Competency-based learning
What’s a topic you understand deeply? What’s a skill that you learned in high school that’s important to your life and work today? How did you learn these? How did you know that you had learned them?
Competency-based learning (CBL) focuses on questions like these, ones that identify deeper, transferable skills and learning. The purpose and goal of competency-based learning is for a learner to develop knowledge and skills that can be used over time in a variety of contexts. A competency-based learning environment “is designed for relevance and performance, where learners absorb key knowledge and develop essential competencies through authentic practice.”
Competency-based learning is an essential tenet of student-centered learning as it shifts from using measurements of seat-time and absorption of content to iterative learning experiences that lead to lifelong and transferable knowledge and skills. Each competency-based learning school has identified and clearly articulated competencies and learning outcomes, which guide educators’ decisions about pedagogy, content, and assessments. Learners develop these competencies and learning outcomes with a shared understanding of what they’re working towards, and through feedback and assessment, locate where they’re in their learning journey, and how they’re progressing.
An American Institute for Research (AIR) study, Does deeper learning improve student outcomes?, posits that academic content in and of itself won’t be enough to help learners fully engage in the 21st century workplace. Their research suggests that the best approach may in fact be coupling content with skill development to achieve deeper learning. Deeper learning entails a more meaningful understanding of core academic content, the ability to apply that understanding to novel problems and situations, and the development of a range of competencies and soft skills.
One common misconception of competency-based learning is that it values skills over content. While CBL is focused on skills that transfer to authentic contexts, essential content is integral to developing those skills. Through authentic application of skills, learners develop understanding and mastery of content. In fact, in a recent study by AIR on math instruction in student-centered classes, learners displayed “higher growth on a test of problem-solving skills than students in less student-centered classrooms.” Their findings identified and focused on practices of student-centered learning that included learners using mathematical reasoning to understand the “why” as well as the “how;” learners communicating their thinking and reasoning; learners making connections between math concepts and real-world concepts; and learners engaging and persevering through complex problem solving.
At its core, CBL reflects how we acquire and develop skills throughout our lives. By outlining learning processes, learners are known, they’re prepared with transferable skills, and they exercise agency through sharing in their learning process.
Application
Observe a single class at a school. At the end of class, try to identify and articulate clearly a transferable, durable skill the educator is developing in learners. What’s the skill? How are learners developing it? How do they know that they’re developing it?
Reflection
What are skills learners will need ten years from now that the school doesn’t explicitly teach? Why isn’t that skill taught? What would need to happen at this school for us to be able to teach those skills?