Session Information
Contribution
Description: Competence-based education has become the leading paradigm for educational innovation in the Dutch Vocational Education and Training (VET) system, both at the level of policy-making and the level of educational practice (see Biemans et al., 2004). The underlying idea is that VET should enable students to acquire the competencies needed in their future professions and in society as a whole. In this respect, assessment of students' competencies plays a crucial role.Assessment of competencies, on the other hand, is also a possible pitfall of competence-based education. Assessment of competencies is a labour-intensive and time-consuming exercise. It is hard to standardise and often involves structured observation rather than classroom examination. Developing and using valid and reliable assessment tools is a crucial but very difficult task. Moreover, the criteria for the quality of assessment become stricter as its importance increases. Since traditional testing methods are ill-suited to a competence-based curriculum, new ways have to be found to develop appropriate assessment tools (cf. Segers, Dochy & Cascallar, 2003). The central questions of the present study are which criteria can be formulated for competence-based assessment and how can these criteria be applied to educational practice.First, a theoretical framework for competence-based assessment is presented. The way of measuring learning outcomes that is related to competence-based learning can be characterised as a paradigm shift from a testing culture to an assessment culture (Birenbaum, 1996; Dierick & Dochy, 2001).
Methodology: Based on a literature review, six criteria for competence-based assessment are formulated and elaborated:
1. Assessment should take place in one or more authentic settings;
2. Knowledge, skills and attitudes should be integrated;
3. Assessment should take place before, during and after the learning process;
4. Assessment should more and more become the responsibility of the learner;
5. The multi-dimensionality of assessment is important in addition to reliability and validity;
6. Assessment should both be aimed at formal measurement of learning outcomes and development of competencies.In the present study, these criteria are applied to two cases.
The assessment procedures carried out by two schools for higher vocational education (in the context of educational programs on agricultural entrepreneurship and chains and networks) are described and evaluated based on these criteria. Information about these assessment procedures is collected through study of relevant documents, interviews with school managers, teachers/assessors and students, and observations.
Conclusions: The results show that the two schools have not fully achieved the above-mentioned paradigm shift. Some of the criteria for competence-based assessment have been met to a high extent (although in various ways), while, in other aspects, the way of measuring learning outcomes still is rather traditional. Moreover, students of the two schools are asked to evaluate the assessment procedures. Their assessment experiences are registered through a questionnaire. The results of this evaluation will be reported in the full paper. Moreover, based on the results of the study, recommendations will be formulated for future research and educational practice with respect to competence-based assessment.
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