Competency-Based Education
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Competency-Based Education (CBE)

Why Competency-Based Education?

Competency-based education is structured around competent performance by learners where competence is defined in terms of achievement to the level of industry standards. The quality of education is more easily measured, therefore, because the criteria for achievement are more precisely defined. Since the levels of performance are described by the standards, consistency of expected performance between programs and schools is more easily achieved.

What is Competency-Based Education?

Competency-based education is an organized set of learning experiences that are:

  • based on knowledge, skills and abilities to be demonstrated by the learner
  • derived from occupational expectations
  • explicit in stating expected mastery levels

Competency-based education involves ...both the ability to perform in a given context and the capacity to transfer knowledge and skills to new tasks and situations.

In order for curricula to be considered competency-based, it must contain these essential elements:

  • Competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities) to be demonstrated by the learner that are:
  • derived from industry-identified skill standards
  • stated so as to make possible assessment of a learner's behavior in relation to specific competencies
  • made public in advance
  • Criteria to be employed in assessing competencies that are:
  • based upon, and in harmony with, specified competencies
  • explicit in stating expected levels of mastery under specified condition
  • made public in advance
  • Assessment of the student's competency that:
  • uses performance as the primary source of evidence
  • measures performance against a competency standard
  • strives for objectivity
  • Modular in its approach which allows for flexibility - the mix-and-match of program components The learner's rate of progress through the program is determined by demonstrated competency rather than time or course completion.

The learner's rate of progress through the program is determined by demonstrated competency rather than time or course completion.

The learner's rate of progress through the program is determined by demonstrated competency rather than time or course completion.




SOURCE: Harris, Roger; Guthrie, Hugh; Hobart, Barry; Lundberg, David.
Competency-Based Education and Training.
MacMillan Education, 1995.

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