The Cross-curricular Competencies are four interrelated areas containing understandings, values, skills and processes which are considered important for learning in all areas of study. These competencies reflect the Common Essential Learnings and are intended to be addressed in each area of study at each grade level.

This competency addresses how people make sense of the world around them. Understanding develops by building on what is already known and by initiating and engaging in contextual thinking, creative thinking and critical thinking and critical reasoning. The foundation of the study of jazz is experiential and inquiry-based learning. Vocal jazz students use their instrument to explore a range of topics, concepts and ideas. Studies show that performing, practising and exploring music engages more parts of the brain than most other activities.

Jazz has improvisation, a creative component, embedded in the music, unlike many other musical styles. Students who are studying vocal jazz independently analyze, adapt and make decisions in real time simultaneously while singing and listening.

This competency addresses the ability to reflect upon and know oneself and to act autonomously and collaboratively as required in an interdependent world. The study of jazz encourages both rigorous individual development of knowledge and skills and requires the performers to work collaboratively at a very high level. Real time group performance requires responding to the student's own performance, the performance of their peers, the environment of the performance and even the response of the audience.

Improvisation at its highest level is a communication between a number of performers all at once. To sing and create jazz effectively assumes the possession of a positive self-concept and sense of identity by each individual and the ability to work and live in harmony with others.

Studying vocal jazz provides the opportunity for students to grow as creative individuals, each with a unique voice and with the courage to express a personal artistic vision. The arts teach students to respond to the world with a critical yet compassionate eye, while demonstrating imagination and empathy for human environmental conditions.

This competency address a variety of ways to interpret the world and express understanding through words, melody, harmony, images, sound, movements and technologies in various situations. Literacies are multi-faceted and provide a variety of ways, including the use of various language systems and media, to interpret the world and express understanding of it. Literacies in jazz education involve the ability to investigate, structure, express ideas and interpret meaning using the specific language of jazz. Literacies include the evolution of ideas, skills, forms, styles, techniques, symbols, processes, histories and prcatices in the discipline of jazz. Studying vocal jazz requires understanding of traditional and evolving cultural and artistic conventions and innovations. Literacies in the study of jazz are important not only for people who create in the jazz idiom but also for those who respond to the work as knowledgeable audiences.

This competency addresses how people contribute positively to their physical, social and cultural environments. It requires the ability to contribute to the well-being of self and others and participate with others in accomplishing shared goals. In studying vocal jazz, students reflect on their own contributions to the collective work and explore their individual responsibilities as creators and members of various performing groups including solos, small ensembles and larger ensembles. Students in vocal jazz work individually and collaboratively to express ideas that may raise awareness about topics of social importance. They also investigate how students and artists can act as catalysts of positive change to improve the lives of others in the natural and constructed world.