Notes On Outcome-Based
Education
Dr. William G. Spady, Outcome-Based
Education: Critical Issues and Answers
Outcomes-Based Education means clearly
focusing and organizing everything in an
educational system around what is essential for all
students to be able to do successfully at the end of
their learning. This means starting with a clear
picture of what is important for students to be able
to do, then organizing curriculum, instruction, and
assessment to make sure this learning ultimately
happens.
Spady: The Keys to Having an OBE
System
Developing a clear set of learning outcomes
around which all of the systemss components can
be focused.
Establishing the conditions and opportunities
within the system that enable and encourage all
students to achieve those essential outcomes.
Outcomes are clear
learning results that
we want students to
demonstrate at the
end of significant
learning
experiences.
They are not
values, beliefs,
attitudes, or
psychological states
of mind.
Outcomes are
what learners can
actually do with
what they know
and have learned.
Outcomes are actions
and performances that
embody and reflect
learner competence in
using content,
information, ideas, and
tools successfully.
(A)ctual doing, rather than just
knowing.
Defined according to the
actions and demonstration
processes sought.
Outcomes?
Tangible and Observable
Application.
Uses demonstration verbs in
outcome statements.
Staked or defined
by a community.
Often uses the term Exit Outcome,
seeking the notion of an ultimate
result applied to the end of the
students career in school.
From the DepEd K-12 Tool Kit, p. 11
From the DepEd K-12 Tool Kit, p. 11
Exit Outcomes, based
on the K-12
Framework
Spady on Establishing Frameworks
Before basing a system on outcomes, states and
districts must establish a clear framework of
learning that students will be able to master
successfully at the culminating point in their
schooling careerswhat was just referred to as
exit outcomes. Then, districts must proceed to
define, organize, structure, focus, and operate
their activities based on those culminating
outcomes.
OBE in History
Apprenticeships and training forms and models over the
centuries.
Contemporary forms: technical training programs in the military,
flight schools, ski schools, karate instruction, scuba instruction,
and other area(s) of learning where clearly defined competence
and performance are essential or carrying out a role effectively.
Other forms of what Spady calls performance credentialing:
professional licensure of doctors, lawyers, real estate brokers,
and cosmetologists, as well as merit and honor badges for Boy
and Girl Scouts.
All share two key things, as per Spady: First, each model is
focused on a clearly defined performance result for learners that
is not compromised. Second, in each example, WHAT and
WHETHER students learn successfully is more important than
WHEN and HOW they learn it.
OBE Negotiating with Time
Lets review Spady: Second, in each example, WHAT
and WHETHER students learn successfully is more
important than WHEN and HOW they learn it.
What do we do with our time-bound (school year,
quarter) requirements? Shady responds this way: If
time and accomplishments dont mesh, then the term
outcome-based directly implies that out-comes
must take precedence over time.
For sharing among triads: How do we negotiate
with this in our own practices?
Spadys OBE in a Nutshell
Outcome-based systems build everything on a clearly
defined framework of exit outcomes.
Time in an outcome-based system is used as an
alterable resource, depending on the needs of the
teachers and students.
In an outcome-based system, standards are clearly
defined, known, and criterion-based for all students.
Outcome-based systems focus on increasing students
learning and ultimate performance abilities to highest
possible levels before they leave school.
The OBE Pyramid: Key Elements to
A Sound Approach
Paradigm
Define
outcomes
Design
Curriculum
Deliver
Instruction
Document
Results
Determine
Advancement
Purposes
Premises
Principles
Practices
The OBE Paradigm
Implicit in the OBE paradigm is the desire to
have all students emerge from the system as
genuinely successful learners.
The OBE Purposes
Ensuring that all students are equipped with the
knowledge, competence, and qualities needed to
be (successful) after they exit the educational
system.
Structuring and operating schools so that those
outcomes can be achieved and maximized for all
students.
The OBE Premises
All Students can learn and succeed, but not on
the same day (and) in the same way.
Successful learning promoties even more
successful learning.
Schools control the conditions that directly affect
successful school learning.
The OBE Principles
Clarity of Focus on Culminating Exit Outcomes of
Significance
Expanded Opportunity and Support for Learning
and Success
High Expectations for All to Succeed
Design down from Your Ultimate Culminating
Outcomes.
Clarity of Focus
Guides instructional planning and delivery;
provides a clear picture of learning and prioritizes
student success.
It is the starting point of curriculum, instruction, and
assessment planning and implementation.
The idea of no surprises: instruction and
assessment are transparent.
Varies from teacher to teacher, but focus is found in
some minimum standard requirements.
Expanded Opportunity
Gives students more than one chance to learn and demonstrate
learning.
Time: concerns amount, frequency, and eligibility of learning
dispensation.
Modalities: determines learning styles and approaches for varied
learners.
Operations: related to the adherence to the Principles of OBE.
Performance Standards: provision of processes that enable learning;
the use of criteria.
Curriculum Access: how the learning structure is rationalized and
arranged.
High Expectations
Increasing the level of challenge to which students are
exposed and raising the standard of acceptable performance
(in order) for them to be called finished or successful.
Raising Standards of Acceptable Performance: Students
are held to higher minimum standard than ever before.
Eliminating Success Quotas: Shifting from bell-curves or
quota grades to criterion-based systems.
Increasing Access to High-Level Curriculum: eliminating
low-level courses, programs, or learning groups from the
curriculum.
Design Down
Beginning with the end in mind; mapping back.
Structuring Your OBE
Arranging competencies based on KSA
knowledge, attitudes, and skills. These make up
your learning outcomes, and are primarily taken
from verbs formulated in Blooms Taxonomy.
