Competency Based Professional Development

Video Transcription

In this tutorial, we'll explore how a competency-based approach can be applied to professional development. We'll begin with an overview of the history and basics of competency-based education, and then we'll see how we can apply a competency-based approach to professional development. Let's get started.

Let's begin with an overview of the history and the basics of competency-based education. Competency-based education is actually based on outcomes-based education or OBE. In OBE, instructional design begins by identifying your desired outcomes. So this is sometimes referred to as a backwards design process.

This movement started in the 1960s when there was a new emphasis being placed on skills that students would need beyond their high school educations. So these outcomes being identified as part of the OBE instructional design process were linked to real-world applications. And that remains true in competency-based education as well. In both OBE and CBE, there are opportunities for self-pacing. And competency-based education also may build in flexible pathways for students.

So how can competency-based education help to support our professional development activities? Though we know that there isn't going to be any one single approach to professional development that is going to meet the needs of all teachers, competency-based education really is a more learner-centered approach. CBE measures learning instead of time.

So instead of the more traditional approach to education where the unit of learning is time like quarters or semesters, or the unit of learning is the completion of a particular course, instead, in competency-based education, the learner is working towards mastering competencies or specific skills. And so this really can be a great way to approach our professional development.

No matter what approach you're using to frame your professional development, the facilitators of that PD are always going to need to consider two different ends of the spectrum. First, what are you going to do for the teachers who are struggling to master the competencies? What are you going to do if teachers are not able to master the skills and the knowledge that you're presenting? Are you just going to move on regardless of the fact that some teachers are not progressing as you would like them to?

And on the other hand, what are you going to do for the teachers who already have mastered the skills and the knowledge that you're presenting to them? Are you going to require them to sit through your instruction even though they really don't need it in order to be able to demonstrate their competence in these particular areas? It turns out that a competency-based approach addresses both of these issues.

Teachers who are struggling to master the competencies aren't going to be forced to move on without achieving mastery. They will receive the support that they need in order to make sure that they make adequate progress. And in a competency-based approach, the teachers who already have achieved mastery are not going to have to go back and sit through instruction that they don't need. Instead, they'll be able to move on to new concepts and skills.

Competency-based professional development may include some or even all of the following components-- first, progression. Upon demonstration of mastery of the current skills or knowledge, teachers should be able to advance to new topics and new skills.

So if the staff of a particular school is working towards implementing Marzano's high-yield instructional strategies, when a particular staff member has demonstrated mastery of the first of those high-yield instructional strategies, that teacher should not have to wait until all of the other staff members have also demonstrated mastery. Rather, he or she should be able to begin work on implementing the second strategy on the list.

The next component is clear objectives. The competencies outlined in the PD need to include clear, measurable learning targets. It's also important that these learning targets can be generalized to a variety of contexts so that teachers can be empowered as they are able to focus their professional development on their classrooms and on their unique needs.

So in the example of implementing Marzano's high-yield instructional strategies, those competencies need to not only say that each of the high-yield instructional strategies needs to be implemented in the classroom, but a level of implementation needs to be defined. And teachers need to be able to generalize those learning targets to fit their unique content areas and their own classroom situations.

The next component of competency-based professional development is meaningful assessment. One of the key principles of CBE is that assessment is supposed to be a positive learning experience for students. So in the case of teachers in a competency-based professional development context, the assessment also needs to be a positive learning experience for them. It needs to provide them with meaningful information and to tell them exactly where they need to go in terms of their learning.

We want teachers to feel good about knowing exactly where they are headed with their professional development. For example, teachers who are learning to differentiate instruction throughout their professional development might try a few differentiation strategies and then engage in some formative assessment in the form of self-evaluation using a rubric.

These teachers could reflect on the implementation of the first few strategies that they tried. And this assessment can also help them to get a better idea of where they should be going next, what strategies might they try next, and what might they do differently next time they implement a new strategy.

Competency-based professional development may also incorporate timely feedback. The idea here is that we want our teachers involved in this PD to be able to receive timely and differentiated support that is based on their own unique learning needs. This could happen through the use of an instructional coach or through a flipped professional development or through online learning experiences, for example.

So the teachers who are implementing differentiation strategies may receive feedback from their instructional coach and from the members of their PLC. Instructional coaches could observe the individual teachers as they implement these new strategies and then could provide very specific feedback and that element of differentiated support that is going to help each teacher to continue to grow along their learning path. The members of the PLC could also observe and provide feedback to one another in that continued effort to learn and grow as a team together.

Your competency-based professional development may also include high-level cognitive processes. In other words, the identified competencies might include these high-level processes, things like the creation of new knowledge and the application of that new knowledge and the development of skills that are going to be important for increasing student achievement, improving your own practice, and for developing positive dispositions.

So in the case of teachers who are learning to implement strategies for differentiation, a way that high-level cognitive processes could be built into their competencies in their professional development would be to make sure that the learning targets include not just basic implementation of strategies that have been provided to these teachers, but also perhaps blending several strategies together to apply that knowledge and to create an even more effective strategy for differentiation that is tailored to each teacher's personal classroom.

You may also use competency-based metrics in your competency-based professional development. The acquisition and application of new skills gained through professional development can be measured with the use of a competency-based rubric. Many competency-based rubrics have been developed using the ISTE standards, the Danielson Framework, and many other professional teacher standards and other sets of guidelines.

Thinking back to the teachers who are incorporating Marzano's high-yield instructional strategies, the effective application of these skills might be measured using a rubric that is based on the Danielson Framework.

Finally, your competency-based PD might also include recognition of mastery. This refers to teachers being able to earn badges or other types of credentials as they progress through an online program like this SOPHIA course. These credentials can help to demonstrate the competencies that teachers have mastered and can also just help to add an element of motivation and an element of fun to the learning process.

Here's your chance to stop and reflect. Does your professional development already include some competency-based elements? Which components of competency-based professional development do you think might most impact your professional development experiences?

To dive a little deeper and learn how to apply this information, be sure to check out the additional resources section associated with this video. This is where you'll find links targeted toward helping you discover more ways to apply this course material. Thanks for joining me today. Have a great day.