Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This article promotes the Aurora Institute as "a leading advocate for CBE" and makes the case for its definition of competency-based education (CBE). The idea is that students learn using "individual learning pathways...  using different schema and varied pacing... (and) have agency over learning decisions," see assessment as "meaningful, positive, and empowering" and "are provided with common, rigorous expectations for learning." I see this as still focused on the content (even if we define the content as a 'skill' or 'competency'). I mean - it's OK to have education that supports skills, etc., but is this the main thing? Sure, it's more important than seat time - but what isn't? It's more important than "point-chasing treadmill that focuses more on arbitrary carrots & sticks such as homework grades, extra credit, participation grades, reductions for late work, etc.," but again, what isn't? I guess I see CBE as better than what we have, but not exactly the end goal. Competencies are a means to an endd, not an end in themselves, and that's the thing to focus on when talking about CBE.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Mar 28, 2024 1:33 p.m.

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