Originating in the 1970s, Competency-Based Education (CBE) deviated from traditional time-based benchmarks, emphasizing mastery of specific skills and competencies. Its initial adoption is mainly attributed to a response to a more traditional educational system that was heavily reliant on time-based (credit hour) benchmarks of success to indicate…

Purpose: This paper aims to explain the development of an online training curriculum to enable students to acquire the transversal competences needed to work on smart cities projects. In this curriculum, a modern approach to the teaching-learning process was applied, suitable for the interdisciplinary and multinational learning challenges that…

A theoretical model called 'Curriculum Design Coherence' (CDC) is described and justified. The model's purpose is to assist teachers in the compulsory and higher education sectors to design courses that can accommodate the complex and interdependent relationship between concepts and content and between knowledge and skills. Its intended usefulness…

Competency-based education (CBE) is the hot new thing in higher education. While forms of CBE have been around since the 1970s, there has been a surge of interest in CBE, with more than 600 postsecondary institutions now reporting that they are either offering competency-based degree programs or are planning to do so. Similarly, institutional…

Although competency-based education (CBE) has existed since the early 1970s adult-focused degree programs, interest in CBE has spiked in recent years due to the increased attention on higher education affordability and accountability. This article reviews the extant literature on CBE to address the following questions: (a) What are the definitions…

Competency-based education (CBE) is an emerging model for higher education designed to reduce certain barriers to educational attainment. This essay describes CBE and the challenges and opportunities for academic librarians desiring to serve students and faculty in Library and Information Management Master of Library Science (MLS) programs. Every…

A striking convergence of research, documentation, commentary, and policy in the past five years strongly suggests that an almost exclusive focus on academic knowledge and skills is an incomplete solution. Additional behaviors, skills, and mindsets--sometimes called metacognitive skills or 21st-century skills--are just as necessary for academic…

In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in competency-based degree programs at the postsecondary level. These programs are promising for the future of higher education because they establish clear expectations for what graduates must know and be able to do, and many models have been designed to allow students to learn and earn a degree…

This article discusses the importance of emotional and social competences in higher education and presents a training model. In 1991, Ramon Llull University of Barcelona (Spain) created the Seminar methodology to tackle these challenges. A general model derived from the Emotional Intelligence concept and the general principles of this methodology…

Ethical learning is an educational proposal that aims to prepare students for their future working life by helping them to acquire skills that allow them to carry out their professions with autonomy and responsibility. In this paper, we reflect on the main characteristics of this educational proposal, on its connections with the European Higher…

The Teachers College competency-based program for training educational administrators seeks to create an informed educational leadership that can improve educational situations. This leadership is trained in the use of theories and techniques about the practice of administration in institutional and policy settings. Each student creates a program…

Counselor-education programs may be enriched through the use of modularized learning experiences. This article notes several recent articles on competency-based counselor education, the concepts of simulation and modularization, and describes the process of developing a modularized master's program at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut.…

The International Teacher Education Program, described in this article, is designed to create teacher competencies in world awareness and cultural diversity while taking advantage of a campus atune to international studies. A world affairs quiz used in the program is included. (JH)

Engineering curricula are increasingly focused on developing student competencies. Many new competencies needed by engineers today are professional skills (sometimes called the "soft skills"). Among the new competencies for engineering graduates is global competence, the ability to work knowledgeably and live comfortably in a…