Learning for the Workplace: Competency-based versus the
Experiential Perspective
Table of Content
31Introduction
2Competency-based, Assessment-driven Learning5
2.1Fordism of the Education System5
2.2Dialectic Conflicts between Standardisation and
Flexibility6
2.3Broad Competencies for Flexible Curriculum8
3Experiential Learning9
3.1Experience As a Key for Learning and Growth10
3.2Objective Questionnaire as an Aid to Drawing Out
Experience13
3.3Use of Learning Style and Its Effectiveness15
3.4Learning as the Major Process of Human Adaptation as well as
the Source of Knowledge Creation21
4Conclusion22
5References23
1 Introduction
The continual development of technologies of production can.
lead to radical changes in the workplace. This may require further
training for some, but lead to unemployment for others. In this
context, the promotion of learning clearly entails a struggle to
give value to certain forms of knowledge, behaviour and attitudes
over others. In Fields analysis (Field, 1993) of vocational
education for example, he argues the value given to this form of
learning has three aims: to socialise our consent to the
maintenance of status quo, to contribute to employee recruitment
through the development of qualifications, and to generate forms of
knowledge and behaviour appropriate from the employers perspective.
(Thorpe. M. et al., 1993: p.2)
The views expressed above have led to reforms in adult education
over the last decade (Field, 1993), which emphasised
competency-based framework of education to meet these utilitarian
perspectives. Competency-based education and training is receiving
a lot of attention as we focus on requirement for competency
standards to meet workplace requirements and prepare the workforce
for the competitive global economy. In England, Wales and Northern
Ireland, the framework for National Vocational Qualifications was
initiated in 1986. NVQs specify what the workforce would be capable
of doing in the particular occupational field.
In the area of maritime training in Singapore Polytechnic, where
I am a faculty member, there is considerable international pressure
to implement competency-based education. Proponents of
competency-based education claim that it provides clear
expectations for the learners as well as the employers. It provides
clear guidelines for assessment procedures and its scientific
approach with mainly behavioural objectives are still being rated
highly by the employers. This paper attempts to analyse this
competency or outcome-based approach in adult education with some
cautionary notes on its ways of implementation. However, as
competency-based approach has little to offer on how learning
happens and how best the learning programs may be effectively
developed the paper then argues that learning is best conceived as
a process and not in terms of outcomes (Kolb, 1993: p.143). New
learning paradigms should be built on the existing framework of
learners knowledge base. As Kolb puts it,
"The fact that learning is a continuous process grounded in
experience has important educational implications. Put simply, it
implies that all learning is relearning. How easy and tempting it
is in designing a course to think of the learners mind as being as
blank as the paper on which we scratch our outline. Yet this is not
the case. Everyone enters every learning situation with more or
less articulate ideas about the topic at hand. " (Kolb, 1993:
p.145).
Kolb is referring to the experiential status of individual
learners in a learning situation. We never start with a tabula
rasa. So, it seems worthwhile for a facilitator to enquire about
this status for each individual learner, which could then make the
appropriate connections easier for new adaptations of knowledge.
This awareness of the experiential status is perhaps equally
helpful for the learner, which could give the learner a clear
perspective on his/ her possible learning routes necessary for
making the learning more meaningful. Hence, this paper further
argues that in a learning situation, it will be prudent to assess
the learners existing beliefs in the subject domain based on his/
her experiential past before attempts are made to refine the
learners belief system to a higher level. The approach contrasts
from the traditional classroom based teaching where a topic is
addressed in a sequential manner from A to Z without much regard to
learners present belief system on the subject at hand. Finally, the
paper endorses the learning process, to be a holistic process of
adaptation to the world, whereby new knowledge is created through
transactions between objective accumulation of previous human
cultural experiences and the subjective life experiences of the
learner. (Kolb, 1993: p. 152)
2 Competency-based, Assessment-driven Learning
"Competency based assessment, in its present form, threatens to
become the new Fordism of the educational system. The proliferation
of competency specifications and the increasing precision with
which competencies are stated parallels the parcellization of the
work-force and labour process. As competencies are differentiated
more finely, so it becomes more and more possible to narrow the
scope of initiative and field of responsibility of each individual
in (his or ) her work; the coherence and the goals of the
organization accordingly becomes less rather than more
intelligible. " (Field, 1993: p.48).
This is the technology-focused approach to learning and Boud
(1989: p.41) refers to this as freedom from distraction. Learning
goals and competencies required are derived from analysing the
needs and expected behavioural change of learners. These programmes
are tested on learners and feedback from them is used to
continuously improve the content, delivery and also the assessment
format. The assessment practices for such programmes are based on
behaviourist psychology, as behavioural changes are easier to
measure and quantify.
2.1 Fordism of the Education System
The competency-based approach in education could be paralleled
to Fordism in mass production where work processes were repackaged
into smaller, repeatable and measurable steps to reduce the grips
of the skilled workers (Field, 1993: p.41). This is likely to
result in performance improvement when the nature of work is highly
repetitive without much demand for changes in processes involved.
The approach is perhaps suitable for specialised industries, where
narrow skills are sought after. Arguably, even in such industries,
the workforce would be restricted to the specialised plants or
processes and such training would encourage more employer control
and less flexibility for the workforce. As Field (1993: p.42) puts
it:
Training for the Fordist production worker, such as was needed,
took place on the line and was so empty of any wider content than
repetition that there was serious policy concern over the utter
absence of any wider awakening of the young mind to civic virtues,
to culture, to discoveries in technology and science which would
produce the new, white-hot future.
Additionally, the behaviourist process of well-defined
outcome-based approach is criticised for its lack of attention to
context (Prior 1989). Candy and Harris (1990) reported poor
retention of such decontextualised training for a particular
competency. However, it is also argued that competency-based
courses have clear-cut outcomes with well-defined assessments.
These assessment processes have a way of changing teacher and
student behaviour (Field, 1993) and thus, may be used as a tool for
effecting change in an educational system.
2.2 Dialectic Conflicts between Standardisation and
Flexibility
In its conventional forms, as Field (1993: p.48) points out, the
competency movement
seeks to impose uniformity of standards of performance and its
measurement, in order to strengthen employer control over labour,
and support strategies to add value through the more efficient
distribution of the work-force. Yet in order to work towards these
ends, it also has to allow for flexibility in the face of constant
technical and organisational change, as well as the movement of
labour and its skills between different employers.
Field is referring to the dialectic conflicts between
standardisation and flexibility in competency-based approach. The
need for flexibility in training is also far from consensual as the
employers attempt to manage the risks created by the
unpredictability of their investments in human resource development
(Field, 1993).
In a technical domain there is support for the competency-based
approach as pointed out by Mezirow:
There is nothing wrong with this rather mechanistic approach to
education as long as it is confined to task-oriented learning
common to the technical domain of learning It is here such familiar
concepts as education for behaviour change, behavioural objectives,
need assessment, competency-based education, task analysis, skill
training, accountability and criteria-referenced evaluation are
appropriate and powerful. (Mezirow, 1981)
On the other hand, from the viewpoint of liberal education
Jarvis attacked behaviourist approaches for at best confusing the
processes of learning with the outcomes and at worst ignoring the
processes altogether (Jervis, 1987).
The positive aspect of a competency-based model is that it makes
education and training more relevant to the workplace requirements
(Harris et al. 1995). In theory, competency-based education should
combine theory with practice and reduce the gap between the mind
and the hands. However, in practice, there is a danger that the
model may be conceptualised in behavioural terms, when the
competence is broken down into the performance of discrete tasks.
In such circumstances the model could be pedagogically unsound
(Chappell, 1996; Hyland, 1994). It is claimed that behavioural
models ignore connection between tasks and according to Hyland
(1994) these connections are important for performance where
synthesis of knowledge and skills are necessary.
2.3 Broad Competencies for Flexible Curriculum
To cater for progressive individual development without
emphasizing end-state of a competency-based framework a trainee
could be led through stages of development to reach his optimum
potential. The broad competencies of such a flexible curriculum,
applicable in maritime training sector, is suggested in Table 1
below, which encompasses three aspects, vocational, social and
individual to equip one with a capacity to assess ones educational
needs and to supplement the shortfall of requirements with new
knowledge and skills.
TABLE1: BROAD COMPETENCIES FOR A FLEXIBLE CURRICULUM
Core Competency
Competencies for Progression
Competencies for Life/ Awareness skills
To impart every trainee a basic levels of competence for his or
her immediate participation in activities on board the vessel.
To equip the trainee with a broad body of flexible knowledge
base, which could serve as pre-requisites for his progressive
development in various specialised areas of maritime technology,
which the industry needs.
To equip the trainee with other essential life-skills and
awareness skills such as skills in healthy living, providing first
aid, working in a team or leaving in harmony with the
environment.
I am involved in maritime education, where the workforce is
expected to change their employers or their places of work (as they
get transferred from ship to ship) on frequent basis. Hence, if
competency-based education is designed with highly specialised or
narrow competencies as the course content, it will produce a
workforce at worst needing retraining, perhaps every time they get
transferred to a different type of ship. More importantly, the
competencies, which are taught in decontextualised manner, will
have limited retention for the learners. Unless the learning
outcomes are made content-specific, grounded in learners prior
experience and delivered in a constructivist manner for each
learner, the resources expended for a competency-based programme is
less likely to be worthwhile.
Kolb (1993) de-emphasises outcome or content-based learning and
views learning as the process whereby knowledge is created through
the transformation of experience. In the following section I look
at adult learning beyond the outcome-based approach and view it
from an experiential perspective, which perhaps holds the key for
unlocking new knowledge.
3 Experiential Learning
"An experience is always what it is because of a transaction
taking place between an individual and what, at the time,
constitutes his environment, whether the latter consists of persons
with whom he is talking about some topic or event, the subject
talked about being also a part of the situation.The environment, in
other words, is whatever conditions interact with personal needs,
desires, purposes and capacities to create the experience which is
had. Even when a person builds a castle in the air he is
interacting with the objects which he constructs in fancy. "
(Dewey, 1963: p.42-3).
While cognitive learning theories emphasise acquisition,
manipulation and recall of abstract symbols and behavioural
learning theories deny any role for consciousness and subjective
experience in the learning process, experiential learning suggests
an integrated perspective of learning, which combines experience,
perception, cognition and behaviour (Kolb, 1993). Kolb also pointed
out the strong emphasis of this experiential perspective in the
work of Dewey, Piaget and Lewin. In the next section I attempt to
depict the commonalties of their models of learning, where the
dimension of experience played a key role.
3.1 Experience As a Key for Learning and Growth
Dewey described learning as dialectic processes integrating
experience and concepts as well as observation and action. He
claimed that the crucial educational problem is that of
postponement of immediate action until observation and judgement
have intervened (Dewey 1938: p.69). The following figure depicts
this formation of a purposeful action from an original impulse
modified through judgmental intervention, which constitutes the
learning process.
For Piaget, the dimensions of experience and concept, reflection
and action form the basic continua for the development of adult
thought. Development from infancy to adulthood moves from a
concrete phenomenal view of the world to an abstract
constructionist view, from an active egocentric view to reflective
internalised mode of knowing (Kolb,1993: p.141). Thus, there seems
to be continuous transaction between accommodation of new
experience and assimilation of the same into ones existing schema
leading to a higher level of cognitive functioning. Again as
pointed out by Kolb below, the type of intelligent adaptation
resulting from balanced tension between accommodation and
assimilation depends on the dominance of one or the other of these
two processes. Referring to Piaget, Kolb observed the
following:
When accommodation processes dominate assimilation, we have
imitation --- the moulding of oneself to environmental contours or
constraints. When assimilation predominates over accommodation, we
have play --- the imposition of ones concept and images without
regard to environmental realities. The process of cognitive growth
from concrete to abstract and from active to reflective is based on
this continual transaction between assimilation and accommodation,
occurring in successive stages, each of which incorporates what has
gone before into a new, higher level of cognitive functioning.
(Kolb, 1993: p.141)
Figure 2 illustrates Piagets view of the learning process as
seen from the experiential perspective.
Figure 3 is adapted from Lewins cycle of adult learning as
described by Kolb (1984). Here, the concrete experience is given
the focal point of the learning process, which provides a
subjective personal dimension leading to individual constructivist
growth for the learner. Much of the individual and organisational
ineffectiveness could be traced to the lack of observation and
reflection (Kolb, 1993), as this feedback process may not take
place as a spontaneous follow up action after each concrete
experience. Thus, perhaps there is a distinct requirement to
initiate such action by nudging the learners into a reflective
mode. I would like to argue that many times this could be achieved
through raising judicious queries to coax the learners to
re-examine the concrete experience from various perspectives,
which, in turn, may lead the learners to higher levels of knowledge
concepts and generalisations. So, it is stressed that concrete
experience alone may not be the key to the progressive growth of
the body of knowledge for the learners unless there is perhaps a
facilitated mechanism to initiate reflective observations about
this experience. In the next section I argue that this facilitated
mechanism could take the form of objective type questionnaires on
the experience to set the learners into a reflective mode.
3.2 Objective Questionnaire as an Aid to Drawing Out
Experience
In an adult learning situation, many times the learners have
rich diverse experience on the topics of the course curriculum.
This is applicable for the advanced maritime courses at the
Singapore Polytechnic, where I am actively involved. The learners
bring with them their existing belief system for the subject in
hand, some of that could be very relevant, while others would need
modification. So, when introducing new ideas for the subject in
hand, perhaps the key issue would be not to resort to a method of
substitution of the learners old belief systems. Instead, provide
scenarios, which will encourage learners to review their existing
belief structure and if found pertinent they will modify these to
suit their new level of understanding. As Kolb (1993: p.146)
advocated,
. ones job as an educator is not only to implant new ideas but
also to dispose of or modify old ones. In many cases, resistance to
new ideas stems from their conflict with old beliefs that are
inconsistent with them. If the education process begins by bringing
out the learners beliefs and theories, examining and testing them,
and then integrating the new, more refined ideas into the persons
belief systems, the learning process will be facilitatedOn the
other hand, when the content of a concept changes by means of
substitution, there is always the possibility of a reversion to the
earlier level of conceptualization and understanding, or to a dual
theory of the world where espoused theories learned through
substitution are incongruent with theories-in-use that are more
integrated with the persons total conceptual and attitudinal view
of the world.
Hence, as suggested by Kolb above, perhaps each education
process should begin by tapping into the learners experiential
past, relating the topic-in-hand to the learners theories-in-use.
One way of doing that would be to expose the learners through
leading questions e.g. by using a number of objective type
questions, which may prompt the learners to re-live their
experience on the topic-in-hand. This should encourage reflection
and if required, modification of the learners belief structure.
This process would simulate an environment where the learners can
claim ownership of the new level of knowledge and understanding on
the topic-in-hand rather than considering the same being thrust
onto them by the lecturer. Additionally, from the outcome of such a
transaction further learning steps could be planned in an adaptive
way, which will cater more precisely to the learners needs while
accrediting prior learning of the learners on the topic-in-hand.
Kolb endorses such a view (1993) when learning involves
transactions between the person and the environment and such an
approach, thus, helps to go beyond the notion that learning and
educational processes are strictly limited to the province of
institutions and classrooms. His frustrations are clear in the
following extract:
The casual observer of the traditional educational process would
undoubtedly conclude that learning was primarily a personal,
internal process requiring only limited environment of books,
teacher, and classroom. Indeed, the wider real-world environment at
times seems to be actively rejected by education systems at all
levels. (Kolb, 1993: p.150)
Hence, as argued above, in trying to facilitate constructivist
growth of the knowledge structure in a learner and to emphasize the
strength of experiential aspect in such processes, perhaps one
would do well to raise the relevant queries in the minds of the
learners; thereby catalysing reflection and higher levels of
generalisation.
A discussion on experiential learning cannot be deemed to be
complete unless we include the instruments learning style
inventories, which help us to determine the individual learning
styles of learners. This is addressed in the next section.
3.3 Use of Learning Style and Its Effectiveness
Recent educational research.shows that students are
characterised by significantly different learning styles: they
preferentially focus on different types of information, tend to
operate on perceived information in different ways, and achieve
understanding at different rates. Students whose learning styles
are compatible with the teaching style of a course instructor tend
to retain information longer, apply it more effectively, and have
more positive post-course attitudes towards the subject than do
their counterparts who experience learning/teaching style
mismatches.
(Felder, 1993: p.286)
The use of learning style in increasing the effectiveness of
learning and teaching is not universally recognised. However, as
aptly recognised by Rogers (1996), it seems that during our diverse
exposure in learning and as we progress through life, we do tend to
develop our own learning styles. The key points of the widely used
Kolbs Learning Style Model, adapted from explanations given by
Felder (1996) and Rogers (1996) are given below. They define the
four distinct types of learners identified by Kolb.
Some of us are found to be proficient as reflectors. They tend
to be imaginative people; they generate creative, divergent
perspective of knowledge. According to Felder (1996) they are Type
1 learners. They could be grouped as Why?-learners, who respond
well to explanations of how course material relates to their
experience, their interests, and their future careers. Felder also
claimed that to be effective with Type 1 students, the instructor
should function as a motivator.
Some become proficient as theorists. They tend to be analytical
people; they try to make coherent pictures out of complex material.
They speak in general rather than concrete terms (Rogers,1996).
According to Felder (1996) they are Type 2 learners. They could be
grouped as What?-learners, who respond to information presented in
an organised logical fashion and benefit if they have time for
reflection. Felder also claimed that to be effective with Type 2
students, the instructor should function as an expert.
Some become proficient as experimenters or pragmatists. They
generate convergent perspective of knowledge and they tend to be
successful in school education system, as most assessment
approaches focus on convergent skills. Convergent knowledge brings
to bear a number of facts or principles on a single topic: problems
have right or wrong answers (Hudson, 1966). According to Felder
(1996) they are Type 3 learners. They could be grouped as
How?-learners, who learn by trial-and-error in an environment that
allows them to fail safely. Felder also claimed that to be
effective with Type 3 students, the instructor should function as a
coach, providing guided practice and feedback.
Some become proficient as activists. They tend to be dynamic,
intuitive people; they pursue knowledge growth through discovery
learning. According to Felder (1996) they are Type 4 learners. They
could be grouped as What if?-learners, who like applying course
material in new situations to solve real problems. Felder also
claimed that to be effective with Type 4 students, the instructor
should stay out of the way, maximising opportunities for the
students to discover things for themselves.
Rogers (1996) stated that we tend to use all of these styles and
we do not confine our learning efforts to one type alone. But we
feel stronger at learning through one approach rather than through
any of the others. Hence, we should be aware that in any learning
group there would always be people with a range of different
learning styles. Consequently, Rogers (1996) concluded that the
instructors should adopt a wide range of teaching-learning
activities in order to help those who prefer to learn through
active engagement with experience, those who prefer to reflect
critically, those preferred to develop more generalised views, and
those who prefer to experiment and test out other peoples
theories.
Commenting on the learning cycle, Fardouly (1998) expressed
concern that the expectations of educators are somewhat biased, as
they are more inclined to validate the way theorists learn.
According to him, the aim of all education is to produce analytical
theorists even though about 70% of learners are not analytic
learners. On the use of learning styles, he noted the
following:
We learn better, as well as feel good about ourselves, when
someone is teaching us in our most comfortable style. The process
of learning which best encourages well-rounded skill development,
is one which moves through all the learning styles. .All students
need to be taught in all four ways, in order to be comfortable and
successful part of the time while being stretched to develop other
learning abilities. They will also learn from each other as they
each excel at different places in the learning cycle.
(Fardouly,1998: p.3)
Figure 4. gives a perspective view of the Kolbs learning style
concept, which is superimposed on the experiential learning
diagram. The figure shows the two major differences in our learning
activities, namely, how we perceive and how we process. While
perceiving, some of us prefer to receive information by sensing or
feeling while others are more at ease to think things through as we
take new information. Fardouly (1998) defined these two groups as
follows:
Sensing/ feeling people
connect experience to meaning (connected knowing)
perceive through their senses
immerse themselves in concrete reality
are intuitive.
Thinking people
separate themselves from the experience(separate knowing)
stand back and analyse what is happening
reason experience
perceive with a logical (cognitive) approach.
In processing information, some of would be active doers while
others would prefer to be reflective observers or watchers. Again
Fardouly (1998) defined these two groups as follows:
Watching people
reflect on new things
filter them through their experience to create meaningful
connections.
Doing people
act on new information immediately
reflect only after they have tried it out
need to do it in order to make it theirs and extend it into
their world.
These four combinations of perceiving and processing determine
the four different learning styles (Fardouly, 1998) and are
included in the Figure 4.
To determine a persons learning style, Kolb developed an
instrument called Learning Style Inventory by answering questions
contained in the Self-Scoring Inventory and Interpretation Booklet
(Kolb, 1985). The other widely used learning style inventory is by
Honey and Mumford and is called the Learning Style Questionnaire
(Honey et al., 1982). More recently Index of Learning Styles by
Solomon and Felder (Felder et al.
http://www.crc4mse.org/ILS/ILS_explained.html ) are being mentioned
in the literature, which has forty four questions to categorise
learners style of learning in the following categories:
Active and reflective learners
Sensing and intuitive learners
Visual and verbal learners
Sequential and global learners (Felder, 1996).
However, the validity of Learning Style Inventory is still to be
conclusively proven. (Allison et al., 1988). Even though it is
possible to identify the learning styles of individual learners,
Robotham questioned the appropriateness of learning style approach
in teaching, when individuals are exposed to only a limited number
of learning activities to which they are, in theory, best suited.
(Robotham, 1995). Therefore, he advocated that training should seek
to move beyond the enhancement of performance within a narrow
spectrum of activities, and consider the development of foundation
skills, such as self directed learning, when the learner would
choose the appropriate learning style to suit the learning
situation.
3.4 Learning as the Major Process of Human Adaptation as well as
the Source of Knowledge Creation
.concept of learning is considerably broader than that commonly
associated with school classroom. It occurs in all human settings,
from schools to the workplace, from research laboratory to the
management boardroom, in personal relationships and the aisles of
the local grocery. It encompasses all life-stages, from childhood
to adolescence, to middle and old age. (Kolb, 1993: p.149)
Thus, Kolb stated that experiential learning should be viewed
from a broader perspective, whose domain goes beyond an individual
human functioning, such as cognition or perception. Instead, it
should be seen as an integrated process of human adaptation, where
thinking, feeling, perceiving, behaving are all there ------
encompassing various concepts such as creativity, problem-solving,
decision-making etc. Learning connects all experiential life
situations such as school, work, leisure and other exposures ----
thus, making it a holistic adaptive process, continuing through
various stages of life. This continuous nature of exposure,
according to Dewey, has an active side, which changes the objective
conditions under which experiences are held. Kolb refers to this as
the transactional relationship between the learner and the
environment, which gives a dual meaning to the term experience ----
one subjective and personal and the other objective and
environmental and once they are related, both are essentially
changed. Learning is thus seen as a transactional process between
objective environmental knowledge and subjective personal
knowledge, resulting in new knowledge creation. Dewey noted these
as civilised objective accumulation of previous human cultural
experience and the individual persons subjective life experiences.
Hence, as Kolb puts it.to understand knowledge, we must understand
psychology of the learning process, and to understand learning, we
must understand epistemology ---- the origin, nature, methods and
limits of knowledge. (Kolb, 1993: p.153).
4 Conclusion
This paper attempted to analyse the present trends in
outcome-based adult education and its pitfalls when such practices
are focused on a narrow range of competencies as the course
content. It was pointed out that in lieu of emphasising on content
or outcome, the stress should be on the process of adaptation and
learning. Learning was also seen as a process of knowledge creation
through transformation of experience in both subjective and
objective forms.
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Learning for the Workplace:
Competency-based versus the Experiential Perspective
Fig3. Lewins view of learning process from the experiential
perspective
Assimilation into existing concepts
Assimilation into existing concepts
Assimilation into existing concepts
Fig 2. Piagets view of learning process from the experiential
perspective
Higher level of cognitive functioning
Existing level of cognitive functioning
Active experimentation leading to the next concrete
experience.
Existing level of knowledge concepts and generalisations.
Abstract conceptualisation leading to higher level of knowledge
concepts and generalisations.
Reflective feedback on the concrete experience on a personal
basis.
Accommodation of concepts or schemas as new experience
Accommodation of concepts or schemas as new experience
Accommodation of concepts or schemas as new experience
Fig1. Deweys view of learning process from the experiential
perspective
Formation of purposeful action a rather complex intellectual
operation
Impulse of experience gives ideas their moving force
Judgement on observation and knowledge-recall to decide what is
significant
Observation of surrounding conditions
Knowledge of what has happened in similar conditions in the
past
Here-and-now concrete experience, used to validate and test
existing knowledge concepts & generalisations.
Activist
Reflector
Experimenter
Theorist
Concrete Experience
Reflective
Observation
Abstract
Conceptualisation
Active
Experimentation
Fig 4. Kolbs Learning Style model superimposed on the
experiential learning cycle.
Sensing/ Feeling
Watching
Doing
Thinking
ABSTRACT
Competency-based education is receiving a lot of attention as we
focus on the requirement for competency standards to meet the
workplace requirements. In the Singapore Maritime Academy of the
Singapore Polytechnic, there is considerable international pressure
to implement a competency-based programme (STCW 78 & its
Amendments in 95) to prepare the shipboard workforce for the
competitive global economy. The paper attempts to analyse this
competency or outcome-based approach in adult education with some
cautionary notes on its ways of implementation, particularly, when
such practices are focused on a narrow range of competencies as the
course content. Additionally, it is pointed out that competency-
based approach has little to offer on how learning happens and so,
the paper argues that learning is best conceived as a process and
not in terms of outcomes and to make this process effective an
experiential approach is suggested. Learning is also seen as a
process of knowledge creation through transformation of experience
in both subjective and objective forms. Hence, the stress of our
educational practices should be on the process of adaptation and
learning and not solely on content or outcome.
Kalyan Chatterjea, Singapore Maritime Academy
[Published in Journal of Teaching Practice, 1999/2000, Singapore
Polytechnic]
PAGE
1
Kalyan Chatterjea, Lecturer, Singapore Maritime Academy,
Singapore Polytechnic.
Extract from Journal of Teaching Practice, Singapore Polytechnic
1999/2000