Does Competency Based Education means the end of the empire of textbooks??!

I worked in 4 universities in the Middle East(Gulf region). In three of the four universities, I lived the experience of renewing our existing program or getting approved new ones. A common traditional feature that I always noticed, especially in EFL or translation courses/programs...even in education courses themselves, is the swift rush to recommend textbooks as if the entire knowledge frames exist in this one or two textbooks. I have never heard any of the institutions use the name competency or competence. Perhaps the competency model does not align well with traditional public-funded universities. They follow a curriculum paradigm that has been going on since over 150 years and inherited form primary and secondary education systems. Usually leading unemployment of the graduates and  to stagnation.

Competency Models need hard work, pedagogical engineering skills and ongoing updates. It is a model that prepares students for real, authentic, lifelong abilities . It is more dynamic and more rewarding for 21st type of generation. It stresses the link between society, economy and the educational institution. It requires teachers, instructors or faculty to design and prepare learning and performance environments customised to specific students needs, market demands and national priorities. It is a different world. More challenging. Without a real pedagogical know-how, teachers/ instructor /faculty will find it difficult to engage in a competency model.

In the case of EFL, authentic and customised life/ context/work oriented learning and performance environment enhanced with experiential and project based pedagogies seem to  be the way ahead.

Research is needed to revamp our curriculum practices and create significant learning & performance activities for our students. Linking and communicating with the world of practice through research and developments is a key requirement in this endeavour.

Teacher's knowledge framework???

 

Teacher knowledge and competencies are worth discussing, exploring and investigating. Nothing is taken for granted by just having a PhD or MA in a discipline. After COVID experience, a new type of knowledge and skills were added to the inventory of what instructors or future teachers at various levels of educational degrees need to appreciate and get trained in.

In any discipline , this is a requirement and professional development is then  needed for certain. Yes, research is very important when it comes to higher education, but also pedagogical and instructional abilities are necessary, especially in professionally oriented types of disciplines/ Vocational training. Neither lecturing nor mere repetitive and experiential learning alone would fill up the noticed gap. We  also need a cluster of other components comprised of knowledge skills and abilities as well.

Schuller(1986-1992) referred to the importance of the pedagogy and content knowledge. This is key variable to align with in designing and developing courses for sure. With the significant development in technologies in instruction, another paradigm emerged adding both the 'technology' and ' pedagogy ' components to Schulman's framework. That was was Sharma (2009-2012) referred to as TPCK knowledge ( Technological, Pedagogical, Content Knowledge) framework that teachers/ instructors/ faculty need to align with and impalements in either K12 or Higher Ed . This is a more comprehensive and efficient approach. Integrated , yet, comprehensive and sustainable.

See details about this theme in general education or in application to certain domains ( translation/interpreting/multilingual studies/EFL) in my next podcasts ( coming up).

The notion of competence in education/training: not abstract as it seems. Let us innovate/look forward instead.

Accreditation bodies always accredit a program according to some very specific guidelines and criteria. The field-specific reviewers scan and examine the program at the content level and  end up deleting, adding or recommending courses. The old fashioned curriculum evaluation was basically based on course content change and modification as if curriculum is all about playing chess with courses and recommending textbooks. May it is about be scanning objectives/outcomes for the most.

 Not so. There are other major factors, not only administrative but in relation with the ' alignment philosophy' as well as relevance of either contents or intended outcomes or any other type competencies ( intended skills, knowledge and abilities to develop in students ) to build. Yet, designing programs and learning outcomes based on the competence model is still a challenge to overcome in many higher education contexts. It is a question of funds/policy and change of mindset.

The challenge becomes more and more thorny in fields of human and socials sciences, since the competence model of program design & evaluation is most implemented in scientific programs whereby hands on skills and abilities can be clearly documented from the profession and then re-designed and modelled afterwards in  a curriculum that aims to develop primarily competencies and then get informed of relevant  content that could feed into developing these competencies( lets say in the field of agriculture, medicine, engineering). There is an entire mindset to work on , which is different from the usual curriculum building /designing/evaluation methods we are used to in Higher Education.

In relation n to translator education?

In this case, my first and foremost suggestion is not to stress only on the traditional trend : focus on the product/ Text side only. Let us also bring in translator competences. After all, who is the agent, producer and deliverer of the outcomes ( translated text/video/audio) ? certainly the human factor/being ( The translator, the subtitle, the interpreter). In fact translation competence is now becoming an outdated topic in applied translation studies. Let us move on ! PACTE group had been talking about this for many years and done a longitudinal research inquiry since two decades ago. Kiraly, Gopfeidig and Chesterman have added new competencies that were not included in the predominately cognitive model of PACTE. Also, we should be discussing translator competence, instructor or faculty competence in translation, competence in translation curricula...etc.

Internship? practicum? field work? ...in the context of social and human sciences.

Some programs in the social and humans sciences do have practicum or field training as part of their education pathway before getting a BA or and MA or , in some cases, a Diploma. This opportunity provides a chance for the learner/trainer/ novice teacher to gain work related types of competencies, although the time is usually not enough due to various reasons: institutional, planning, strategic..etc.

When I carried out my doctoral research inquiry/work on two university based educational programs in the state of Qatar, I addressed and explored the internship and field work dimension. At that time, the team was in the process of developing a guide and protocol document to ensure that the internship process ( that was for future translators/interpreters) did have an adequate training prior to their graduation.

Yet, the support provided to these students needed further work. It is not easy when the multilingual professional is under heavy pressure to deliver on-time projects and at the same time monitor students who have never been engaged in hectic professional environments. The competencies needed in that real life context ( usually psychological, non-linguistic, attitudinal, aptitudinal..etc type of abilities) combined with ( like in the vase of teacher education) managing and addressing the class for the first time as well as making sure that the pedagogical dimension is well taken care of.

In Canada, pre-service teachers or future multilingual providers or any other learner in a professionally type of program, do engage in dual education. Students take this type of internship whereby they alternate between work ( training) and studies. Students engage as both future professionals and ongoing student learners. This way, their learning becomes authentic and contextual : experiential. Hence, this type of work will certainly lead to pertinent outcomes. 

Based on the competency ( rather content based) based type of curriculum developments, the planning of training and teaching should prioritize the list of competencies ( knowledge, skills, and behaviour) that are prioritized in the learning/performance curve of the students. In this regard, new contents , innovative one, should be stressed since traditional content would , usually in the social and human  sciences, not fit in well with the competency model. When we say content we also need to add pedagogy and provision of thriving, relevant nd significant learning environment. It is not about a TEXTBOOK . It about a learning environment that should empower the learner. Textbooks are part of this complex  yet coherent and connected environment.

Experiential learning for liberal arts programs!!

A couple of years ago I worked in a university in the Middle East and at that time the department ( olf English) was going through accreditation process. From what I heard the university or accreditors demanded from the literature or linguistics units to demonstrate how experiential learning could be applied in their courses. Faculty in the liberal arts had a real challenge to face by then. Usually experiential learning is taking place in scientific disciplines or professionally oriented programs ( engineering, medicine). Yet, having that new 'intruding' paradigm into an unusual terrain ( liberal arts) was not an easy thing. Courses which cannot intergrade the experiential learning dimension are prone for extinction, may be closure of the unit ( literature, poetry, drama).

I had a broad idea on how experiential learning could be applied in educational and  training contexts such as translation, interpreting, business studies, engineering including medicine. This is due to the fact that in addition to my experience with applied languages, I worked with peers during my doctoral studies in the research lab who were working on the aforementioned disciplines. At the end of the day, in education development studies we get the tools/techniques and then we collaborate with subject specific experts to get the job done and fulfilled. In a classroom or lecture theater, the context is typically confined to a fixed space and limited time. Beyond the classroom, learning can be acquired through  other sources like visiting a heritage site or museum, or being immersed in a good book....or being in the workplace itself.

My other colleagues teaching drama, poetry and literature were bewildered as to how to integrate the experiential learning in their courses. Since what the university wants is the economic/social relevance of the courses or the program. 

I made some inquiroes at the international level. I found a professor in one of the universities in Canada who published three articles about this innovative model of teaching drama nd poetry and her insights and model was really working. I suggested this to my colleague teaching literature who found it tough and hard to integrate, because even the pedagogical paradigm that the new model belong to, which is different from that he had been working on ( using lectures, exams, long talks, and student memorisation).

In my opinion what the university should have done first is organise training and development of sessions for faculty first ....and in these sessions focus will be on case studies or problem solving activities. Faculty / instructors are experts in their domain/content, when you provide them a case study they can reflect and adopt it if they seek innovating in their courses...those who are resistant will not go far. Here where not only content that matters but also pedagogy ( see Shulman model ' PCK' ( The Pedagogy and Content Knowledge) whereby not only the content expertise that matters ( having a PhD in X, Y, Z) or being an expert in using that tool or that software, but also the way to facilitate.

True that when developing such type of approaches in learning and teaching the professional practices should be placed in the first place: seek what skills, knowledge and abilities needed to get to a certain level of competency and performance. It is no more about content, but competency. This is a different paradigm as it need a change in the mindset of course and program developers and designers 

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They have been saying that the online model in education does not hold...!!

This year I had the chance to develop, create digital content and teach two of the most thriving courses in translation technologies and one course in advanced interpreting fully online. This is for an MA course in one of the best e-universities based in the gulf region ( In partnership with Colorado State University).

I lived the experience from scratch. It started from the program pre-approval stage until where we are now. We are now running our second semester and we have two other semesters left to deliver the first cohort . The contents of this program were very innovative and some of them new in the region. The program as it seems has been so far successful and many other students are in the pipeline to register for next year. Sounds promising.

In the Arab region, especially in the gulf area, translation departments/ units are not used to host and teach courses like localization, online interpreting, fully fledged  e-courses on translation technologies, revision, project management...etc. So, these are top notch innovations in graduate translation contents/ curriculum. Yet, for such types of courses, students need to log into blackboard Collaborate( the chosen LMS platform) and take the courses on a weekly basis. They have a live lecture to attend, interactive by default, and then various types of assessments were provided to assess students understanding.

Diversification of means of assessment is a key elements that makes the difference here. And that is why credit should be given to the synchronous online teaching and learning model. Believe me there is learning/teaching and transformation taking place. Triangulating assessments tools, student/content, student /instructor , students/student and instructor/content interacting online and delivering assessment on time ( strict deadlines) is a clear sign of educational practices that can create impact. 

So, why shouldn't we consider these learning/teaching experiences viable? based on what? may be its ideological, selfish and narrow minded interpretation and perception of what e-learning means.....with COVID in the pipeline, I think it cannot be denied that the e-exercise/test if designed  properly it should certainly be counted and considered. Further, institutional support need to be offered for instructors to develop abilities and pedagogies specific for the online environments.

last question: what we assessing? content or understanding? I think it is time to assess the product ( content) and focus on assessing the level of understanding ( deep or surface) ( Bart, 1995)

Teacher reflection in action ( while interacting with learners and the entire environment)

https://youtu.be/g7qZhl5QTSA