Global Perspectives on Competency-based Education and Policy
Lehigh University graduate students enroll in this seminar as an independent study as part of the Lehigh/Tübingen Exchange Partnership. This seminar meets at the University of Tübingen on three different days/times as follows:
- June 13, 2015, 10:00am – 6:00pm
- June 19, 2015, 2:00pm – 6:00pm
- June 20, 2015, 10:00am – 6:00pm
Competency-based qualifications and educational frameworks have had worldwide impact on educational systems, labor market participation, and individual training and development. The goal of this seminar is to elicit the following from a careful and critical review of the relevant literature and in class discussion and activities: 1) a working definition of competency-based qualifications, 2) a comparison of theoretical perspectives and educational frameworks relevant to competency development, 3) a critical description of the studies and systems that represent archetypes in competency-based qualification frameworks for education worldwide, 4) a synthesis of the concepts or factors that comprise competency-based qualifications worldwide, and 5) a recognition of the elements that both align and differentiate educational and labor market cultures.
Moving not only from school to work, but also across life stages and cultures is significant, because it suggests that formal mass education and the labor market have become so disconnected that they comprise distinct cultures. The question then is one of how to link educational and labor market cultures. The solution from policymakers increasingly is competency frameworks in education, but there is rarely a suggested concession or adjustment on the part of industry. This one-sided relationship suggests that the labor market culture is the dominant one, but if so then why does formal mass education seem to be so persistently resistant to shifting culturally more closely toward industry.
About Professor Wiseman
Dr. Alexander W. Wiseman has more than 19 years of professional experience working with government education departments, university-based teacher education programs, community-based professional development for teachers and as a classroom teacher in both the U.S. and East Asia. Dr. Wiseman leads strategic planning workshops, informs educational policy development, provides evidence-based training programs, speaks internationally and presents extensively in the areas of international testing, teacher preparation and professional development, strategic planning, system assessment and reform, education policy, change management, equitable educational access for girls and boys, institutional capacity building, school-to-work transition and civic education. Dr. Wiseman conducts internationally comparative educational research using large-scale education datasets on math and science education, information and communication technology (ICT), teacher preparation, professional development and curriculum as well as school principal’s instructional leadership activity, and is the author of many research-to-practice articles and books.
*PDF of Alexander W. Wiseman’s full curriculum vitae is HERE
*Link to Alexander W. Wiseman’s website (www.comparative-education.com) is HERE
CIE 495: Global Perspectives on Competency-based Education and Policy 