The Matrix of Competence-Based Education Evaluated in Indonesian Higher Education

Author(s):

Martin MulderNederstigt Willem(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2011

Network:

2. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

02 SES 09 B, Competence-Based Education in Higher and Further Education: Principles, Orientations and Pressures

Paper Session

Time:

2011-09-15

10:30-12:00

Room:

K 23/27,1 FL., 33

Chair:

Lewis Hughes

Contribution

In various projects an instrument is developed and studied for the assessment of the actual and desired competentiveness of programs in vocational education in the Netherlands (Wesselink, 2010; Sturing et al, 2010). Competentiveness is the extent to which an curriculum in vocational education complies with a coherent set of pre-defined principles of competence-based education. This instrument is called the Matrix of competence-based vocational education, because it contains principles of competence-based education and levels of implementation of these principles. The cells of the matrix were defined and variables were added to make the assessment more objective. The Matrix is an instrument for use by program teams to assess a complete curriculum of the programs in which they are involved. The rationale behind the development of the instrument was that during the years in which competence-based education was introduced in the 1990s, strange as it may sounds, there were hardly any operational guidelines to implement this innovation at institutional level in curriculum design, development and assessment processes.

The Matrix of competence-based education has drawn international attention and a series of translations were made, first of all in English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese, and later in Chinese, Dari and Bahasa Indonesia. This is understandable because the introduction of competence-based education is not limited to (Western) Europe, but in other regions of the world vocational educational experts are also working on this innovation (Van Halsema, 2008). In certain cases they are being supported by diverse international organizations such as the ILO, UNEVOC and national education development cooperation organizations and NGOs (Author et al, 2007; Weigel et al, 2007). A problem, which can be underestimated however, is that the models for competence-based education are developed in Western societies. This also holds for the Matrix and application of this in non-western developing societies may lead to implementation difficulties. Problems have been encountered in curriculum projects in Uganda and Ethiopia (Author & Gulikers, 2010). It was also expected that similar problems would emerge in a curriculum development project in Indonesia (Bjork, 2005). This resulted in the following research question: to what extent is the Matrix of competence-based vocational education feasible in relation to the education context of non-western developing countries, especially in Indonesia.

Indonesia was chosen because of the curriculum development project which is taking place there in seven institutes of higher education. The institutes are being supervised by consultants from Universities, Colleges and NGOs from the Netherlands and Indonesia. Transversal alignment is realized by collective workshops of representatives of the stakeholders involved. The Higher Education Institutes are responsible for decision making regarding the approach of competence-based education and the design and implementation of it, although there are national regulations in this respect. The extent of the autonomy of the institutes is currently under debate.

Method

A comparative education perspective is used as a starting point (Bray and Yamato 2003; Grigorenko, 2007). A framework of analysis ranging from culture, politics and labour markets towards policy implementation, institutional management, classroom practices and student perspectives, was used to capture deeper societal dimensions within the Indonesian education context (Arnove, 1999). Three faculties of two Public Universities in different provinces were selected as cases for the study. This provided sufficient similarities to allow comparison of the data. The three faculties included essential elements of the diversity of the Indonesian context. Various methods of data collection were used to allow the development of a comprehensive contextual analysis. During extensive periods of field work: (i) pre-structured qualitative interviews with representatives of four groups of informants: alumni, students, lectures and faculty managers were conducted, (ii) formal and informal observations of the daily practices of students and lecturers were carried out, (iii) formal classroom observations of both theory and various practice activities took place and, (iv) available secondary data on education policies were collected. In total, 60 interviews and observations were carried out. Transcribed interviews and observations have been coded. Presence frequencies of the principles in the Matrix and specific issues have been analysed.

Expected Outcomes

Governmental policy dictates the implementation of competence-based education in Indonesia. The analysis showed that the Matrix of competence-based vocational education has interesting properties to support this process. However, confronted with practice in higher education, we found that a substantial part of the Matrix of competence-based vocational education should be critically reflected upon. Three important issues were surfaced. (i) Pre-defining labour market demands, and the vocational needs, and competence profiles related to it, proved to be debatable within the Indonesian context. Strongly differing demands between public and private sector employment in combination with the country’s regional differences does not allow a uniform sector approach of competence development. (ii) Although the importance of practice is widely acknowledge in the Indonesian universities, labour markets and the society perceive skills development to occur ‘on-the-job’ and attribute little value to it in formal education. (iii) The integration of the development of student attitude into education programmes of Indonesian public universities proved to be multi-interpretable. A strong duality in the concept of ‘attitude’ could be observed. It is questioned whether the development of a pro-active students’ attitude is perceived as being desirable by the Indonesian society and labour markets.

References

Arnove, R. F. (1999). Reframing Comparative Education. R. F. Arnove and C. A. Torres (Eds), Comparative Education, The Dialectic of the Global and the Local. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, pp. 1 - 23. Author & J. Gulikers (2010). Workplace learning in East Africa: A Case Study. Malloch, M., L. Cairns, K. Evans and B. O'Connor (2010). The SAGE Handbook of Workplace Learning. London: SAGE, pp. 307-318. Author, T. Weigel & K. Collins (2007). The concept of competence concept in the development of vocational education and training in selected EU member states. A critical analysis. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, (59), 1, pp. 65-85. Bjork, C. (2005). Indonesian Education: Teachers, Schools, and Central Bureacracy. New York: Routledge. Bray, M. and Y. Yamato (2003). Comparative Education in a Microcosm: Methodological Insights from the International Schools Sector in Hong Kong. International Review of Education, 49(1), pp. 51-73. Grigorenko, E. L. (2007). Hitting, missing, and in between: a typology of the impact of western education on the non-western world. Comparative Education, 43(1), pp. 165 - 186. Sturing, L., Biemans, H.J.A., Mulder, M. and De Bruijn, E. (2010). To what extent are vocational courses competence-based? Evaluation of a model for self-assessing competence-based vocational education. Paper presented at the ECER conference, Helsinki, Finland, August 26. Van Halsema, W. (2008). Proceedings of the expert meeting on educational reform. Towards Competence Based Learning in Higher Green Education in Africa, Kigali, Rwanda.Wageningen: Van Hall Larenstein. Weigel, T., author & K. Collins (2007). The concept of competence in the development of vocational education and training in selected EU member states. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 59, 1, 51-64. Wesselink, R. (2010). Comprehensive competence-based vocational education. The development and use of a performance analysis and improvement model. Dissertation (to be defended). Wageningen: Wageningen University and Research Center.

Author Information

Martin Mulder

Wageningen University

Education and Competence Studies

Wageningen

Nederstigt Willem (presenting)

Wageningen University, Netherlands, The

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