Competence and Program-based Approach in Training

Tools for Developing Responsible Activities

Catherine Loisy, Jean-Claude Coulet, Catherine Loisy, Jean-Claude Coulet

• Publisher: Wiley-ISTE
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781786303042
• eBook ISBN: 9781119557067
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

The controversies that have developed in recent years in the field of education and training around program and competency-based approaches are not without reminiscent of those which are at the origin of a reflection on the question of methods to monitor, control, organize and shape innovation in science and technology "and led to the emergence of the notion of responsibility for innovation and research "(Pellé & Reber, 2015). This book is clearly part of this type of approach. Starting from a current state of play on the issues and controversies raised by curricular and competency-based approaches (Chapters 1 and 2), this book aims at presenting new theoretical frameworks, allowing to account for the processes implied by the implementation of these pedagogical innovations and, in particular, those which, at the very heart of the skills mobilized, promote a "responsibility" dimension. Based on a developmental approach to individual and collective competencies and their evaluation (Chapters 3, 4 and 5), it attempts to show how this approach can mobilize educational practices on strong societal issues, such as "sustainable development "(Chapter 5). Lastly, it aims to provide theoretical and practical benchmarks to help engage educational teams and institutions in these innovative and responsible approaches by providing a coherent framework for doing so (Chapters 6, 7 and 8).

1
Program-based Approach, Curriculum and Competency-based Approach: Sense and Nonsense in the Light of Neoliberalism

1.1. Introduction

Since the 1990s, the program-based approach (PBA) concept, not coincidentally, as we shall see, because it is the starting point for deep-reaching reforms in education systems around the world, has gradually made its way into both Anglophone and Francophone educational discourse, especially in higher education, as evidenced by the many publications in these two languages¹. This concept replaces both those of course of study and curriculum. Though we cannot oppose virtue, it is however important to distinguish between what really falls within “virtue” and what veils intentions that are not involved in it! The purpose of this chapter will therefore be an attempt to highlight the main contributions, but also the limits as well as potential or actual diversions conveyed by the PBA concept. This will require us to show the links with the concept of curriculum and, among others, the competency-based approach (CBA).

In line with a critical sociological approach, we will attempt to answer three questions, without providing comprehensive analysis to such questions, which are too complex to be fully addressed on a few pages. Firstly, what is meant by PBA? What is the origin of this concept? What are the characteristics in its original conception and, subsequently to its transfer to education? Secondly, how does it differ from the concept of course of study and is it synonymous with the concept of curriculum, which requires the essential attributes of these two concepts to be underscored and to recall that they proceed from two distinct socio-educational logics. This clarification of the concept of curriculum, distinguishing it from the concept of course of study, will highlight its close relationship with the PBA concept. Thirdly, we will first bring to light the other characteristics, including, inter alia, the CBA, which is generally perceived as positive, and which is promoted by the PBA. Next, we will consider them from a critical perspective and we will question the pursued educational purposes that it promotes within the framework of our formal educational systems reform. We will then highlight a set of formal educational purposes and their socio-educational challenges that are typical of the neoliberal educational model, now hegemonic, and which directly influence the design of education and training. We will show how various concepts are introduced, how their meanings are transformed and how they radically alter educational objectives. We therefore place our critical view in a perspective that goes beyond the exclusive school system to include it within broader social issues.

1.2. The program-based approach

1.2.1. Its origins and context of its deployment in international assistance

The PBA is above all a creation of international organizations. The concept appeared in the late 1960s [GAR 12] in UN development assistance debates, where the project-based approach was increasingly criticized [ADV 07, BIL 09, CAN 10, JAC 69, UNI 98], mainly because it did not allow effective integration into the major national objectives of the countries concerned. However, the PBA actually originated from resolution 44/211 adopted in December 1989 by the United Nations General Assembly. In this resolution the UN General Assembly affirmed the need to replace the project approach with the PBA which it defined as “a coherent set of interrelated policies, strategies, activities and investments aimed at achieving a defined national objective or set of objectives, within the framework of a precise timeframe” [PRO 97, UNI 98]. This definition of the PBA was endorsed by UN agencies in 1993.

The PBA concept, identified as such by international organizations, grew within a context of international development. The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD²) defined it as follows:

“They are a way of engaging in development cooperation based on the principles of coordinated support for a locally owned program of development, such as a national development strategy, sector program, thematic program or a program of a specific organization. PBAs share the following common features: (a) leadership to conduct operations under the responsibility of the host country or organization concerned; (b) a single comprehensive program and budget framework; (c) a formalized process of coordinating and harmonizing donor procedures for reporting, budgeting, financial management and procurement; (d) efforts to increase the use of local systems for program design and implementation, financial management, monitoring and evaluation” [ORG 08, p. 2].

As pointed out by the United Nations Development Program [PRO 97]:

“The PBA is much more than a means of collecting projects in a given area into a ‘program’; it is a logical approach that integrates the processes of macro, meso and micro planning and management of any national development effort. The PBA permits all donors, including UNDP, under Government leadership, to support one or several components of a national program framework in line with their comparative advantage. It encourages the integration of all available resources (national and external) in addressing national priorities” [PRO 97].

As for the concept of program, the OECD defines it thus, taking the example of education: “A course of study is defined as a coherent set or sequence of educational activities or communication designed and organized to achieve pre-determined learning objectives or accomplish a specific set of educational tasks over a sustained period” [ORG 15a, p. 12]. Such a definition of “program” clearly refers to that of curriculum, as is seen below. If the term “PBA” was chosen, it is simply because above all, it refers to many other sectoral realities and “program” is the term used in international organizations. In fact, the concept is more widely implemented, at the international level, in multiple sector-wide approaches (SWAps) (health, environment, infrastructures, public management, sanitary conditions, education, etc.) which is characterized by the fact that these approaches, introduced in the second half of the 1990s, provide comprehensive, coherent and harmonized support, temporally sustained and jointly coordinated with the host government in all its aspects (organizational, financial, instrumental, human, operational, evaluation, etc.) in a sector of the life of a country, instead of focusing only on a specific, limited and momentary project [STO 11], as also specified by UNESCO [UNE 07] with regard to education. A SWAp also requires results-based management³ and has several advantages: reduction in the number of assignments; the uniqueness of dialogue; tight cost control; greater efficiency; etc. The concept of PBA, which promoted a theory of change that was validated and adapted to needs, context and expected deliverables, in turn requires planning, results-based management, evaluative monitoring of implementation with accountability and performance analysis, which calls for the production of observable indicators and preliminary objectives as targets to be achieved. Finally, this approach requires the existence upstream of integrative or even integrated guiding principles, fruits of the national policy of the country concerned, which will guide the design and updating of the SWAps. In short, a PBA is a SWAp in that it concerns a specific sector, for example education.

1.2.2. The transfer of the concept to education

Though the PBA is a concept that dates back to the 1960s, and was actually affirmed only in 1989⁴, it was however quickly, from the following year, included in French language publications, in Quebec and in post-secondary education (for example: [DOR 90, GOU 90, ROY 90]). Even if the approach is not a “copy-paste” in the strict sense of the concept which was designed in a developmental perspective by international organizations, such a concept still however retains the spirit, principles and attributes, adapted to school reality in the first place, even simply with regard to its systemic and global scale. From our point of view, the concept that prevails at the international level closely applies, with a few slight differences depending on the subject concerned, to the concept of a PBA in education. Although there are several more or less detailed definitions of the PBA, with about ten identified by Basque [BAS 16], all of Quebec origin with one exception [SYL 13] and mainly focused on higher education, Basque [BAS 16 ] provides the following definition: the PBA is a “pedagogical engineering approach⁵ aimed at ensuring coherence and harmonization within and between the various components of a study program in order to promote the integration of learning among students throughout their studies.” For Prégent, Bernard and Kozanitis, a PBA is characterized by:

“all courses of the program which is based on a ‘training project’ (guidelines, principles and applications) that is developed and pursued collectively and longitudinally by the teaching staff (professors and lecturers) and leaders in charge of teaching, in a spirit of constant collaboration and collegiality. No one really feels that they own a course, but they all collaborate in the courses they are entrusted with for the success of the entire study program and such, within an organization and under the guidance of people who promote transparency, interaction between courses...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction: Thinking About Human Activities Differently: A Developmental Framework
• 1 Program-based Approach, Curriculum and Competency-based Approach: Sense and Nonsense in the Light of Neoliberalism
• 2 Can a Competency-based Curriculum be a Humanistic Curriculum?
• 3 Developing Competencies: Theoretical Detour in Favor of a Humanistic-based Competency Approach
• 4 A Developmental Perspective of Competency Assessment
• 5 Anchoring Social and Environmental Responsibilities in Educational and Training Practices
• 6 Program-based Approach in Teacher Development Perspective
• 7 Implementing the Program-based Approach: a Development Perspective of the Quality of University Education
• 8 Benchmarks for Operationalizing Program-based and Competency-based Approaches in Universities
• Conclusion: Addressing the Training Challenges of Today: Individual and Collective Responsibility
• Postface: “Proper Use” of the Program-based and Competency-based Approaches
• List of Authors
• Index
• End User License Agreement