http://www.bottomlineperformance.com/lolblog/?p=1239 Lessons on Learning: a blog about how we learn and the technologies that support learning Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:21:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://www.bottomlineperformance.com/lolblog/?p=1239#comment-1226 SB MD Sat, 30 Jan 2010 02:52:52 +0000 http://www.bottomlineperformance.com/lolblog/?p=1239#comment-1226 I definitely think that too many competencies actually hurt, rather than help, intended learners. This is particularly the case in professional environments where it is very difficult to break complex tasks, behaviors and thought processes into reproducibly measurable chunks. For example, in medical school, rather than truly learning how to evaluate a patient, our students have to be "checked off" on hundreds of smaller competencies and they lose sight of the big picture. It also gives them a very fragmented education and people become cynical about evaluating the competencies in any rigorous fashion as most of them seem inane. As to student outcomes, my view is that today's students are actually much less competent when they graduate than students of 10 to 20 years ago. I think competencies are one of those things that may sound good in principle but don't pan out in reality, at least as currently implemented. I definitely think that too many competencies actually hurt, rather than help, intended learners. This is particularly the case in professional environments where it is very difficult to break complex tasks, behaviors and thought processes into reproducibly measurable chunks. For example, in medical school, rather than truly learning how to evaluate a patient, our students have to be “checked off” on hundreds of smaller competencies and they lose sight of the big picture. It also gives them a very fragmented education and people become cynical about evaluating the competencies in any rigorous fashion as most of them seem inane. As to student outcomes, my view is that today’s students are actually much less competent when they graduate than students of 10 to 20 years ago. I think competencies are one of those things that may sound good in principle but don’t pan out in reality, at least as currently implemented.

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