Teaching Philosophy: Competency-Based Education, Sociocybernetics, And Online Learning
CBE
Competency-based education programs have the potential to decrease both the completion time and cost of degrees, whilst providing proficiency-level instruction. Because students are able to study at their own pace, with content tailored based on their progression, Competency-Based Education creates a customized learning experience, with multiple pathways to study depending on a student's needs. The model of competency-based education is poised to revolutionize how we think about providing education and granting degrees. Since then, an increasing number of colleges and universities are considering the model as a potential way to change the way we view the higher education landscape, turning all that we know about how to develop courses and programs on its head.
Measurable assessments with clear learning goals are the core elements of competency-based instruction, impacting both students and instructors. Standard instructional practices do not explicitly incorporate tracking or evaluating learner profiles and reasoning processes in skill development. For competency, step-by-step activities, value integration, explicit content, general tools, and clearly established mechanisms must be structured.
Sociocybernetic Control Model of Education
The educational system must support CBE recognizing where the push-back will come from educators, students, administrators, and external stakeholders. Equity is different from equality. Even though students may have experiences that are not equal, their skills and abilities--even varying slightly in expression--can be applied to successfully complete a challenging exercise. Every student is equally empowered to meet educational objectives, to progressively acquire, and to master, competencies through online courses. Learners, learning, and activities are situated in health, technical, social, economic, and political contexts. The displays contribute to students being well-prepared to apply what they have learned in their next phase of learning--application in the real world.
The student's sense of epistemology and the way she expresses her understanding are intrinsic to the context of a classroom. These must be incorporated proactively into the educational system through assessment, reflection, and comparison to ethical standards. Decreased frictions from competing epistemologies in the education system support a context-dependent, collaboratively created system of knowledge. The institution must support this and systematically manage the discomfort students feel as their prior understanding of how to succeed becomes less dependent upon their personality and more dependent upon their performance. The key is to alert them that persistence is still valued though the persistence must be focused on learning and improving their product rather than convincing the facilitator of their hard work and worth.
Online Learning
Online learning, poorly constructed, is a struggle for students. It's easy to feel like you're just sitting in front of a computer, reading through lesson after lesson and not really learning anything. Ironically, this is the result of posting a face-to-face course online without leveraging the benefits of technology.
Online learning, expertly constructed, is a more interactive experience than face-to-face learning.
Give students the chance to interact with each other by requiring them to respond to questions or post comments about what they've learned in each lesson. You can do this by using discussion boards or inviting them to write an essay to be responded to by other students.
Encourage the repetition of content through variations and alternative presentations. Also, include skill discussion from earlier lessons in future ones so that students apply skills in new contexts and with novel reasoning behind it. This approach to repetition will help students remember what they've already learned and build on it!
More relatable and better examples are possible in an online platform. Videos that include storytelling, character profiles, and situational challenges become a foundation for explaining processes and skill application. Students understand the concepts better when they learn them first-hand instead of second-hand through reading about how other people used those concepts in different ways.
