Showing posts with label Competency-Based Learning. Show all posts

A 6th Lesson Learned at ABLA 2016: “Teaching English in the 21st Century: Education for Global Competence”

ABLA, BNCs, Competency-Based Learning, Global Competence 0 comments

Taken from http://www.relacionesculturales.edu.mx/abla-2016/

A 6^th Lesson Learned at ABLA 2016:

“Teaching English in the 21^st Century: Education for Global Competence”

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.

School of English

Faculty of Social Sciences

Universidad Latina de Costa Rica

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Post 290

Do you ever wonder how much education has changed since we were high schoolers roaming town or the sophomores at our universities? Well, no doubt that it has adapted to the new learning tendencies and has evolved exponentially. But was education better before? Being a bit Romantic in my perspectives, in hindsight education was different and somehow effective since we are the result of a learning process or curricula. But upon completion of our majors time ago, were we globally competent? Hmm! I guess not because in retrospection I cannot see that much cross-culture understanding but attempts in our study programs, at least in my home country; compassionate communication was absent and respect for diversity was not an issue at that time. Additionally, we were not exactly part of environmentally-oriented communities who really fought for the protection of our local ecosystems because environmental awareness was just emerging. But now that we are the educators of the 21^st Century, still a vast majority of our learners are not globally competent.

“Time has passed and we are almost two decades away from a new century. This century has invited us to rethink and revisit what we have done over the past years concerning Education and English language teaching” (Ladosky, 2016). Along the rethinking and revisiting process, many teaching trends and methodologies have emerged and later on abandoned. Take the example of TBLT; who teaches with this method today 100% of their classes? Not those many, I guess. As an addendum to CLT, TBLT is very useful but is not the panacea for teaching and learning, like many other approaches that came to life. However, going beyond any teaching method, did those trends help us have learners become global citizens? Not exactly! To provide students with a bit of this global awareness or consciousness, the instructors’ twist in their teaching was part of the magical formula to instill in learners a bit of curiosity to explore beyond textbooks and their own cultural and ecological surroundings. At this point of the 21^st Century we have just begun to disseminate in our learners the importance of being a global citizen and someone who can develop their global competence to work with and understand others in this technology-oriented world society.

“What is the role of English language teaching in a time when knowledge is a click away?” (Ladosky, 2016). In our technology-oriented societies, language teaching helps us guide students to acquire a global competence, which “refers to the acquisition of in-depth knowledge and understanding of international issues, an appreciation of and ability to learn and work with people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, proficiency in a foreign language, and skills to function productively in an interdependent world community” (NEA National Education Association, 2010). ELT can help us teaching professionals to avoid circumscribing learning to students’ immediate reality; language teaching can help us expand language trainees’ horizons in their “understanding of international issues.” ELT also allows us to expose learners to ideas and ways of being from across the globe and to learn about people with “diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.” All these, by means of ELT, help us develop critical thinking in our learners, deal with various levels of language command, and develop the right “skills to function productively in an interdependent world community.” No doubt that global competence is one of the benchmarks for learning in the 21^st Century.

The 21^st Century has given us plenty of room to rethink and revisit what we want in our educational systems in our binational centers across Latin America. Global competence is the way to accomplish what the National Education Association (2010) endorses as a “21^st Century imperative.” In our binational center’s experience in Costa Rica, designing and developing a whole new curricula around a National Geographic Learning’s language series has given us the chance to help language performers to develop “international awareness” by having them build “the knowledge and understanding of world history, socioeconomic and political systems, and other global events” (NEA National Education Association, 2010); something that was not achieved with our former language series. Understanding our Academic Director’s vision and National Geographic Learning’s mission also gave us the chance to provide our language trainees with “the appreciation of cultural diversity” which “entails the ability to know, understand, and appreciate people from other cultures along with the capacity to acknowledge other points of view about pressing world issues” (NEA National Education Association, 2010). Our binational center’s partnership with National Geographic Learning has given us room to help students to develop their proficiency in English to understand people from other cultures who use English as a second or first language and to foster “competitive skills” since learners “who gain a thorough understanding of the economic, social, and technological changes taking place across the globe enhance their ability to compete in the worldwide marketplace” (NEA National Education Association, 2010).

Bearing in mind the importance of global competence, “how can the English school be effective and make a difference to the students’ lives?” (Ladosky, 2016). Let it be borne in mind that effectiveness derives from the sense of global citizenship and global competence. Binational centers (BNCs), or any other language school, can make the difference by comprehending that we human beings are not isolated from the rest of the world, and by developing our global competence we can establish our “international awareness” and can cultivate our “competitive skills” to be more competent and eligible in the job market. Additionally, BNCs can nurture a sense of acknowledging and respecting others and their diversity in their learners aiming at complying with the “appreciation of cultural diversity” and “proficiency in foreign languages.” BNCs’ role as cultural centers is to endorse the four pillars of global competence presented by the National Education Association (2010). By having our pupils embrace these pillars, BNCs will be contributing with society to shape individuals who show respect for others and their distinctiveness and value the enhancement of a sense of comprehending what is happening worldwide and how it affects them, us, and the others.

“Is it possible to enhance the development of Global Competence and teach the content the school is supposed to?” (Ladosky, 2016). Of course it is possible! But, first of all, BNCs and language schools must understand that we are not part of close societies, but nations that are part of ever-moving people who immigrate to other latitudes. This movement of peoples produces cultural exchanges on our daily lives. This comprehension of the non-close society implies that we need to think of training our citizens to become globally competent and open-minded individuals.

Following this line of thought on enhancing Global Competence, our national BNC, Centro Cultural Costarricense-Norteamericano (CCCN), is setting the example in Costa Rica by searching the right formula to have our language trainees become globally competent. CCCN and National Geographic Learning became partners in a joint effort to provide language students with content to promote the 21^st Century imperative: Global Competence. CCCN’s curricula are now oriented towards global citizenship and competence. Language performers are exposed to the cultures of the world with the archives of the National Geographic present in each thematic unit our teaching professionals cover in class and online. CCCN is now in the constant search for the enhancement of the awareness of respect for local and other cultures and the environment. And our BNC is preparing learners to deal with the new challenges of the 21^st Century world society.

Providing the reader with some concluding remarks on what Ladosky presented and had us participants reflect upon during the ABLA 2016 Convention in Houston, it needs to be stated once again that education has changed. Our Romantic views of the past will not yield any trace of global competence if the four pillars it is based on are not overtly taught in the classroom. BNCs and language schools’ curricula needs to become the means to start making a change in our institutions that will permeate in our communities. The exposure our school provides our pupils in terms of the importance of global competence will help us prepare them for better lives and more opportunities. Initiatives like the one carried out by National Geographic Learning allows language trainees to admire the world and its diversity with different lenses and equipped with other 21^st Century skills needed to function in our current societies.

References

Ladosky, T. (2016, August 16-19). Teaching English in the 21st Century: Educating for Global Competence. 21st Century Challenges ABLA 2016 Houston Convention . Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico: Instituto Mexicano Norteamericano de Relaciones Culturales.

NEA National Education Association. (2010). Global Competence Is a 21st Century Imperative. Retrieved from National Education Association: http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/HE/PB28A_Global_Competence11.pdf

Thursday, September 08, 2016

Self-Regulation of Learning

Competency-Based Learning, Mindfulness, Teaching Practices 1comments

Self-Regulation of Learning

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 201

“Self-Regulation is the ability to monitor and control our own behavior, emotions, or thoughts, altering them in accordance with the demands of the situation” (Cook & Cook, 2014). Self-regulation of one’s learning is an important step all students must take to take control of their own development of their knowledge. As Cook & Cook (2014) state, our pupils must be able to control their “behavior, emotions, and thoughts” to profit from instruction, research, homework, assignments, presentations, projects, and the like. As it can be seen, self-regulation plays an important part in one’s learning letting us take control of it mindfully.

How can I have my learners profit from self-regulation when being in a competency-based setting? Well, self-regulation “includes the abilities to inhibit first responses, to resist interference from irrelevant stimulation, and to persist on relevant tasks even when we don’t enjoy them” (Cook & Cook, 2014). When learners are being transitioned to a competency-based course, they will be challenged by the instructor to take control of their learning, and this will imply that they need to “inhibit first responses” such as “I don’t like this,” “This is not what I want from a course,” or “What’s the point in doing things in this way?” If students were taught with more traditional ways of learning where a grade was more important than learning, resistance to change will be faced. When moving to work independently online or with electronic materials, learners must cope with the “interference from irrelevant stimulation” such as the one coming from their social media. And needless to mention that importance of persisting on “relevant tasks” though they may not like them much or at all. Learning is fun, but there are students who do not find any taste in sampling the milk of being competent.

Being a bit mindful concerning my own learning experiences, especially when dealing with a master’s program on education (which I recently finished), the role of self-regulation was transcendental to achieve success. Comprehending that self-regulation “is the method or procedure that learners use to manage and organize their thoughts and convert them into skills used for learning” (Self-Regulation, n.d.), as a learner I saw myself managing and organizing my thoughts to deal with all the information I was being provided and the amount of projects that needed to be submitted. Mindfully, I tried to convert all those pieces of information into skills I wanted to use to learn the novelties in education and language learning. Was I successful? Sure! But self-regulation of learning has also made me think whether my partners were into regulating their learning processes.

Having been there, where my university students are right now, craving for knowledge and, most importantly, developing competencies they can use at work, what am I to do to help them? Somehow I want to follow Zimmerman’s ideas (1990) regarding self-regulation in learning: use of self-regulated learning strategies, responsiveness to self-oriented feedback about learning effectiveness, and interdependent motivational processes. “Self-regulated students select and use self-regulated learning strategies to achieve desired academic outcomes on the basis of feedback about learning effectiveness and skill” (Zimmerman, 1990). If my students can become self-regulated, they can self-discover and use learning strategies that can help them achieve their academic goals for a course or a whole major. If my students can turn into self-regulated learners, they can then provide themselves –mindfully speaking- self-oriented feedback about how effective they are with their own learning, making them really take control of their construction of of their own knowledge. And if my pupils can really become self-regulated learners, they can guide or lead their interdependent motivational processes to get to really develop competencies that can really help them develop their academic life and eventually their competent professional life.

“Because theories of self-regulated learning seek to explain students’ personal initiative in acquiring knowledge and skill, they all treat students’ motivational processes as interdependent with learning processes” (Zimmerman, 1990). Educators, faculty members, teachers in general must look for ways to incentivate the use of these student strategies to become mindful deep learners who can really achieve their academic goals and who can become really competent professionals. Before an instructor decides to start using a competency-based course program, it is a good idea that s/he thinks of the following: “Self-regulation is a social enterprise that involves a learner and a knowledgeable individual who can guide the learner through the process of acquiring self-regulatory skills” (Bembenutty, White, & Vélez, 2015). If an instructor is not ready yet to venture into Comptency-Based Learning, which requires self-regulation from the learner and the instructor, it is a good idea to become more confident before the launching of a class setting where students will be in control of their learning and development of competences.

References

Bembenutty, H., White, M., & Vélez, M. (2015). Developing Self-Regulation of Learning and Teaching Skills Among Teacher Candidates. New York: Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg.

Cook, J., & Cook, G. (2014, April 30). Self-Regulation. Retrieved from Education.Com: http://www.education.com/reference/article/self-regulation-development-skill/

Self-Regulation. (n.d.). Retrieved from University of Nebraska at Lincoln: http://cehs.unl.edu/secd/self-regulation/

Zimmerman, B. (1990). Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement: An Overview. Educational Psychologist, 25(1), 3-17.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Teaching Students with Varying Levels of Competency

Competency-Based Learning, Teaching Practices 0 comments

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

Experiences in Learning and Assessment

Competency-Based Learning, Teaching Practices 0 comments

Experiences in Learning and Assessment

When competency-based learning was not used

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 199

“Schools need to put more effort into evaluating what makes effective teaching, and ensure that discredited practices are rooted out form classrooms” (Adams, 2014). And the panorama does not seem to change much when one gets to higher education institutions. From my personal experience, as a learner who had to survive 11 years of schooling and some five more years of college studies to get a BA, educational experiences in my learning and assessment were not exactly like the dual education model used in Germany. If sarcasm was read correctly by my reader, life would have been much easier for people in my generation if one had been trained to function in the real world when being taught with competencies.

Based on Adams (2014), “some schools and teachers continue using methods that cause little or no improvement in student progress, and instead rely on anecdotal evidence.” Adams’s account is quite similar to my experiences back in my school and college days. Though at the university I had several types of professors, many of them were just interested in this “anecdotal evidence” rather than having us develop any competence related to what was being studied in class. Deep learning was something that was not exactly encouraged in many of the courses I took being a student, and we learners had to rely a lot on our memory to survive testing weeks. In terms of assessment, most of us were just happy with a grade rather than being able to do something competently with what we had learned in class or by the time a course was over. For instance, at some point of our essay writing training, we were more content with getting a good grade that really understanding how important was to write academically for the sake of our future lives as faculty members or schooling workers.

How might our experiences have differed if we had been taught through competency-based learning and assessment? As far as I remember my years back in the university, I cannot say that several of our professors somehow toyed with the idea of competencies to teach. What needs to be understood here is that I cannot assure that they were aware of what competences were and how these academic constructs could have permeated the course program they had to follow; perhaps, the process they followed was somehow connected with the development of a competency. But in those times, at least at the university I studied at, the end product was what really counted for some of the courses I have in my mind now. If we had been taught to function in the real academic world, like in my very personal case –especially now that I am a university professor-, life –at the beginning- could have been much easier in the workplace. If projects for courses had been carefully planned bearing in mind what was expected from us in academic working settings, professors (and even high school teaching professionals) could have taught us to be functional in that working ambience. Education at the time I was a college students could have been customized in pace; that is one may have worked “as quickly or as slowly as [one] like[s] within the time constraints of the program” (What is Competency-Based Learning?, n.d.). But that did not happen. And most importantly, one would have learned workplace skills, and not wait to start work to develop those needed competencies that we continue to polish at this point of our careers.

At this point of my teaching career at the university level, my experiences, though they were not what I wish I had had, pay off today in my teaching. One of the very first things I said to myself when I was to become a teacher was that I did not want to be like the educators I had faced along my many years of schooling and university studies. Just a few of them left an imprint in my actual teaching that I do not want to overlook because they gave me a solid ground to grow professionally. That is the reason why I have tried and continue to try several different methodologies and teaching/learning approaches to improve student learning and competency development. As an educator I want to facilitate learning and knowledge to be used in course tasks that can produce some good competency development that can be fully functional in the real working world.

References

Adams, R. (2014, October 31). Education study finds in favour of traditional teaching styles. Retrieved from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/oct/31/education-traditional-teaching-versus-progressive

What is Competency-Based Learning? (n.d.). Obtenido de eLearners.Com: http://www.elearners.com/online-education-resources/online-learning/what-is-competency-based-learning/

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Competency-Based Assessment

Competency-Based Learning, Teaching Practices 0 comments

Competency-Based Assessment

Some thoughts

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 198

“In traditional classrooms, teachers use a variety of assessment methods to measure student knowledge of a particular skill or concept. While this knowledge is important, in competency based classrooms, an understanding of content is insufficient” (Assessment Methods, n.d.). Students must demonstrate that they are able to comprehend and use theoretical concepts explained to them on specific tasks such as case studies, essays, journals, observations, oral presentations, portfolios, simulations, tests, and so on. As stated by Laureate Education, “assessment must also measure a student’s ability to demonstrate and apply the knowledge to real world experiences” (Assessment Methods, n.d.).

In a previous post, a competency on literary analysis based on the reader response was provided. Students taking a course such as Literary Criticism, where they have to study different approaches to get a better understanding of literary pieces, are exposed to a great array of approaches used in literature to make sense of literary creations. The ultimate idea behind this course on Literary Criticism dealing with analyses and approaches is to train learners to read literature for their own enjoyment, comprehend it better for further explanations, and become prepared to be using these methods for literary analysis when they become the language instructors in a school or university.

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 points of view in an APA-format essay that must include an introduction, three developmental paragraphs, and a conclusion

As it can be seen here, the literary competency above is based on the antecedent, behavior, condition method. It is rather self-explanatory, but what really matter here is how this competency is going to be measured to guarantee that learners can prove the mastery of how the Reader Response rationale for literary analysis is used.

As it can also be seen in the formulation of the competency for a Literary Criticism course, an essay is a good way to test student competency development. “Essays allow students to demonstrate knowledge of competencies, communication skills, and analytical skills through writing” (Laureate Education, 2013). According to the formulation of the learning outcome phrased as a competence, learners need to demonstrate mastery in the production of APA-format essays. Essays do imply the planning of writing to meet communication standards to make one’s point clear to a reader, and they also imply the deeper analysis of literary productions based on a very specific literary approach such as the Reader Response or any other that can be studied in a course like this.

A literary competency like the one outlined above does include some degree of challenge in its implementation. To start with, the instructor must be certain that learners are fully acquainted with the writing of essays, its structure, its implications in citing sources, the APA format, etc. This is something that needs to be tested prior having students produce an essay based on a competency-based learning outcome. The writing of an essay is a sub-skill in this competency that the instructor must ensure for its success, and a way of testing learner understanding of APA writing is to have some writing task to verify comprehension. In addition to essay writing, the correct application of the literary approach has to be also tested, practiced, scaffolded, and reviewed as many times as necessary before a student is sent to write a paper. If by any chance the learner fails to understand how a given literary approach is used, the product that is going be produced is far away from the demonstration of the mastery of a given concept. Once again, the monitoring and observation of learners while applying the approach in in-class literary analyses is crucial.

As stated by Laureate Education (2013), we teachers must “measure mastery of skills, knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes students need to display in a content area, profession, field, or workplace.” If all these is not met, we are somehow going back to just the traditional way of summatively assessing students by providing them with a grade that does not necessarily show proof of mastery of a concept. Instructors must “assess student ability to demonstrate a competency rather than just know it” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013).

References

Assessment Methods. (n.d.). Retrieved from Faculty Development: https://lnps.

elearning.laureate.net/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_84966_1&content_id=_142444_1&mode=reset

Laureate Education, I. (2013). Assessment Methods. Retrieved from Laureate

Faculty Development: https://lnps.elearning.laureate.net/bbcswebdav/

institution/LPS1/FD/APSK/LPS1.FDEV.APSK.CBLE.EN.ON.V1.MASTER/

readings/LNPS_APSK_CBLE_EN_Unit03_competencyBased

Assessment.pdf

Laureate Education, Inc. (2013). Best Practices for Designing Learning

Competencies. Retrieved from Faculty Development: https://lnps.elearning.laureate.net/bbcswebdav/institution/LPS1/FD/

APSK/LPS1.FDEV.APSK.CBLE.EN.ON.V1.MASTER/readings/

LNPS_APSK_CBLE_EN_Unit02_bestPracticesForDesigningLearning

Competencies.pdf

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Challenges in Learning Competency Design

Competency-Based Learning, Teaching Practices 0 comments

(Three Trends That Will Influence Learning and Teaching in 2015, 2014)

Challenges in Learning Competency Design

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Twitter: @jonacuso

Post 197

Competency-based learning seems to be a great way to embark one’s students into real deep learning, and a nice way to abandon any kind of surface learning practice in teaching and learning. CBL comprises lots of nice ways of having students develop their working competencies prior their setting their feet in a company. But there are certain things we educators must keep in the lookout to avoid standardizing competency evaluation, the use of CBL in licensure programs, and the wrong conceptualization of what CBL entails.

Standardization of competencies must be avoided. “According to Ralph Wolff, president of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, institutions must guard themselves from standardizing the mechanisms in which competencies are demonstrated” (Gibson, 2013). In the case that a faculty member wants to start using competencies to guide his/her planning and teaching, it is indispensable that these practices are carried out only within his/her course. Unless two colleagues agree on working together and assessing learners with the same competency instruments (tasks and rubrics), the use of similar performance demonstrations to verify student understanding should be avoided, especially if learners do not cover the same content and experience the same in the classroom or in an online platform.

Competencies need to be avoided in licensure programs. “A CBL model is an effective approach to both education and practice. However, academic programs that require professional licensure may be slow to embrace competency programs divorced from any observable measures of contact hours” (Gibson, 2013). Basically what Gibson is stating, and which I agree with 100%, is that certain program such as the ones in medical school (medicine, optometry, nursing, ophthalmology, etc.) are not exactly ready “to embrace” the use of competencies to demonstrate content understanding. A surgery is not the same kind of project if compared to a mock up building in architecture or in civil engineering. In terms of monitoring and the amount of time used to grasp the contents for the creation of a project like this will take time, and not same lapse for an engineer or for a doctor.

The correct conceptualization of what CBL entails must be guaranteed for student learning and the right application of this teaching approach. How long does it take an instructor to fully understand the domain of CBL? The answer is not clear, especially if CBL theory is applied to it. “Students,” as well as faculty members learning how to use CBL, “will enter […] at various levels of competency and with diverse learning style preferences” (Laureate Education, Inc., 2013). Somehow instructors must be quite sure that their understanding how CBL works must be ensure prior its use in a course continuum. The right application of competency-based learning may take some time to sink in, and it would also be a good idea that professors have a chance to discuss their competency-developing projects with other colleagues to guarantee that they are not off-track.

The use of CBL in a higher education institution is a great idea. “By focusing on what you know rather than how much time you spend learning competency-based education puts you in charge of your education as never before” (Competency-Based Education: What It Is, How It’s Different, and Why It Matters to You, 2014). This is what the instructor must always bear in mind and transmit the very same idea to his/her students. CBL allows learners to be in charge of their learning and the demonstration of what they are really learning in a course, not exactly inside the classroom.

References

Competency-Based Education: What It Is, How It’s Different, and Why It Matters to You. (2014, January 24). Retrieved from University of Wisconsin: http://flex.wisconsin.edu/blog/competency-based-education-what-it-is-how-its-different-and-why-it-matters-to-you/

Gibson, C. (2013, August 2). Competency-Based Learning: Four Challenges and Impediments. Retrieved from The Evolllution: http://evolllution.com/opinions/competency-based-learning-challenges-impediments/

Laureate Education, Inc. (2013). Best Practices for Designing Learning Competencies. Retrieved from Faculty Development: https://lnps.elearning.laureate.net/bbcswebdav/institution/LPS1

Laureate Education, Inc. (n.d.). Journal 2: Challenges in Learning Competency Design. Retrieved from Faculty Development: http://global3.laureate.net/#/home/faculty