Competency-based learning: The dreams and realities

Setiono, Jakarta

The Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) will soon be implemented nationwide in the new academic year 2004-2005. This new curriculum has been embraced with enthusiasm among educators as it is claimed a priori that this 2004 curriculum will be far more effective in enhancing the learning process than the current curricula.

However, our great concern is that teachers do not yet get what precisely the CBC is. Without a clear understanding, misinterpretations are likely to occur.

It should be admitted that CBC is not exactly a spectacular breakthrough in education. In fact, it has been implemented and widely employed since the 1970s as a part of teaching programs for adult learners.

As its name implies, CBC is designed on the basis of what the students can do in performing tasks rather than what they know about the tasks. In this respect, the notion competency becomes the key word.

A student is said to be competent or to have competency if he or she has specific skills and knowledge required for effectively performing a real life task. For example, if a student can respond appropriately to his friend's letter of invitation in writing, he can be said to have the competency required for writing informal letters.

CBC is characterized by some important features. One of its most typical characteristics is that it emphasizes the outcomes or outputs of learning, which are derived from the analysis of tasks the students perform in the teaching and learning context.

The tasks that are required of students are those that reflect the situations commonly encountered in their everyday life. This is to say that the tasks assigned to the students should be as authentic as possible.

Another feature is that students' specific needs are highly appreciated and taken into account in developing the curricula. At one extreme, the formulation of teaching objectives and the content of teaching materials are all decided on the basis of the learner's needs and interests.

At the other, students are given the opportunity to take part in designing the syllabus and in deciding what should be included in the teaching materials.

Unlike the current curricula, CBC deemphasizes the active role of the teachers. Teachers no longer act as the unquestioned authoritative figure in the room. Their tasks will be to simply facilitate learning and to assist as well as to monitor learners in performing the tasks. Put simply, teachers act as a counselor, who only become active when the clients are in need of help.

As for evaluation, criterion-referenced assessments will be employed. A student is evaluated on the basis of what he or she can do with specific learning tasks. The way the student is assessed in performing a task is not limited by time, however.

Students are given ample opportunity to continuously carry out the tasks until the desired level of mastery is achieved. Thus continuous and ongoing assessment is highly encouraged.

The new curriculum is not without potential problems.

Competency-Based Curriculum puts an excessive emphasis on the output rather than on the input. The process of what cognitive strategies students employ in dealing with their tasks and in acquiring specific skills and knowledge is deemed less than important. These strategies are inevitably vital as it eventually affects learning output.

Despite its theoretical appeals in fostering the effective learning process, CBC requires a great deal of preparation from both the teacher and the students. As for the teachers, they should not only be knowledgeable of the subject being taught, but also skillful and creative in preparing the materials that reflect the authenticity of tasks.

In terms of economy, a lot of money needs to be allocated in order to make authentic teaching materials that facilitate the learning process. The more ambitious we intend to implement the CBC, the more costly it will be.

As for the students, they should have a certain level of prerequisite knowledge in order to be able to work with their teachers in the design of the syllabus and teaching material. It could be argued here that involving students in the syllabus design, as is required in CBC, is unrealistic and even naive.

It gets more complicated when we assess the students' performance in the completion of their tasks. As CBC focuses on continuous and ongoing assessment, there is no readily available valid procedure and standards on how to assess the students' performance consistently. Clearly, CBC requires teachers who are not only professional in teaching, but also professional in testing.

From a cultural standpoint, it will be difficult to successfully implement CBC in this country. The features of CBC discussed above seem to contradict the values and beliefs in the dominant culture of this nation, which is heavily influenced by the Javanese tradition. For example, two famous Javanese philosophies such as manut lan piturut (to obey and to follow) and ewuh-pakewuh (feeling uncomfortable and uneasy) are still very much a part of us.

The implications of these views in the classroom context are that the best students are those who always obey and follow their teacher's commands. They are considered disrespectful if they have a different opinion from their teachers, let alone question their teachers.

Students might feel uncomfortable and uneasy to say something directly to their teachers, to talk about controversial matters, and to disagree with them. It is, therefore, unrealistic to expect the students to be interactive with their teachers in the classroom.

The practical problems and cultural issues that are inherent may have the potential to hinder the implementation of CBC. If nothing is done to counter these problems, we will end up adopting and implementing our traditional education methods under the name of the "brand new" Competency-Based Curriculum.

The writer is a lecturer at Atma Jaya University.