Based Learning 3: CBL — Competency/Connections-Based Learning

Competency-Based Learning:

Competency-Based learning refers to systems of instruction, assessment, grading, and academic reporting that are based on students demonstrating that they have learned the knowledge and skills they are expected to learn as they progress through their education.

Competencies Support Learning by:

1. Focusing learning on the critical competencies needed for success.
2. Providing standards for measuring performance and capabilities.
3. Providing the framework for identifying learning options/curriculum/programs to meet individual and organizational needs.
4. Supporting effective forecasting of organizational, as well as project-related learning requirements.
5. Providing standards for determining how well learning has occurred, both at the individual and organizational level.

Advantages:

1. Competency-based learning changes the dynamic of time and it rewards students for skills acquired rather than time spent in a seat. It expects the same level of mastery from every student.
2. In higher education, competency-based education models can break the “iron triangle,” expanding access, affordability, and quality for more students, especially when it is combined with new technology to deliver and assess learning.
3. In K-12, it allows students to move at their own pace, sailing through what they can learn quickly and slow down and get more support from teachers when they struggle.
4. For all students, it opens the possibility of multiple pathways to college readiness and college completion.

Connections-Based Learning:

Connections-based Learning is an approach to teaching and learning that leverages the connected world we live in. It’s about changing the question from “How can we learn this?” to “Whom can we learn this from?” With Connections-based Learning, making meaningful connections drives the learning activities.

Connections-based Learning focuses on students making meaningful connections with teachers, experts, organizations, community and each other. The development of this approach has been birthed out of a desire to create learning experiences in a connected world with connected students.

Connections-based Learning sees the importance of students making real-life connections with both the local community and the globe.

Connections-based Learning contains 2 Parts:

Part 1: Share the Process

1. Connection Criteria:

The desired criteria is shared with the students and they are encouraged to ask themselves: are there people in the community, organizations or experts that can help us do something about this topic?

2. Learning Proposal: Students answer questions such as:

• Who in the community, what organizations or which experts will help us do something about this topic?
• What information are we hoping to find?
• What solutions are we hoping to offer?
• What innovative ways to connect and present learning are we planning?

3. Collaboration Reflection:

• What skills and strengths does each group member have to accomplish the task?
• How are you going to divide the work load?
• What roles and responsibilities are assigned to each member?
• What rules do you want to have regarding your collaboration?
• What will you do if the rules aren’t followed?

4. Progress Check-Ins:

• Offering assistance as the students make their connections
• Develop questions to ask experts and organizations
• Develop ways to share what they have done.
• An important question for the teacher to ask oneself is: What connections do I have that can move the group forward?

5. Process Sharing:

• This provides yet another feedback opportunity as students, teachers, principals or parents either make meaningful comments or ask questions.
• When a process is focused on, setbacks do not mean failures. The process and learning can still be shared and celebrated.
• Innovative ideas that take risks can still be approved, honored, and supported because everyone can share their process.

Part 2: Feedback Meaningfully

1. Develop Commenting Skills:

• Ask questions
• Add ideas
• Share your story
• Offer other opinions
• Questions to Teachers:
• Has time been taken to have students learn how to feedback meaningfully?
• Are students given a chance to “ask questions, add ideas, share stories, offer other opinions” during student presentations and on student digital portfolios?
• Are comments on digital portfolio entries deemed important for learning or simply an add-on?

2. Enable Multiple Feedback Sources:

• Inviting parents, principles, other classes to student presentations
• Asking parents, other teachers, and other students to comment on students’ blogs
• Sharing out student learning through social media
• Questions to Teachers:
• Have all the possible sources of feedback through classroom connections been leveraged?
• Does the classroom have a culture of safety and freedom to share?
• Are we experiencing such a community as educators ourselves?

3. Leverage Student Response:

• When a question is asked, an answer is expected.
• When a comment is made, the student is expected to acknowledge it.
• Questions to Teachers:
• Have students been given an opportunity to respond to the feedback received from the teacher and others?
• Has this response been leveraged for learning?
• Does the students’ understanding of their feedback get clarified?

4. Guide Self-Assessment:

• What competencies/content did I address?
• With whom did I connect to address these competencies/content?
• What did peer and reader/listener comments focus on?
• What did I learn about the content and competencies given?
• What further learning needs to take place?
• Questions to Teachers:
• Have students been given the time to self-assess?
• Are students’ self-assessments well informed with feedback from the community of learning?
• Is the student self-assessment recorded in a genuine way?

Characteristics of Connected Students:

1. Are more inclined to voice their opinions because they believe that their voices matter.
2. Practice online collaboration and communication skills for audiences beyond their teachers.
3. Understand how technology can connect them to experts and authors and have the confidence to reach out to them.
4. Utilize social media to create positive digital footprints.
5. Recognize the power of social media to make a difference, change the status quo.
6. Gain an understanding of other cultures and perspectives by building relationships and friendships with people from outside their own communities.
7. Know that there are many people who can help them solve a problem and many different ways to do so.
8. Are more engaged in school.

Ideas for Connecting your Students:

1. Connect with another class in your District.
2. Skype in the classroom is a great and simple way to begin to connect your students.
3. Google Hangouts and Google Communities.
4. Twitter hashtags and your Twitter community can help make those initial connections.
5. Padlet, Kahoot, Todays Meet, Google Docs, and Google Slides: Basically, any tool that allows your students to participate online can also become a shared platform for local or global collaboration.
6. Harness the power of blogs

Resources to Implement CBL:

1. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ964s7ITlk
2. Sean’s Blog: http://seanrtech.blogspot.ae/
3. Google: https://plus.google.com/communities/105990227223931221485
4. PowerPoint: http://seanrtech.blogspot.ae/p/connections-based-learning-101.html
5. Edmodo: https://spotlight.edmodo.com/product/based-learning-3-cbl-competencyconnections-based-learning--384705/