Competency Based Education in North Carolina's Vocational Agricuiculture Programs: Ten Years after Adoption

During the decade of the sixties competency based vocational education (CBVE) was introduced to many vocational education programs as a response to public dissatisfaction with schools and the public perception of teacher incompetence (Ross, 1982). Although the CBVE movement has gained popularity and emphasis since the late sixties, the underlying philosophical basis for the CBVE approach can be traced to the philosophy of experimentalism and to the work of John Dewey in the early 1900’s (Klingstedt, 1972). A competency based approach was seen by some educators as providing a means for meeting the public’s demand for accountability in accomplishing one of vocational education’s stated goals: providing well-trained, productive workers for industry (Rockler, 1979). Some authors have suggested that CBVE assures that students am learning skills needed to become successful, productive workers (Allen, 1981; McGowan, 1981). Vincent and Cobb (1977) found that students taught tractor mechanics using a competency based approach were progressing faster than students taught by traditional methods and the CBVE students learned more subject matter. Vincent and Cobb also concluded that CBVE programs were inexpensive to implement in schools’ present facilities. Positive effects of CBVE were-also found in studies conducted by the Washington, D.C. Public Schools (1980), by Raphaelson, Charters, and Wachtman (1976), and by Poorman and Flickenstein (1978).