessions.

Please hand in your reflection as described then.

Getting started with the App

Installation and account creation

1. Download the Pentabilities app in Google Play or Apple Store

   

2. When prompted for your e-mail, type [uni-id]@uni-bonn.de and click on “Forgot password”.

3. A new screen will appear to enter your e-mail again. Click on “Reset password”.

4. Go to your e-mail account, open the received message and set your password following the link.

   Important: The registration e-mail has ended up in the spam folder before. This folder is not forwarded to your private account and it is often not visible in e-mail clients like Outlook / Mail on the Mac / Thunderbird. Please log into your account at https://mail.uni-bonn.de/ and check.

5. Now you can go back to the Pentabilities app and login with your e-mail and password. The list of students in your group will appear.

Evaluation of your group members and of yourself

To record an observation, first click on the name of the person you want to evaluate. A new page with the five major social and emotional abilities, the Pentabilities, will appear on a new screen. Here, you can select the number of stars for the Pentability you are assessing. Then click on the arrow on the right side of the pentability and star the observed behaviours.

You do not need to evaluate all behaviours! Only chose those that you have seen during that particular observation period.

It is very helpful to add comments where appropriate. The more concrete the feedback is, the more helpful it becomes.

Step-by-step:

1. Open the Pentabilities App.

2. Select the person you want to evaluate.

3. Select the number of stars for the Pentability you have observed (upper level of the hierarchy).

4. Select the number of stars in the observed behaviours (bottom of the hierarchy).

5. Enter a comment under a particular behaviour to add context (optional). When leaving comments, you need to save it after you are done typing. This is the only occasion where you will need to save: the rest of the data is saved automatically.

   

The stars will disappear after you switch categories. That is expected and intended behaviour. Also the FAQs below.

There is also a nice Screencast on Youtube showing the evaluation process. Note that the Pentabilities App used to be called GivMe5; other than the brand name, nothing much changed.

Additional Remarks:

• Please note that self-evaluation is an integral part of Pentabilities and should not be skipped.

• In past courses, peer- and self-evaluations often used ratings of 4 and 5 stars only. There is no need for grade inflation here! Even if group work was “nice”, if you see significant potential in any category, do consider a 2 or 3 star evaluation instead of a 4.

Frequently Asked Questions

Pentabilities vs. behaviours?

Pentabilities refer to one of the five major social and emotional abilities. Behaviours are a set of observable acts or conducts. Each Pentability has a set of behaviours that help you describe them.

Can I change the evaluation after I enter it?

Yes, as long as you don’t switch screens. To undo an evaluation just click again in the number of stars you selected initially, and enter the correct number of stars.

The stars have disappeared, is the data saved?

Yes, the app automatically uploads the data every time you switch screens, so even if the stars disappear, the data is safe in our servers. You do not need to click on the stars again after they disappear.

What happens if I realise I have made a mistake after the data has been saved

Don’t worry. Data will be collected by different observers and at different points in time. One error shall not make a difference. If, however, you have made a large enough mistake, you can contact the Pentabilities team and we will correct your mistake.

What is the camera icon next to the comment icon?

The camera icon normally lets users take photos in the classrooms, but this feature is not activated for us.