iNACOL's 5 Design Principles of CBE

Video Transcription

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you are having a wonderful day today. Today, we're going to be looking at iNacol's five design principles for competency-based education. And for today's lesson, I've chosen a quote by Nelson Mandela which states, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

Now, by the end of the lesson today, you will be able to review competency-based education. You will be able to also explore the five design principles of competency-based instruction.

First, let's go ahead and take a look at the history of competency-based education. So first and foremost, a little bit of an overview. Competency-based education is a different approach to learning that is totally based in progress. So students are showing and demonstrating the masteries of competencies rather than simply sitting in a class for a different amount of time or a unit or a semester.

Also, competency-based education tends to be exceptionally well suited for technology-rich environments. So this allows students to really pace themselves and move through the material so that they can demonstrate the required knowledge or skills at their own pace.

Also, competency-based education has five design principles that really underlie all that it can do. These five design principles were developed by iNacol, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, in conjunction with the National Governor's Association.

This is the group that really helped to establish the common core state standards. So they're very closely connected. Also, just in case you are interested, more information on this can be found at the following website-- competencyworks.org.

Now let's go ahead and really take a look at the way in which iNacol's five design principles really look to help personalize and differentiate that education for students. So first, let's go ahead and take a look at design principle number one.

As we work through these various design principles, you will be seeing not only the principle and all of the elements involved but also an example of a various element that helps include those design principles so looking at that curriculum map and that unit of study and seeing where we can see each of these design principles in practice.

Design principle number one-- students will not move on until they have reached mastery. The major elements involved here are the ideas that students are able to advance only when they've demonstrated mastery and that that demonstration is really facilitated by the teacher. This is important that students are moving not just because they have completed that unit or they've reached the end of a grade level but that they actually know the material.

This involves the idea that work is being appropriately challenging for various individual student learning so that students are really pushed within each area and that students are evaluated on their performance only. They're not evaluated on the idea that they are coming into class late or that they are not participating in class. That should be a separate measurement than these elements.

And finally, that there is the idea for flexibility in the pacing, that some students are going to finish faster-- and we know that-- some students are going to finish slower than others and that the teacher is able to really help facilitate that in the process.

Next, let's take a look at design principle number two, the idea that students are really empowered by those explicit and measurable learning objectives. When we look at competency-based education, we are really focusing in on the idea that students are aware of those learning targets and what they need to be reaching and that they are also clear on how they are going to be measured so that students are taking an active approach within their lessons.

Also, teachers really help then become the coaches and the facilitators. Students are the ones who are engaging in their own acquisition of knowledge. And the teachers are just helping to facilitate that acquisition.

Also, units of learning need to be clearly defined so that we are all clear on where the various different elements are within those units of study and that students are knowing what they need to do in order to move on. Finally, we're focusing in on the idea that learning can not just happen inside the classroom but also outside of the classroom.

Design principle three looks at the fact that assessment is meaningful and is really a positive learning experience for the students. When we look at competency-based education, we see that the formative assessments that students are engaging in play a major, major role.

Students get immediate feedback from formative assessments as opposed to waiting all the way to the end for those summative assessments so that they are in charge of that learning data and know what they need to do in order to achieve mastery as it was defined earlier.

Also, this helps teachers to collaborate in determining proficiency. If these learning experiences are positive for the student, and there are ways to connect this with other elements, teachers can really work together to help see that that child is proficient.

Also, design principle number three takes into account that skills and concepts can be measured in many different ways so that the emphasis there is on really the learning and the acquiring of the knowledge rather than the grades.

Finally, summative assessments are included or can be included. But those dates can be adapted to the individual student so that that assessment is really flexible to follow the student's self pacing.

We're going to look next at design principle number four-- students receive rapid, differentiated support. Here the idea is that students are able to work at their own pace so that they are able to really go through the information as they best can at their own level and their own pacing but also that there are interventions that can be offered for students who are struggling with certain elements of the material by both teachers and even potentially by specialists.

Within design principle four, there is the idea that the adaptive learning that can occur here helps respond to the student mastery. So we're not adding more because we have more time in our lesson. We're adding more because that's what the student's learning needs require.

Finally, design principle number five, the idea that learning outcomes emphasize the creation and the application of knowledge. CBE really requires that there is real-world settings. So those competencies and objectives need to include those academic standards but also the application of those standards.

We want the assessment rubrics to indicate not only what a student should know but also what a student should be able to do and that student work can be used as an example so students are able to see real-life versions of the work that they're going to be doing.

Finally, there needs to be that consistent emphasis on those 21st century skills, students seeing how they can apply this information outside of the classroom to really make it meaningful for them.

I want to leave you with just a few tips as you look at CBE curriculum design. The first is that competency-based education can be referred to in many different ways. It can be referred to as proficiency-based, performance-based standards, mastery-based education.

But they all get at the same major idea. And that is the idea that the students within a competency-based education classroom are receiving that personalized education, that differentiated education as often as possible, so that their learning can really become their own.

Now that we've reached the end of the lesson, you have been able to review a competency-based education, what it is, and a little bit of its origin. And you have been able to explore the five design principles that are used throughout competency-based instruction.

Now that you have had the opportunity to look at these design principles in depth, which one do you think would be the most difficult to incorporate into your learning and teaching styles?

For more information on how to apply what you've learned in this video, please view the additional resources section that accompanies this video presentation. The additional resources section includes useful applications and hyperlinks so that you can apply this course material. It also includes a brief description of each resource for you. That's all we have for right now. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.