The term “competency” is prominent in the 12-Year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines introduced on Aug. 1 last year.
According to the National Academy for Educational Research, competency is the knowledge, capacity and attitude to solve problems and face future challenges. The shift in focus is a bid to keep up with rapid changes in the world and to solve problems caused by favoring credentialism, but however good the intention might be, the policy is also a burden for many schools.
The competency-based curriculum brings a driving force for change to schools. Many educators with great enthusiasm for teaching are eager to sign up for workshops on the new guidelines — even at the expense of their own time — so that they can shift their teaching toward building competencies, and inspire and motivate their students to learn.
Many of these dedicated educators are experienced senior teachers and some of them have won the National Excellent Teacher Award, and they all infuse tremendous positive energy into K-12 education.
The new curriculum is to inevitably lead to longer teaching times, because in-class activities must be diverse and encourage students’ participation. Another headache for teachers is how to juggle teaching progress and teaching depth so that they can achieve both.
On the students’ side, preparation for lessons is necessary, as they must find out which parts of the material they do not understand so that they can raise questions in class, allowing for in-depth discussions. This would effectively reduce lecture time and bring lessons in line with the spirit of the new curriculum: “Taking the initiative, engaging the public and seeking the common good.”
This new way of teaching breaks out of the classroom framework, no longer just taking place between the opening and closing bells of the school day. The question is how to equip students and motivate them to prepare effectively. This is a point that must be given thorough consideration when designing teaching activities.
For example, National Tsing Hua University has launched a platform that focuses on building competencies starting in the natural sciences, while the Chinese School of Future Education Society has also launched an online database that provides lesson plans for teaching Chinese, English and math competencies.
Both projects were realized by professors and teachers, who contributed much to the timely implementation of the new curriculum and the improvement of existing teaching practices. These developments show that there are devoted educators who continue to breathe revitalizing energy into the curriculum.
Taiwanese parents tend to judge their children’s progress at school by their test scores. Parents need to become more involved if they want to understand the new curriculum.
A lack of involvement would not only leave parents wondering how to help their children, but also worrying about their children being the guinea pigs of a new system that could hurt their childrens’ future competitiveness.
It is not a bad thing when reform triggers a heightened sense of crisis. However, it is important to find ways to help parental instruction evolve with the changing education policy — this might even be more important for the children than their education in schools.
Dialogue between the schools, the students and the parents would involve parents in the educational process, keeping them from panicking about competencies and giving their children a better chance of winning at the finish line.
Li Jia-qi is the editor of a K-12 book series.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
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