Formal education is a process for students to acquire knowledge and skills. But education isn’t a monolith and it doesn’t stand still. Approaches to education change over time in response to the needs of students and the goals and resources of the societies that they live in.

These days proficiency-based Learning, also known as competency-based learning, has been gaining steam in the US, yet not everyone is familiar with it. In this post I’d like to discuss a couple of important elements that help to define proficiency-based learning.

Transparency

Previous generations of grading policies may have seemed opaque and mysterious to K-12 students, appearing sometimes not to obey rhyme or reason, but proficiency-based learning aims to do away with that. Proficiency-based learning is rooted in transparency.

Districts and schools in a proficiency-based learning model employ clearly-defined standards of proficiency. These are then communicated through rubrics and other tools that clearly allow students to know what is expected of them. In this model, students are quickly able to calibrate how well they are doing, as well as what they need to do to improve and advance (irrespective of seat time).

Proficiency-based learning promotes the regular use of formative assessments as a practice and feedback tool for students and educators and to determine where they should be going from there. This includes extending to students relevant opportunities for support. However, proficiency-based learning may include the judicious use of summative assessments as part of a well-balanced plan.

The transparency inherent in proficiency-based learning provides students with the tools they need to earn the grades they want, removes the most common opportunities for teacher bias and allows for more equitable learning and grading throughout students’ educational journeys.

Personalized Learning

One size doesn’t fit all in a K-12 classroom. Proficiency-based learning aims to unlock individual student potential through the opportunities that personalized learning offers.

In a proficiency-based learning model, students are encouraged to be active learners who engage in and take greater ownership of their learning. Students are presented with choices over how they learn and what they learn, and can customize their learning paths. In addition, students are allowed to express their ideas and actively contribute to the environment around them.

Personalized learning respects students as individuals, takes into account their preferences and interests, and gives each one the key to unlocking their own learning potential.

Of course, that’s not all proficiency-based learning is about, but transparency and personalized learning are certainly two of its most important elements.

Never Stop Learning

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