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Competency-based learning focuses on ensuring understanding and competence, rather than time-driven achievement. Lessons are designed to ensure necessary skills and competencies, and assessment is used to determine if further training is needed. This method is often used for professional training and can be more effective than time-based learning.
Competency-based learning is a method of learning and instruction that is more aimed at ensuring understanding and competence with different materials and skills, rather than time-driven achievement. This means that students in this type of program are notified of the skills they are expected to have by the end of a class or unit, and then lessons are designed to ensure they have the necessary skills and competencies. Assessment is used not to determine a grade or indicate passing or failing a course, but to ensure that competency-based learning is successful and to determine if further training is needed.
A great deal of learning in schools is time-based learning, which means that a lesson plan is created with the goal that students will know certain things at certain times. For example, a plan dealing with sentence structure might indicate one week for parts of speech, one week for grammar instructions, and one week for punctuation. This means that at the end of three weeks, in a time-based learning environment, students in the class should know sentence structure and be able to pass a test on that material. However, in a competency-based learning environment, the unit would be divided into specific skills and knowledge in which students are expected to be competent, and would then assess that competency based on the completion of lessons rather than the passage of time.
Competency-based learning is often used for professional training and can be more effective in many environments than time-based learning. Someone learning to assemble a computer circuit board, for example, may be better served by a competency-based learning program than a time-based program. The competency-based learning program would inform the student about what he should know and clearly show how he will be evaluated at the end of the program. There are no pop quizzes in this type of program, and the student knows what is expected of him.
The student in the previous example would begin completing lessons and units on circuit board design and assembly. Each lesson would have a specific objective, usually understanding a certain skill set, and student progress would be based on completing lessons rather than days or hours spent in the classroom. Competency-based learning can be very individualized and works best for those who have an intrinsic motivation to learn the material. After the student finishes classes, he is assessed, usually through practical demonstration, in order to ensure that the student is competent in relation to the skills and knowledge expected of him. The results of this assessment are not typically indicative of a grade, but rather indicate areas of improvement or skills that require additional training.
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