Teaching
Students with Varying Levels of Competency
By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Twitter: @jonacuso
Post 200
“Teachers in competency based
classrooms must recognize that students enter at various levels of competency
and acquire knowledge at different rates” (Blog 4: Teaching Students with Varying Levels of Competency, n.d.) . No single human
being is to learn the very same way in which a peer does; all of us have
different ways of learning and of processing information provided in a
classroom setting. The way the knowledge is grasped and consequently used in
learning tasks varies from individual to individual. Faculty members “must be
committed to facilitating learning at all levels by utilizing strategies to
support learning of individual students without lowering expectations” (Blog 4: Teaching Students with Varying Levels of
Competency, n.d.) .
To make competency-based instruction
work within one’s classroom, strategies must be used. “In competency-based
settings, teachers are encouraged to minimize direct instruction and focus on
facilitating student learning” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013) . And the
facilitation of student learning is definitely done by means of strategies that
need to be carefully envisioned and understood by the instructor. Let’s take
the case of the Literary Criticism class where the following competency for
literary analysis is meant to be met by learners:
Antecedent – Behavior – Condition
Competency Formulation
|
A = Using the Reader
Response way of literary interpretation,
|
B = Learners will be
able to analyze the poem A Dialogue
Between the Soul and the Body by Andrew Marvell
|
C = by providing their
personal interpretations regarding emotions, feelings and ideas discussed by
the poet in an APA-format essay that must include an introduction, three
developmental paragraphs, and a conclusion
|
What
strategies can be used to help learners become competent literary analysts within
the Reader Response approach connected to Jacques Lacan’s mirror metaphor for
literature?
The provision of a “stimulating
environment” for learning and the development of competencies is needed. The
instructor must be able to create the right conditions to foster deep learning
among students. In addition, the teacher has to “establish an environment that
encourages exploration and allows student to take risks, make mistakes, and
find ways to improve their own learning” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013) . Learners are moved
from a mere receptive state of information to a real engagement in the
construction of their own knowledge and competencies. In my Literary Criticism
course at the university, my students are provided with learning tasks that
move them beyond the classroom setting with bits of online independent learning
and research and project-based learning works whose end product is the
production of the essay stated in the competency formulation.
The selection of appropriate learning
resources is another strategy to be used in competency-based learning settings.
The idea behind the selection of resources aligns with the idea that “teachers
must support students as they work to acquire skills, knowledge, behaviors, and
attitudes that can be transferred to a higher level of education and/or the
workplace” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013) . After the careful
evaluation of resources that can help learners develop their research projects
in the Literary Criticism class, they are provided with handouts, diagrams,
case studies, worksheets, videos, demonstration, and essays by means of the
university’s Moodle platform. The idea is then to provide them with the minimum
required to carry out a learning tasks and prompt them into the search of new
information on their own; this is a simple way to promote independent and
long-lasting learning that can eventually be used in their future or current
jobs.
If possible, the personalization of
learning is a requisite for competency-based education. This strategy allows
the instructor to “provide tasks that are relevant and connected to the
students’ lives and the work they will do in the future” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013) . In my literature
class, this means that my learners are provided with small-scale projects that
are relevant for literary comprehension and analysis linked to their personal
and future professional lives as language instructors. Professors using this
strategy must also comprehend that all pupils have “unique skills, backgrounds,
and interests” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013) . The exploitation of
learners’ skills, backgrounds, and interests is a priority in literary analyses
because it helps them to achieve goals and competencies in their own personal
way; learning cannot be homogenized in any sense since every individual
construct knowledge differently.
To concluded, any educator
transitioning from mere traditional teaching/learning scenarios must keep this
idea in their minds all the time: “The Competency-based education (CBE)
approach allows students to advance based on their ability to master a skill or
competency at their own pace regardless of environment” (Competency-Based Education (CBE), n.d.) . CBE allows
instructors to create more engaging learning tasks aligned with competences
that are required from students when they become part of the labor force in
their countries or overseas. And as Educase puts it, “this method is tailored
to meet different learning abilities and can lead to more efficient student
outcomes” (Competency-Based Education (CBE), n.d.) if used correctly.
The results of the teaching/learning process can be more rewarding than simply
getting a good mark on a test or term paper.
References
Blog 4: Teaching Students with Varying Levels of Competency. (n.d.). Retrieved from Laureate Faculty
Development:
https://lnps.elearning.laureate.net/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_84966_1&content_id=_142450_1&mode=reset
Competency-Based Education (CBE). (n.d.). Retrieved from Educase.Com:
http://www.educause.edu/library/competency-based-education-cbe
Laureate Education, Inc. (2013). Supporting Student
Learning in Competency Based Settings. Laureate International
Universities.
Sunday, October 25, 2015
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