{"id":1301,"date":"2024-02-22T10:46:10","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T18:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/?p=1301"},"modified":"2024-02-22T11:09:26","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T19:09:26","slug":"a-rose-by-any-other-name-competency-mastery-based-learning-and-assessments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/a-rose-by-any-other-name-competency-mastery-based-learning-and-assessments\/","title":{"rendered":"A Rose by Any Other Name: Competency & Mastery-Based Learning and Assessments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the ever-changing landscape of Canadian higher education, discussions persist around the \u201cbest\u201d pedagogical approaches to student learning, instruction, and assessment. Traditional education often relies on seat time, percentage-based grading, and conventional “pen and paper” assessments like essays and exams (Malan, 2000; Diegelman-Parente, 2011; Sturgis, 2014).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-traditional education, particularly evolving over the last century, prioritizes students’ ability to apply learned content. Benjamin Bloom is often considered as a \u201cfounding father\u201d of the education system in the past several decades due to his work on mastery-based learning and the development of his taxonomy (Guskey, 2012). This Taxonomy describes the process of learning and developing mastery of a competency as outlined amongst three core domains: cognitive, psychomotor, and affective. Each domain contains measurable action verbs organized thematically and progressively in terms of the complexity or higher-order of that action verb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This shift aligns with Competency-Based Education (CBE), an age-old concept dating back to Medieval guilds (Compayr\u00e9, 1897; Denham, 2002; Ogilvie, 2014), which used a competency-based model with performance scales of “apprentice, journeyman, and master.” In fact, this model has remained fairly unchanged as a scale and was developed alongside medical education and training to develop Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) (Desy, Reed, & Wolanskyj, 2017; Tractenberg, Wilkinson, Bull, Pellathy, & Riley, Joan, 2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this blog, we will delve into the core concepts of Competency-Based Education CBE) and Mastery-Based Learning (MBL), exploring their significance and providing examples across various disciplines and subject areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Competency-Based Education (CBE): A Paradigm Shift<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Competency-Based Education (CBE) represents a transformative approach where learners progress based on their mastery of specific knowledge, skills, and\/or attitudes (competencies) rather than adhering to rigid timelines (Sturgis, 2014; Gervais, 2016; Simonds, Behrens, & Holzbauer, 2017). This has resulted in a focus less on students being able to describe what <\/em>they have learned, but more on students demonstrating how<\/em> they can apply this new knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modern education originated out of the idea that a certain amount of time spent on a concept was required to ensure proficiency. In lower education this was referred to as the \u201cCarnegie Unit\u201d (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1906), and in higher education as the \u201ccredit hour\u201d (LeBlanc, 2021). The credit hour has remained as the foundation of the semester system in higher education ever since; however, CBE offers a paradigm shift away from the credit hour to competencies instead as the \u201ccommon currency\u201d of learning (LeBlanc, 2021, p. 25). This notion is espoused through CBE and MBL as learning is the constant and time can become the variable, rather than the other way around (LeBlanc, 2021).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In CBE, assignments are more focused on assessing demonstrable evidence of student learning rather than assessing the completion of tasks that [hopefully] infer knowledge acquisition and retention. According to William Spady (1994), a key proponent of CBE (developed outcomes-based education, which was referred to as \u201cmastery-based learning\u201d under Bloom in the early 1960s), the approach seeks to create educational systems that ensure students demonstrate competence in the essential content and skills. Simonds et al. (2017) further argue that students\u2019 learning within CBE have \u201cheightened engagement in the learning process\u201d (p. 413) \u2013 which makes sense when the learning is about the student rather than the process and product. Moreover, EDUCAUSE (2014) adds that students are \u201cmore active, engaged, and motivated when working with coursework that is challenging but within their capacity to master\u2026by linking progress to mastery, avoiding boredom for those moving quickly and frustration for students who need more time\u201d (EDUCAUSE, 2014).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This paradigm shift is designed to accommodate diverse learning styles and ensure that students truly grasp the content before moving forward. For example, Malan (2000) argues that \u201ccompetency-based education also supports the notion that the learner is accountable for his or her own achievements\u201d (p. 23). This is a departure from assessments being the indicator of achievement as determined by the instructor (a more subjective system), and instead focus on what the learner can do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we have certainly come a very long way in education in the last millennia, CBE has evolved, expanded, and branched out particularly in the last century, forming the foundations of many of our current pedagogical frameworks and theories. Drawing from educational theorists and their frameworks such as Ralph Tyler, John Carroll, Benjamin Bloom, and Fred Keller (Gervais, 2016), CBE developed into one of the predominant means of assessing learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a number of terms that are currently used, and often interchangeably (and inaccurately), to describe very different processes and theories of education, learning, and assessment \u2013 but all generally fall within the larger umbrella of Competency-Based Education.\u00a0 For example, there is mastery-based learning, outcomes-based education, standards-based education, objectives-based education, etc. For the purposes of this blog, Mastery-Based Learning (MBL) will be discussed under the umbrella terms of CBE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Characteristics and Elements of Competency-Based Education and Mastery-Based Learning<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Mastery-Based Learning (MBL) falls under the umbrella term of CBE, there are number of shared characteristics and elements (Malan, 2000; Le, Wolfe, & Steinberg, 2014; Sturgis, 2014; Gervais, 2016; C-BEN, 2017; Simonds et al., 2017):<\/p>\n\n\n\n