The nature of apprenticeships is changing. Increasing proportions of adult apprentices are prompting demand for various alternative pathways to completion. One option for an alternative pathway to accelerate completion is the use of recognition of prior learning (RPL) to identify existing skills and knowledge in combination with gap training. This…

This research highlights pre-service and in-service teachers' beliefs on competence- based learning: Teachers who want to facilitate the acquisition, development and strengthening of competencies in their students. From an assessment perspective, such a competence-based approach implies providing students with authentic learning situations related…

This paper shares one learning technique for honing undergraduate students' personal competencies. The senior accounting capstone course at a small Midwestern private liberal college includes a weekly seminar series, called the Friday Forum, where students and practitioners meet to discuss a current professional accounting article. Since Spring…

Often the work of school guidance counsellors goes on "behind the scenes" in the privacy and confidentiality of the counselling room. This article makes visible particular aspects of school counselling practice. It illustrates the potential for understanding school guidance counselling as a site of student learning, in particular of key…

This article presents a sub-set of findings from a research project describing the experience of four case study schools which have implemented a competence-based curriculum (CBC) for students in their first year of secondary education. Secondary schools are highly departmentalised environments with organisational structures based primarily around…

Outcome based or competency based education (OBE) is so firmly established in undergraduate medical education that it might not seem necessary to ask why it was included in recommendations for the future, like the Flexner centenary report. Uncritical acceptance may not, however, deliver its greatest benefits. Our aim was to explore the…

Business schools globally are responding to calls for graduate work-readiness primarily through the development of employability skills, encompassing career management skills, and work integrated-learning (WIL). There has been considerable attention to clarifying precisely which skills should be developed, and how, but far less on evaluating…

Relying on data both from recent TESOL Certificate trainees and from experienced teachers, this paper examines ways in which a focus on survival during TESOL Certificate courses indicates a performance-based philosophy of teacher education and, ultimately, a preference for native speakers, both of which are inconsistent with the changing global…

Competency-based training (CBT) for pilots was formally introduced in 1999 by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) for training leading to the issue of aeroplane private and commercial pilot licences. This initiative followed the Australian government's introduction of CBT policy for vocational and workplace training in the late 1980's.…

This article sets out to describe the PROFILES project, a European Commission FP7 science and society project, addresses problems and issues in science education by guiding teachers to embrace a range of teaching factors, such as a context-based approach, motivational constructivist learning; student centred inquiry teaching; enhancing cognitive…

The purpose of this article is to provide teachers and their supporting team (e.g., parents) with an understanding of the implications of blended and virtual learning for students with disabilities. To support these students, it is important to have an understanding of the manner in which a significant majority of blended and virtual learning is…

U.S. public university system policies were examined to learn how credit hours were determined for asynchronous online education. Findings indicated that (a) credit hour meaning and use are not consistent, (b) primary responsibility for credit hour decisions was at the local level, and (c) no policies exist to guide credit hour application for…

States across the nation are turning their aspirations for college and career readiness for all students into action. They are moving beyond policy and practice centered on a floor--aiming for students to attain minimal proficiency on basic academic standards--to a new focus on ensuring that all students develop the capacity to demonstrate mastery…

Personal competencies--cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, and social/emotional--are applied by students in learning (mastery of knowledge and skills). These competencies are both acquired through learning and applied in the learning process. Personalized learning--a promising approach to education made practical by advances in…

The fight for equal educational opportunity in New York has followed a pattern similar to other diverse or racially transforming states. From the 1950s to 1980s, the issue of school desegregation was an important issue. Local civil rights pressure, the courts, and legislation attempted to desegregate large urban school systems through both…