New podcast: Competence-based education

Our latest QAA podcast explores strategies for competence-based education and assessment.

Our regular host, Dr Kerr Castle, introduces a discussion of how the core concepts of competence-based education compare with those of more traditional educational models and how the purposes of assessment might be reimagined through competence-based education.

He is joined by Mike Ewen, the Head of the Teaching Excellence Academy at the University of Hull, along with Dr Dom Henri, Senior Lecturer in Zoology, and Dr Andrew Holmes, Senior Lecturer in Education, both also at Hull. They are members of a team that has led a QAA-funded Collaborative Enhancement Project focused on Generating a competence-based education framework.

‘It's a focus not just on the knowledge and the subject we deliver but how we can build the student - the human traits of the student,’ says Mike.

‘It's about how we can bring in careers and other areas of development in the curriculum to give them the confidence to go into whatever workplace they go into, whatever that looks like in the years to come. The core underpinning of what we've tried to do with our competence-based education is to give that clarity to students, to give them the understanding of - having completed their degree - what they're able to do. It's a shift from the knowledge they have to what they're now able to do.’

‘One of the key things is thinking about what the disciplines bring beyond the knowledge,’ adds Dom.

‘As a Biologist, one of the things we're really keen for students to go away with is a scientific way of thinking, the way that we go about solving problems, the way that we go about thinking critically.’

The panel go on to share examples of the impact of these strategies on student outcomes and overall educational quality.

‘Prior to implementing competencies, we might teach students about ethics,’ Andrew explains, taking his own area of Education Studies as an example.

‘We might give them the knowledge about Utilitarianism and Kantianism, and they'd know what the basics of ethics are. But within a competency-based framework, we'd want them to apply those and use them. We'd have the assessments changed so they're not just demonstrating their knowledge of what Utilitarianism is and being able to talk a bit about Jeremy Bentham, but they can actually apply it to a practical case-study and also link it to their own future professional practice. They're making that clearer link between the knowledge that they have and how to do something with it in the real world.’

How to tune in

QAA Membership podcasts can be found on Buzzsprout and other popular streaming platforms, including Apple Podcasts,  Spotify and Google Podcasts. On these platforms, you can explore our full catalogue of podcasts, covering topics including student transitions, experiences of pass/fail assessment, employability and neuroinclusivity.

Find out more

More information and resources from this Collaborative Enhancement Project can be found on the project web page.

The same team have now moved on to develop a new Collaborative Enhancement Project on A Competence-Based Assessment Framework.

Details of all Collaborative Enhancement Projects are available on our website.