Striking Educational Gold

(Learning to Learn and Competency Based Learning in the Humanities)

 

In Spring 2020 I went on Sabbatical. Actually, the whole world went on Sabbatical but mine was at least official. Amongst my goals was the building of a Learning to Learn Module that any NMC instructor could use. Another was shifting my entire teaching approach to a competency based model of learning. The two of these together resulted in educational pay dirt — the motherload if you will. Either one on its own might have been a success, but starting learners with the Learning to Learn material seemed to powerfully prepare them for competency based learning. 

 

Learning to Learn (L2L)

Abraham Lincoln once said “give me six hours to chop down a tree and I’ll spend the first four sharpening the ax.”  This is a great metaphor for learning to learn. Having run learners through a series of experiences which have them diving into Metacognition, Mindset, Brain Science and Design Thinking, the vast majority of them emerge surprised, pumped up, motivated and “sharpened.” They are ready to use that L2L ax. In our case, the “tree” is learning history through a competency based approach.

 

Competency Based Learning

Most (and I mean pretty darn-much “all”) of CBE has been focused on STEM courses. Perhaps the reason here is the overwhelming presence of objective material in STEM. It’s “right” or it’s “wrong.” Objective testing works well with this. When I went to the CBExchange conference in Fall of 2019 there was one person who had attempted CBE in the humanities–history actually. We connected, but, at the same time, we didn’t. His approach was incredibly labor-intensive and he didn’t seem thrilled with it. I feel like I’ve largely solved this by shifting the “labor-intensive” to where intensive labor is needed. It feels like “smart labor” to me. 

 

My Approach (in a bit less than a nutshell)

After completing Learning to Learn (remember, this causes the lights to go on for so many), learners are ready to test out their newly discovered potential. Learning to Learn lasts less than a week. The remainder of the semester is a deep dive into history and they are now chomping at the bit. Each course is built out in six learning modules. Module One is Learning to Learn. The five remaining modules take them through the assigned history for the course. Each one of those five modules has five objective quizzes. They must pass each quiz with 80% or higher to move from the quiz to access the course material for the next quiz. If they score below 80%, I assign written work based on the missed questions. These get batted back and forth between myself and the learner until I’m satisfied that they are “competent” with the material. At the end of every five quizzes is an objective test over the entire competency. Again, 80% is the threshold. Again, written work is assigned when the threshold is not met. A written reflection is assigned at the end of each module (six in all) to help me further assess their competency. Essentially, learners who are able to operate more independently, do so. This allows me to focus more effort on struggling students and/or students who have test anxiety, other needs, etcetera.

 

“That’s a LOT of objective quizzing/testing Tom”

 

I admit it. It’s amazing what can be done with good objective questions and, yes, they have to be “good” objective questions. Just one example is a question in which I give them a few particulars about  a person and they then have to decide whether that person was:

1. Most likely a recipient of public education
2. Most likely lives in a temporary dwelling
3. Most likely is a cash-crop farmer
4. Most likely illiterate
5. Most likely lives within a mile of the ocean or a navigable river
6. Most likely knows several who have died of insect-borne diseases
7. Most likely has strong religious sympathies
8. Most likely living in the Northern colonies
9. Most likely living in the Southern colonies
10. Most likely arrived before 1660
11. Most likely living on the frontier

 

Answering questions like this require competency with the material whether it’s through objective questioning or written response.  Finally, there is no permanent “failure” so long as the learner is willing to put in the work and resubmit.  There are other aspects to the course but this is the main skeletal framework. 

 

Where I’d Like To See This Go

I think it would be fantastic to have every student at NMC go through a Learning to Learn (L2L) experience before they even begin classes. I’m pretty certain that we’d see a similar bump in motivation and confidence translating into many different classes. Beyond that, what if we had additional levels of L2L where faculty could do a deeper dive into Learning to Learn for the first few days of their own courses?  What if each of those experiences was “badged”? From here the possibilities just keep coming and coming and…. 

 

Beyond that, Competency Based Education (CBE) is not just for STEM. I’ve found that it helps me to zero-in with laser-like efficiency to where learners are struggling and to address those areas effectively. It also keeps learners knowing where they are at all times in the course. Until they show competency in one area, the next area simply won’t open to them. There “are” right and wrong answers in non-STEM courses that can help us gauge competency. Written work can and does address the nuance of gray areas. Having the opportunity to write for competency makes CBE much more accessible to non-STEM learners. This sort of approach lends itself to “badging.” I badge each competency in each course. When a learner earns a badge, they can (and some have) returned in future semesters to finish up.  I could run courses like this which have a start date of “whenever” and an end date of “whenever.” Oh, the possibilities!

 

What Learners Are Saying

 

My Learning to Learn Competency