Shifting the Emphasis from Entrance to Exit

Abstract

Competency-based teacher education programs are receiving increased attention. The basis of these programs is a plan whereby the competencies a student is expected to acquire and demonstrate and the criteria by which these competencies will be evaluated are stated explicitly at the outset of the program. The student is then held accountable for meeting these criteria, which may be designed to measure or gauge his cognitive understanding or knowledge, to assess and evaluate his teaching behaviors, or to evaluate the effectiveness of his teaching by sampling and measuring the growth demonstrated by his pupils. Such programs differ significantly from traditional ones in that tasks and expectations are clearly defined at the outset. Students are allowed to set their own paces and spend whatever time they find necessary for gaining the various competencies. Students may skip whole segments of a program The author is professor and chairman of music education at the University of Houston, Texas. by taking tests that demonstrate their ability to meet the required criteria; thus the length of time required for completion of the program is a highly individual matter. According to proponents of the theory, achievement is held constant (students display competencies or they do not) and the time varies, whereas in traditional programs, time (which includes credit hours, a rigid schedule of subjects, proper prerequisites, and a host of other typically formal academic procedures) remains constant and achievement varies.