Traditional and Competency-Based Education

Competency-Based Education (CBE) is an emerging alternative to traditional educational approaches. To effectively engage in CBE, it is essential to understand how it differs from traditional educational approaches. To that end, the potential issues related to CBE will be explored, followed by the mitigation strategies. Next, the strengths of CBE will be discussed, followed by mechanisms to leverage those strengths. Lastly, the conclusion will be shared.

Potential Issues

To effectively discuss CBE’s potential issues, it is necessary first to evaluate the high-level differences between CBE and traditional educational approaches. The primary difference between traditional education and CBE is the focus on demonstrating skills or knowledge (Gervais, 2016). The CBE approach is based on the concept that once a student has demonstrated the skills associated with a given course, they receive credit. This approach contrasts with traditional approaches, which have a fixed timeline and require students to work at roughly the same pace.

Because CBE enables students to move at different speeds, it could be challenging to have a lecture that is beneficial to all members of the class.  For example, if one student enters the course with mastery of the course topics, the introductory discussions will be of little value to that student.  A more complex challenge is that students may have gaps in their knowledge.  They may have a great deal of depth in one area while missing fundamentals concepts. In this case, the students might be tempted to skip early work to complete the more advanced curriculum items.

 

 

Mitigation Strategies

As with many things, a single action cannot address the challenges previously discussed. Instead, a shift from traditional solutions to need-based instruction must occur. Additionally, CBE may require an instructor to teach in a different style than they have previously taught. The level of instructor engagement with an individual student must be much higher, given the customized and targeted educational experience associated with CBE.

For example, one approach would be to break instructional elements down to smaller segments. This point speaks to the challenges that the course designers must face when shifting to CBE (Cunningham, Key, & Capron, 2016). Rather than having a half-hour to an hour lecture, an instructor might employ small five to ten-minute miniature lectures targeted to a specific activity or unit of knowledge. Conducting these mini-discussions and then recording them so that a student can skip over the things they already know could be beneficial to the student.  Additionally, ensuring that the high-level concepts which the miniature lectures cover are documented might enable students with gaps in their knowledge to identify those elements. 

Strengths

From the student’s perspective, CBE’s primary strength is that it leverages their existing knowledge and background. Rather than assuming all students enter the course with the same level of knowledge, the assumption is that each student has potentially vast differences in their foundational knowledge. This shift in focus allows a student to complete work they know how to do quickly, enabling them to focus on improvement areas. While this could often be done in a flexible traditional course (working ahead), the student could not complete it early.

 

 

Leveraging Strengths

One way to leverage CBE’s strengths is to work closely with the student to ensure they have an accurate self-assessment of their knowledge. This leveraging of the strengths ties into CBE’s fundamental nature, where the instructor serves as a mentor and guide in the educational journey, not an oracle issuing lectures from on high.

Conclusion

A brief comparison of CBE to traditional educational approaches was presented. Understanding the differences between CBE and traditional educational approaches is essential to engaging in CBE as an instructor. An assessment of the potential issues and associated mitigation strategies were shared. The strengths and ways to maximize those strengths were explored. CBE is a powerful educational approach. The level of instructor engagement, targeted instruction, and student-driven timelines make CBE a compelling alternative to traditional education.

 

 

References

Cunningham, J., Key, E., & Capron, R. (2016). An evaluation of competency‐based education programs: A study of the development process of competency‐Based programs. The Journal of Competency‐Based Education, 1(3), 130-139.

Gervais, J. (2016). The operational definition of competency‐based education. The Journal of Competency‐Based Education, 1(2), 98-106.