CBTL

Download as docx, pdf, or txt
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1of 4

What Is Competency-Based Learning?

by TeachThought Staff

Competency-based learning is an approach to education that focuses on the student’s


demonstration of desired learning outcomes as central to the learning process.

It is concerned chiefly with a student’s progression through curriculum at their own pace, depth, etc.
As competencies are proven, students continue to progress. It is similar to mastery-based learning, with
the primary difference being that competency-based learning often focuses observable skills or
‘competencies,’ while mastery learning may be academic–as likely to focus on concepts as skills.

Like most things education-related, there is disagreement of what competency-based learning


actually means, what its defining traits are, and how it should ideally be used or function. It is
traditionally thought of in terms of skills and vocation, but it can be entirely “academic” as well.

The Charateristics Of Competency-Based Learning

A key characteristic of competency-based learning is its focus on mastery. In other learning models,
students are exposed to content–whether skills or concepts–over time, and success is measured
summatively. In a competency-based learning system, students are not allowed to continue until they
have demonstrated mastery of the identified competencies (i.e., the desired learning outcomes to be
demonstrated). In this way, competency-based learning is closely tied to mastery learning.

It is similar to outcomes-based learning in that said outcomes–in this case, called ‘competencies’–are
identified beforehand, and students are frequently assessed. In this way, competency-based learning can
be thought of as a form of outcomes-based learning.

Pros & Cons Of Competency-Based Learning


How ‘good’ or ‘bad’ it is depends on the ecology it is embedded in. In a system with deep and diverse
support systems, robust assessment forms, and clear and manageable learning outcomes that are
accessible to all learners, competency-based learning can be an effective model, potentially reducing
inefficiency (including time spent learning) and increasing pedagogical precision and student
achievement.

Its strengths lie in its flexibility, as learners are able to move at their own pace. This supports students
with diverse knowledge backgrounds, literacy levels, and other related aptitudes. Its challenges should
sound familiar to most educators, including the difficulty in identifying–and agreeing upon–the most
important competencies, how to best assess them, and how to support learners that struggle.

On paper, technology adds a new wrinkle to competency-based learning, as it provides students with
access to content to develop said competencies. If every student can access the same content the teacher
does, there is less of a need for the class to move together, and students are able to prove their
understanding on more personal and authentic terms.

https://teachthought.com/learning/what-is-competency-based-learning/

Getting Started with Outcomes Based Teaching and


Learning (OBTL) and Constructive Alignment

Welcome to this e-learning guide to OBTL and Constructive Alignment. This website is intended to
provide a basic introduction to the concepts of OBTL and Constructive Alignment and is designed to help you
get started and provide you with ideas and examples of Action Verbs, Teaching and Learning Activities,
and Assessment Tasks. This site is not a comprehensive overview of either subject. City University already
has an excellent OBTL website which covers these concepts in great detail and this guide provides numerous
links to that website for those who want to find out more.

Recognising that many of us lead busy lives, particularly during semester time, we have provided a quick and
easy to use e-learning tool called the Teaching and Assessment Ideas
Tool ( TAIT ) Gallery which supplies examples of some possible constructively aligned components.
When using the e-learning tool, it is important to recognise that constructive alignment is not a mechanistic
process and there is no real substitute for the imagination and creativity of the teacher. However, many of us
find that concrete examples provide us with a useful starting point and the e-learning tool is therefore provided
as a prompt for your own ideas, and a confidence builder which helps you to know that you are on the right
track.

What is Outcomes Based Teaching and Learning (OBTL)?


Quite simply, OBTL is a student-centred approach to learning and teaching, which has been widely adopted
in universities across the world. Many teachers are initially confused about the differences between the
concepts of outcomes, aims, and objectives and do not understand why OBTL which uses outcomes is
seen as more student-centred, so here is an explanation of the differences:

AIMS: The aims of a course or programme should summarise broad purposes and goals. Aims can
be aspirational and are not necessarily easily measurable. For example, we might have a set of aims or
attributes for the City University Ideal Graduate but these might, by their very nature, be more difficult to
measure than intended learning outcomes for a particular course.

OBJECTIVES: These are best seen as specific intentions that indicate the steps to be taken to achieve
our aims or goals as teachers. They should be measurable and indicate the teaching intentions.

OUTCOMES: These describe what the learners will be able to do when they have completed their course
or programme. They are expressed from the students' perspective so most outcomes statements begin with
the phrase: "By the end of this course/programme you will be able to . . . " followed by a short list of outcomes
(normally around five). Outcomes MUST be measurable and assessable.

Therefore, outcomes are more student-centred because, whilst objectives indicate the intentions of
the teacher, outcomes are the specific measurable achievements of the successful student.

https://www.cityu.edu.hk/edge/obtl/elearn_tool/p3.htm

What are Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO's)?

Having cleared up any confusion over outcomes, we can now look at how we create
outcomes for our course. They are called Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO's) because in good learning
environments, students also learn many additional things about the academic subject, working with others,
dealing with difficult people, teamwork, and general life and learning skills which are not necessarily included in
our ILO's. These are called Unintended Learning Outcomes.

Intended Learning Outcomes are: Statements of what students are expected to be able to do as a
result of engaging in the learning process (studying a lecture/course/programme). They are:

 Expressed from the students' perspective.


 Expressed in the form of action verbs leading to observable and assessable behaviour.
 Related to criteria for assessing student performance.

Teaching and Learning Activities (TLA's)

These are simply any activity which stimulates, encourages or facilitates learning of one
or more intended learning outcomes. The emphasis is on the word activity and it is important to ensure that
the TLA is appropriate for the intended learning outcome and any subsequent assessment
tasks-see Constructive Alignment section. Therefore, TLA's should be specifically aimed
at activating the action verbs used in the ILO's. They can be as diverse as lectures, field trips, role play,
internships, exchanges, discussions etc. The only limits are your imagination and creativity!
Assessment Tasks (AT's)

Before designing any Assessment Tasks, an important first step is to decide what
performances would represent evidence that a particular learning outcome has been achieved.

For some learning outcomes, evidence will be obvious. For other outcomes, what constitutes valid and
reliable evidence might be difficult to identify or even problematic.

A second step is to ensure that there is an alignment between the learning outcome and the evidence.

The key to achieving alignment mainly rests with the actions verbs that we choose which identify what it is a
learner can do after successfully completing the Teaching and Learning Activity.

Constructive Alignment

In OBTL the outcomes that students are intended to attain at the end of a course or programme are the target
of teaching, rather than a list of topics the teacher is supposed to 'cover'. Constructive alignment is a design for
implementing OBTL in three stages:

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO's): These explicitly express the course or programme curriculum in terms
of specific outcome knowledge, skills or abilities based on an appropriate action verb. There are usually about
five ILO's for each course.

Teaching and Learning Activities (TLA's): Providing and engaging students in a range of learning activities
that are designed to provide them with the opportunity to achieve the stated outcomes.

Assessment Tasks (AT's): Assessing how well students have attained those outcomes and converting the
results into a final grade for the course.

https://www.cityu.edu.hk/edge/obtl/elearn_tool/tool.htm

You might also like