Competence-based Education and Educational Effectiveness

Abstract

The paper assesses the empirical evidence for outcomes of competence-based education which are envisaged by policy-makers, and gives some interpretations of how the topic is handled in the political processes. This is achieved by a review of the research literature as documented in bibliographical databases which cover academic publications and in more practical material. The searches were generic, and included not only specific competenceexpressions, but also terms as 'outcomes' and 'learning'. The staggering conclusion of this exercise is that there is hardly any evidence for the effectiveness of competence-based education despite the long period since the 1970s when the approach came up in the US.Whether this is an artefact of the operationalization of the outcomes of competence-based education or not, it seems that there is only very little attention to testing the policyassumptions that competence-based education is a worthy educational innovation. As this is quite disturbing, it is recommended that more efforts are being made to prove (or falsify) the putative added value of competence-based education initiatives. Zusammenfassung

Evaluating competence-based vocational education in Indonesia

“…The CCBE framework can indeed be used as a tool for evaluating and reflecting on educational programmes, but also opens doors for linking varying degrees of implementation to various CBE outcomes. This is crucial for future effectiveness studies that are lacking hitherto (Lassnigg 2017;Wesselink et al 2017).…”

Developing a competency‐based education training programme for university tutors

“…This rise in popularity may reflect Sturgis' (2016) observation that educators are implementing CBA when "they realise the traditional system isn't working for many students -and it is never going to work for all students" (p. 6, emphasis from the original source). CBA is underpinned by the key principles of mastery of learning and criterion-referencing of assessment with learning, teaching, and organization supported by clearly specified competencies that learners must achieve (Lassnigg, 2017). Sturgis (2016) reported five key elements of CBA:…”

“…This rise in popularity may reflect Sturgis’ () observation that educators are implementing CBA when “they realise the traditional system isn't working for many students – and it is never going to work for all students” (p. 6, emphasis from the original source). CBA is underpinned by the key principles of mastery of learning and criterion‐referencing of assessment with learning, teaching, and organization supported by clearly specified competencies that learners must achieve (Lassnigg, ). Sturgis () reported five key elements of CBA: (a) students advance upon demonstrated mastery, (b) explicit and transparent learning objectives empower students and improve instruction, (c) students receive timely and differentiated support, (d) aligned assessments are rooted in the cycle of learning, and (e) students develop and apply a broad set of skills and dispositions (Sturgis, ).…”

Does implementation of competence-based education mediate the impact of team learning on student satisfaction?

“…de Bruijn and Leeman 2011;Struyven and De Meyst 2010). However, despite its widespread adoption in European countries and beyond, there is still little knowledge about the extent to which CBE succeeds in achieving teaching students more skills and whether CBE leads to greater student satisfaction (Lassnigg 2017;Wesselink, Biemans, Gulikers, and Mulder 2017).…”