In this episode, Rob and Jared kick off a new series on Competency-Based Education. They discuss the characteristics of CBE and how it compares with traditional educational practice. Join us on Flip with all your questions and reflections on the topics we cover. Contact us at [email protected] with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources.

In traditional educational models, time is the constant and education is the variable. With Competency-Based Education (CBE) models, time is the variable and education is the constant. In the current educational landscape, CBE is commonly seen in apprenticeships and in trades. Typically, it involves an instructor coming alongside a student to help them achieve mastery of content.

Jared is currently apprehensive about CBE because it turns time into a variable. He still is concerned about the level of understanding that a student can reach in certain academic areas that require higher-level thinking if the primary variable is time. For example, since he comes from a language arts background, he is concerned about the level of synthesis and critical reading that may not be reached using competency-based education.

Competency-based education can already seen in more traditional education settings through some modalities (such as flipped classroom). In this series, Rob and Jared will learn from the experiences of others who have used CBE to shed more light on where it is being used and how faculty can use it to design some or all of their instruction the experiences of others who have used it.

Resources

What is Competency-Based Education? (SNHU)

Join us on Flip to discuss this series!