{"id":15465,"date":"2022-06-30T01:00:08","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T05:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/?post_type=cw_post&p=15465"},"modified":"2022-07-21T11:33:12","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T15:33:12","slug":"how-competencies-influence-teacher-practice","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/how-competencies-influence-teacher-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"How Competencies Influence Teacher Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the second post in a series by Tommy Wolfe about the findings from <\/span><\/i>his doctoral research<\/span><\/i><\/a>. Links to the other posts in the series are at the end of this article.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"High<\/p>\n

Competencies are a model for learning objectives that are intended to expand the definition of academic success and encourage students to authentically apply their knowledge. My research found that using competencies helped teachers sharpen their practice, teach skills (in addition to academic knowledge), align their teaching with enduring educational aims, and facilitate and differentiate learning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Competencies differ from standards in many important ways\u2014even from a typical standards-based 4-3-2-1 scale. Competencies are skill-based, transdisciplinary, and are gradated along a continuum. A simplified example of the competency <\/span>Analyze and Interpret Data<\/span><\/i> is shown in the figure below. When the terms \u201cskill,\u201d \u201cindicator,\u201d and \u201cperformance level\u201d are used in this blog post, they are referencing how those terms are used in the figure.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

To understand how teachers use competencies and how they influence their practice, I interviewed multiple teachers who were teaching at competency-based high schools. In this blog post I share many of the interesting findings that emerged from these conversations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Honing Practice<\/b><\/h3>\n

Every teacher I interviewed shared how competencies had sharpened their practice. A teacher who had previously taught 17 years before using competencies described her experience over the past five years of teaching with competencies:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been amazing. It\u2019s been transformative. I wish I would have been able to teach with competencies my whole career\u2026They make it really clear as to what skills matter, what skills to focus on, how to help students understand where they are excelling, and where they need to go. It hones your practice\u2026you\u2019re not going to get by with worksheets. It ups the ante for teaching.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The competencies were not just an assessment tool, they were a design tool as well. Teachers would use the indicators for competencies as their learning targets when planning a unit. A teacher shared her thinking when lesson planning: \u201cAm I actually accomplishing this skill? Let me see [the indicators]. You have to be really critical of all your lessons because it has to be aligned to a skill.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Learning to Teach Skills<\/b><\/h3>\n

Because competencies dictated how performance was assessed at the schools under study, naturally more attention was given to teaching the skills that comprised each competency. One teacher shared, \u201cIf I was in a more traditional model, it would be a lot more challenging for me [to address skills]…whereas it\u2019s literally built in our school for the students.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Teaching skills required a mindset shift for teachers. For instance, a science teacher shared:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[Early on] I would teach them the content and then just randomly give them the competencies\u2026Now this past year, we finally had a breakthrough where we are finally starting to teach the competencies, and we are using the content like a guide to teach the competencies.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Enduring Understandings and Aims<\/b><\/h3>\n

Teachers consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to the enduring understandings that they aimed for students to develop from their course. For instance, many teachers shared the deliberate aim of empowering their students with agency in authentic contexts. Teachers also consistently aimed for enduring understandings related to their particular discipline\u2014such as students in a science class learning to make ecologically aware decisions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These enduring understandings and aims drove curriculum design, and competencies followed from there. For instance, one teacher said,<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe competencies are great, but what do I really want to teach these kids? Once you figure that out, then you\u2019re like, \u2018Alright what are the best types of projects that would allow me to get that across?\u2019 Once you do that then, you\u2019re like \u2018Okay, let me look at the competencies. How can I fit the competencies into the project?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Competency-based education seeks to profoundly change how students learn, and although the structures that can support it such as competencies are important, it is also vital to be cognizant of the greater enduring understandings and aims we want students to get from an education. I admired how the teachers prioritized these aims and how they utilized the competencies to support them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Using the Competencies to Facilitate<\/b><\/h3>\n

Many teachers saw their role as that of a <\/span>facilitator<\/span><\/i> rather than a deliverer of knowledge. \u201cYou are there to empower kids, not to tell them what to do,\u201d one science teacher shared. A school leader shared:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[Using the competencies] forces you to focus most if not all your time on giving feedback to kids to revise their work. The teachers that have been with us the longest have completely changed their practice. To go really deep on less content and do lots of revision cycles.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Many teachers emphasized the importance of <\/span>students doing<\/span><\/i> rather than <\/span>teachers delivering<\/span><\/i>. \u201cI have 50-minute classes. Five minutes is actually me talking to the whole group. And the rest is small [groups],\u201d one teacher explained.<\/span><\/p>\n

To support their roles as facilitators, many teachers developed multiple resources for students to take greater ownership of their learning, which I called <\/span>scaffolds for agency<\/span><\/i>. For instance:<\/span><\/p>\n