Background: Over the past decade, there has been a shift in science, technology, engineering and math education, especially in engineering, towards a competency-based pedagogy. Competency-based learning (CBL) is an outcome-based, student-centered form of instruction where students progress to more advanced work upon mastering the necessary…

Courses designed specifically to develop students' managerial skills began to emerge in the 1980s, in response to criticism of the theoretical and quantitative orientation of business school coursework. Since then, a number of management textbooks focusing on skills-based learning have been published, and many instructors have become…

A literature review examined how literacy programs can assess their effectiveness by looking at outcomes and using this information. Very few empirical studies showed the impacts of literacy programs or identified predictors of program success. One reason was the lack of common criteria for evaluating performance. One evaluation issue was whether…

Having established that mastery learning works, researchers are beginning to investigate components of the system and theorists are integrating it with other recent trends. (Author)

Developed by participants in a counselor educator conference, this manual is designed to provide performance-based life career counseling instructional materials for vocational counselor training. Two introductory chapters present a brief description of the genesis and evolution on the concept of life career counseling and a model for evaluating a…

This book provides a review of (primarily Australian) research on competency-based training (CBT). It includes information on the industrial and economic contexts that formed the backdrop for training reform in Australia. Information is presented to show how implementation of CBT has affected teaching, learning, and administration in vocational…

Although there appears to be considerable agreement concerning the criteria to be evaluated in field experience programs for preservice teachers, the relative importance attached to each item varies markedly from one program to another. (JD)

The following position papers on evaluation are presented: (1) "Curricular and Comprehensive Program Evaluation," by Ray Clifford; (2) Evaluation--Proficiency Goals, CBTE National Assessment: How Do They Interrelate?" by Randall L. Jones; and (3) "Priorities in Classroom Testing for the 1980s," by Alice C. Omaggio. The first paper describes an…

Foremost among efforts over the last decade to improve the work-related skills required of all young people to meet the demands of American's workplaces was the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills Commission (SCANS). Integral to SCANS were its three-part foundation (basic skills, thinking skills, and personal qualities) and these…