Accrediting lecturers using competence-based approaches: a cautionary tale

This chapter discusses the problems of applying competency-based assessment to teacher education. The author argues that the development of competence-based models of assessment, based on the Further Education National Training Organization (FENTO) standards, has led to narrow, restricted and mechanistic models of learning, effective for assessing only the most basic skills. He suggests that pre-ordained performance criteria have been found to be inadequate as benchmarks for measuring such higher order skills as judgement, intuition, behaviour under stress, intellectual ability, balancing competing demands and the ability to weigh up ethical issues which are required by teachers and management. The author concludes that the focus on learning outcomes rather than the learning process has led to a situation where professional development is undervalued and uncoupled from accreditation.

The monograph from which this chapter is taken is indexed at TD/TNC 66.207 and selected chapters are indexed from TD/TNC 66.208 to TD/TNC 66.218.

This chapter discusses the problems of applying competency-based assessment to teacher education. The author argues that the development of competence-based models of assessment, based on the Further Education National Training Organization (FENTO) standards, has led to narrow, restricted and mechanistic models of learning, effective for assessing only the most basic skills. He suggests that pre-ordained performance criteria have been found to be inadequate as benchmarks for measuring such higher order skills as judgement, intuition, behaviour under stress, intellectual ability, ...  [+] Show more