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Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and congratulations. You have made it through the unit on analyzing the difference between standards, outcomes, and competencies in relation to curriculum. We had a lot of stuff to cover in here, and you guys followed along brilliantly. And we learned a lot of information that can be applied in the classroom.
Just as we begin every tutorial with a quote, we are going to begin this final summary with a quote as well. This one is by Pliny the Elder, which states "from the end spring new beginnings." And even though this is the end of this learning unit, this is just the beginning for all of the ways that you can apply this information in your classrooms.
What I'd like to do now is review over those objectives that we had at the very beginning. Now that you're at the end of the unit, you are able to define standards, including Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards, outcomes, and competencies. You are able to evaluate the connections between standards, outcomes, competencies, and skills. You're able to develop outcomes and map them to the standards and competencies being measured or targeted within curriculum areas that apply to you. And you've been able to reflect on how competency-based education really requires students to reach those predetermined skills at a certain level, as well as that content and knowledge understanding, while allowing them to move at their own pace, something that is so essential.
What I'd like to do right now, after we've been through all of those different elements, is to take you back through just to summarize the major elements within each of these objectives that we were able to look at and some reminders on how you can use them in the classroom and out of the classroom. So the first objective that is covered in this unit is the defined standards, including Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards, outcomes, and competencies. Within this area, there is a huge focus on really looking in at the various content standards and honing in on what each content standard looks, where to find them, the way in which you can really focus in on the official standards for each area that you might be working in.
There is also an emphasis placed on defining what different instructional components look like, things like lessons, units, curriculum maps, outcomes, competencies, focusing in on the definitions of those for the purposes of this lesson and this overarching tutorial. Because many people define the same ideas, just with different language. Also, there is a huge emphasis on how each of these elements are different from each other but also the way in which they are important.
When it comes to the content standards and developing objectives and outcomes, there's definite, clear connections to what you do inside the classroom every day. Continuing to be able to root your teaching in the standards is so important. But even if you look outside of the classroom, the ability to say, here is where I need to end up, and here are all of the little steps that I will create to make sure that I get there when I need to and that I will know I'm there, is really important. You can use that in almost any area of your life.
The second objective is the ability to evaluate the connection between standards, outcomes, competencies, and skills. So not just what they are, but how are they all connected? This area focused in on defining the elements, so really looking at, what is a standard? What is a skill? What is an objective? What is an outcome? What's a competency? Do I know what all of these words mean and how they work together?
Then focusing in on some of the overlap that exists there. So we have content and we have skills, but when we put them together, that's when we get those units of measure for objectives, outcomes, and competencies. Finally, there are tons of examples for what this can look like across content areas.
So it's really important that you as students have that empowered sense so that you can take this and go back to the work you're doing in your classroom and say, you know what? These are big words and big ideas, and they can be a little scary. I know they were for me when I first encountered them. But I feel like I know how to combine subject standards with technology standards and create them into those students-centered I-can statements and elements so that we can put all of this into play. This is not only helpful within the classroom, but also for those who are interested in working on different administrative teams, having a broad idea of how all of this can play together is really beneficial when working within your department or even between departments for planning purposes.
The next objective is to develop a learning outcome and map it to the standards and competencies being measured or targeted. So again, this is really focusing on how all of these elements play out and looking at what it looks like in practice. So within this, we look at iNacol's five design principles for competency-based education, focusing in on some of the theories and the ideas and the goals behind developing all of these outcomes and connecting everything together.
Then there is an emphasis on very specifically the process for writing targets, writing outcomes, writing competencies and some bad examples and some good examples so feel like you've really got a good idea of what there is to know and not know. Finally, scaffolding the standards. How can we take these large standards, these big overarching elements, and really break them down so that they're easily digestible over the course of the year?
The last learning objective is to reflect on how competency-based education requires students to reach skills and understanding while allowing them to move at their own pace. This is all about reflection, looking back at those essential questions of Dufour's work and saying, what am I doing in my classroom? Do I have all of the answers for what I need those students to know and my ability to measure it? Really then looking at how those essential questions work with the design elements for competency-based education and the questions we should be asking ourselves as we develop those lesson plans.
And finally, reflecting on all of those questions. So how am I doing at asking myself those questions? Am I giving myself time to ask those questions as I develop these various units and lesson plans? This is totally applicable with inside your classroom. And they are very universal. So no matter what area you teach, there is an element here for you.
Once again, let's take a look at those objectives that you now at the end of this unit have been able to reach. As you look back, I hope it's clear that just as we talked about the idea of continuing to build one after the other within the work you do in the classroom, we've done the exact same thing here. First, the focus was on defining standards, outcomes, competencies-- all of that language that you really needed to know so that you had a strong foundation of the vocabulary we were going to use.
Then we worked to evaluate those various connections between those different elements so that you could start to see how all of it plays together. Once that was done, we were able to really put things into a concrete use for you in the classroom, developing those learning outcomes and mapping them to the standards and competencies that you want measured or targeted within your classroom or learning environment. And finally, after all of that, we focus back in on reflection, the ability to look back over the process of competency-based education, as big and broad and sometimes very new as it can be, how beneficial it can be to help students really reach those skills and understanding while allowing them to pace themselves and show true mastery over those skills that we want them to achieve.
Thank you so much for being a part of this unit with me. I really appreciate it. And I hope you learned a lot.
(00:00-00:42) Intro
(00:43-01:51) Objectives
(01:52-03:30) Objective 1 Explained
(03:31-05:06) Objective 2 Explained
(05:07-06:05) Objective 3 Explained
(06:06-07:05) Objective 4 Explained
(07:06-08:41) Review