Competency-Based Curriculum

Competency-based curriculum design is a model in which educative goals are structured to discover and support the unique abilities and learning styles of individuals, thereby facilitating the achievement of their potential. The concept is in keeping with many established paradigmatic perspectives in the field of curriculum studies.

In a competency-based curriculum, emphasis is not placed upon the learners' accumulation of memorized knowledge or behavior, but instead on their proficiency in a particular realm. A competency goes beyond a skill; it is not simply the learner's accumulated knowledge or task-oriented abilities, but rather the aptitude to produce a personally and socially valuable outcome. The goal of this construct is to help learners achieve long-term success through the realization and cultivation of their strengths and then apply those assets to make contributions to the greater social environment. With this intent, competency-based curriculum is well suited to foster creativity and critical thought in learners who may then choose to participate in and contribute to a democratic society. This cur-ricular model is employed in a variety of educational settings in many venues around the world.

There are several key facets of competency-based curriculum. First, learners and teachers alike act as agents to determine the curricular activities and experiences included to best develop the learner's unique capabilities. These activities include, but are not limited to, relevant subject matter learning. There is a significant emphasis placed upon experiential learning and activities that allow learners to be submersed in authentic experiences and engage in critical reflection and self-expression. There is, too, an intent to foster enjoyable experiences and those that might serve to develop the learner's moral development. Because this model is focused upon specific learners and environments, assessment is developed to align purposefully with the curriculum and the needs of the learners themselves. Standardized and quantitative criterions are employed in relative moderation with a greater importance placed on performance-based, experiential learner outcomes.

The notion of competency is often rooted in the progressive stages of development associated with the adult learner developed by Stuart E. Dreyfus and Hubert L. Dreyfus in the 1980s. Although there are several iterations of the Dreyfus model, these stages always include the following: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert. Competency-based education is intended to scaffold the learners' achievement of the competent stage of development; it is then at the discretion of the learner to expand his or her degree of understanding to achieve higher levels of development. [Page 132]The employment of the competency-based curricular model endeavors to educate all learners, regardless of their level of academic ability, to their fullest potential. It is the unique and individualized qualities of this highly engaged curricular model that lend its appeal to various realms of teaching and learning. Learner outcomes are adapted to facilitate the development of a variety of competencies depending upon the needs of the organization. For this reason, it is often utilized in disciplines outside of education.

For example, in recent years the Brown University School of Medicine initiated a competency-based curriculum, titled MD2000. This implementation was made with the hope that it would cultivate cooperative working relationships between teachers and learners as they work to achieve shared goals. It was also intended to provoke students to engage more actively to achieve their learner outcomes. Another example of the employment of this model exists in the field of business at Boise State University. In that venue, the employment of a competency-based curriculum is intended to ensure that learners do not simply accumulate knowledge or skills, but instead seek ways to employ their learning in a range of professional milieus.

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