Competence-based curriculum development in higher education: some African experiences

This paper’s focus is on the characteristics of successful competence-based curriculum development. First, a brief outline is given of the conceptual basis of CBE and the development of competence-based curricula. Attention is paid to the role of generic competencies in academic competence-based curricula, especially to what constitute ‘academic competencies’. In developing countries many higher education institutions wish support in designing and developing competence-based curricula in a variety of disciplines. Since a competencebased curriculum is dependent on the context of the institution offering the curriculum, the routes that are followed in curriculum development can divert to a great extent. This is illustrated in ‘stories’ of the design and development of competence-based curricula in Masters programmes in three African countries (Mozambique, Ghana and Ethiopia). Introduction The concept of competence-based or competency-based education (CBE) and training is interpreted in many ways in education systems all over the world, resulting at one end of a continuum into a tick list of skills and at the other into a set of generic abilities that transcends disciplinary knowledge and skills. Although CBE has secured its place in technical and vocational education, especially at secondary level, only in recent years has the competence-based approach been found as well in higher education. However, this is not without controversy. CBE signifies a different paradigm compared to ‘classical education’. One of the fears, expressed by adversaries of CBE in higher education curricula and addressed in this paper, is that CBE is too prescriptive, too much skills-oriented and therefore detrimental to the academic character of higher education. In developing countries many higher education institutions experience a growing gap between their curricula and the demands from society, business and industry for a more flexible workforce with high skills (competencies) in problem solving, team work and project management. Competencies are constructs and are inferred from or expressed in behaviour in a certain context. A competence-based curriculum is therefore dependent on the context of the institution offering the curriculum. The design and development of competence-based curricula in Masters programmes in three African countries (Mozambique, Ghana and Ethiopia) is an illustration of this context dependency. It will be argued that the systematic premier route of competence-based curriculum development (sometimes called the ‘royal road’), going from professional profile to graduate profile to curriculum profile means a long, but rewarding path. When this is done along a communicative design approach involving all stakeholders, aspiring curriculum designers will definitely acquire and develop competence in curriculum development. On competence and competencies CBE aims to make students more competent through the acquisition of competencies and the further development of the newly acquired or already held competencies. But what is competence or competency? Based on various competence definitions and dimensions of the competence concept, that can be found in the literature, , Kouwenhoven (2003) presents a comprehensive definition of competency that can be further clarified in a model, that describes what ‘goes on in the head’ (i.e. processing at cognitive level) when a task is realised. From this model, competency is deduced as ‘the ability to process various inputs in an intentional way’. Or, in a more succinct way: • Competency is the capability to choose and use (apply) an integrated combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes with the intention to realise a task in a certain context, while personal characteristics such as motivation, self-confidence, and willpower are part of that context. • Competence is the capacity to accomplish ‘up to standard’ the key occupational tasks (see below) that characterise a profession. A competent professional shows a satisfactory (or superior) performance. Key occupational tasks are the tasks that are characteristic for a profession. A profession could be described by 20 30 key occupational tasks (Hager & Gonczi, 1996). The broad, general, concept of competence can be understood through the concept of ‘core competency’. Core competency is defined as: the set of appropriate competencies needed to accomplish a key occupational task at a satisfactory or superior level. Stated in another way: core competencies are directly linked to key occupational tasks and are integrated clusters of domainspecific and generic competencies. Competencies can be domain-specific, relating to clusters of knowledge, skills and attitudes within one specific content domain related to the profession. Chapter 7 126