Research Articles

1. Outcomes-Based Education: Tool for Restructuring.

Gwennis McNeir
OSSC Bulletin 36 (8), n8, 1993
The acute need for educational reform, which has been building on a national level for at least
the past decade, was made manifest in Oregon in 1991 with the passage of the Oregon
Educational Act for the 21st Century. This legislation mandates the creation of Certificates of
Initial and Advanced Mastery that require students to demonstrate specific skills they have
learned. This implies movement toward outcomes-based education (OBE). While most Oregon
educators welcome the impetus for change if it enhances student success, many educators are
uncertain about how to accomplish the transition from traditional educational methods to an
outcomes-based system. Some are unclear about exactly what is meant by outcomes-based
education. This Bulletin seeks to address the questions and concerns educators may have and to
offer suggestions for making a smoother transition to OBE.
The Bulletin begins by examining the need for outcomes-based reform and the limitations of
traditional methods. Chapter 1 explores the background of the OBE movement and examines
how schools have put OBE into practice. Chapter 2 introduces many of the challenges schools
encounter after adopting an OBE approach. Chapter 3 offers keys to success discovered by
practitioners of OBE both in Oregon and across the United States. The conclusion offers a brief
glimpse of how OBE is faring in Oregon schools.
View at eric.ed.gov

2. Level of awareness of the maritime students on the outcomes-based education

Dennis A Caguimbal, Dexter C Delacion, AO Medina, Melvin S Mendoza, Ruzzel Joy M

Mendoza, Michael M Sanchez
Educational Research International 2 (1), 7-12, 2013
This research work was pursued to gain insights regarding the level of awareness of the maritime
students on the Outcome-Based Education through its advantages and disadvantages. The study
utilized descriptive research method with sixty (60) LIMA Marine students that were chosen on
the basis of random sampling. Results showed that the respondents are aware that well-defined
assessment criteria makes it clear to both assessors and learners how assessment will take place
as one of the advantages of Outcome-Based Education. Requiring that all learning material be
rewritten which requires a major investment in time and resources is the utmost disadvantages of
OBE based on the perception of the maritime students.
View at academia.edu

3. Curriculum reform in South Africa: A critical analysis of outcomes‐based education

Jonathan D Jansen
Cambridge journal of education 28 (3), 321-331, 1998
Since South Africa's first national democratic elections in 1994, the Government of National
Unity has issued several curriculum‐related reforms intended to democratise education and
eliminate inequalities in the post‐apartheid education system. The most comprehensive of these
reforms has been labelled outcomes‐based education (OBE), an approach to education which
underpins the new Curriculum 2005. While the anticipated positive effects of the new curriculum
have been widely heralded, there has been little criticism of these proposals given the social and
educational context of South African schools. In this article the philosophical, political and
implementational dilemmas of OBE are systematically analysed and assessed.
View at tandfonline.com

4. Cooperative learning approach in an outcomes-based environment

Jake M Laguador
International Journal of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities 2 (2), 46-55, 2014
Student-centered teaching and learning is the recommended approach to modern day pedagogy
especially in the Outcomes-based Education where the teachers served as the facilitator of
learning activities rather than performing the traditional lecture method. This article aims to
discuss the option of utilizing the cooperative learning approach as teaching and learning
strategy in the classroom to encourage learners’ active participation. Academic performance as
an important measure of students’ learning experience should require evidence as output of the
teaching and learning process. Students are guided with the clear objectives on how to
accomplish group goals and everyone is encouraged to take part in bringing about the required
output of the assigned task. Cooperation is an important aspect of unity, collaboration and social
obligation that creates an environment for better learning experience.
View at max.zhdk.ch

5. Outcomes based education?: rethinking the provision of compulsory education in

Western Australia

Keith McNaught, Richard G Berlach

Issues in Educational Research 17 (1), 1-14, 2007
Outcomes based education (OBE), which emphasises a radical reinterpretation of the enterprise
of education, is a phenomenon enveloping the Australian compulsory education sector. This
paper exarnines the theoretical tenets of OBE as articulated by its chief exponent, William
Spady. It then explores the effects that OBE implementation is having on the Western Australian
educational fraternity, touching upon current tensions and emerging consequences.
Implementation exigencies in one area of the WA curriculum (Mathematics) are then considered;
and finally, possible future “outcomes” are suggested should the identified concerns fail to
receive due attention.
View at search.informit.org

6. An investigation into constructivism within an outcomes based curriculum.

Richard Cooper
Issues in educational research 17 (1), 15-39, 2007
This article presents a positivist quantitative case study of four rural Queensland schools
implementing the Queensland Studies Authority's (QSA) outcomes based education curriculum.
Queensland's school-based management system means that these schools are operating at
distinctly different points along their implementation phase. This research investigated the
professional development the four rural schools experienced from the QSA. The study aimed to
inform educational leaders whether constructivism should have been an explicit part of …
View at iier.org.au

7. Status of implementation and usefulness of outcomes-based education in the

engineering department of an Asian university

Liezel D Borsoto, Jerome D Lescano, Norielyn I Maquimot, Mary Jean N Santorce, Aileen F
Simbulan, Angelita M Pagcaliwagan
International Journal of Multidisciplinary Academic Research 2 (4), 14-25, 2014
This study determined the status of Outcomes-based Education (OBE) implementation in terms
of practices and environment as well as its usefulness in the Engineering Department of an Asian
University in terms of academic, attitude and instruction; and to test the relationship between the
status of OBE implementation and the level of its usefulness. This study used a descriptive
method of research wherein the quantitative data were gathered using a survey questionnaire.
Results show that OBE is being implemented in terms of practices and environment. Faculty
members together with the students and concerned authorities shall have coordination to identify
the needs of the students and to provide possible solutions and actions to enhance the
implementation of the new learning system. They shall be representatives in conducting seminars
and training that would provide appropriate knowledge and skills for the engineering students
who are ready to face the challenges of ASEAN 2015.
View at citeseerx.ist.psu.edu

8. Outcomes-based education and the death of knowledge

Richard G Berlach
In a far off time, in the confederacy of Oz, teaching and learning coexisted in an artistically
symbiotic relationship. Then the experts came along. No, not experts in educational theory, but
experts in the art of Isms–scientific rationalism, reductionism, Fordism, Taylorism, sophism,
postmodernism and above all, obscurantism. They took their Isms and applied them to the art of
education, and lo and behold, outcomes-based education was born. The Ismistic parents cooed
and gloated over their cleverly conceived offspring. In fact, the Ismites within one …
View at researchonline.nd.edu.au

9. The impact of the transition to outcomes-based teaching on university preparedness

in mathematics in South Africa

Johann Engelbrecht, Ansie Harding

Mathematics Education Research Journal 20 (2), 57-70, 2008
Following the political changes of 1994 in South Africa, the decision was taken to replace the
traditional skills-based education system at primary and secondary school level (Grades 1–12)
with an outcomes-based education system (OBE). The implementation of the OBE system did
not come without problems, giving rise to revised initiatives. The OBE approach, referred to as
Curriculum 2005, was introduced into schools in 1998, for all learners in Grades 1–6 and
progressively phased in after that. In 2002, the OBE system was put on hold for the two upper
grades of these learners. Learners in these two grades reverted back to skills-based learning for
their last three years of schooling, i.e. in Grades 10 – 12. The most senior of these learners that
had been subjected to four years of OBE and another three years of the old system finished their
schooling in 2005 and 2006 and entered university in 2006 and 2007. These groups are of
interest. Students ahead of them had their full schooling in the old system and students two years
younger were only subjected to OBE. These students are the “group in the middle”. This paper
reports on what the impact is of the growing pains of such a new, inadequately planned
education system on the mathematics preparedness of students entering university. This report
will be extended in 2009 when the learners that have been fully subjected to the OBE system
enter university.
View at link.springer.com

10. Outcomes-based education (OBE): its effect to the mathematics performance,

mathematics skills and attitudes towards mathematics of the BSCS students

Freddie R Cabrera
Advanced Science Letters 23 (2), 1081-1084, 2017
Outcomes-based Education (OBE) is a student-centered learning that focuses on measuring
student performance which are called outcomes. This study was conducted to determine the
effect of outcomes-based education (OBE) in the mathematics performance, mathematics skills
and attitudes towards mathematics of the BSCS students of ISU-Cauayan City, Isabela,
Philippines. This quasi-experimental study involved the BSCS 1-1 composed of 42 students
assigned as the experimental group exposed in outcomes-based education and BSCS 1-2
composed also of 42 students assigned as the control group exposed in the traditional lecture-
discussion method. Both groups of respondents were homogeneously grouped upon enrolment.
The study started with the administration of pre-mathematics skills test and pre-mathematics
attitude test to the experimental ad control group to determine their mathematics skills and
attitudes towards mathematics bore the start of the study. At the end of the study, a post
mathematics skills test and post mathematics attitude test towards mathematics was again
administered to measure the mathematics skills of the students in the subject and their attitudes
towards mathematics. The scores were compared and the mean difference was determined using
t-test. Findings showed that the use of outcomes-based education (OBE) in teaching mathematics
improved and enhanced mathematics performance and mathematics skills of the students
exposed to this approach. This is a very clear indication that that the outcomes-based education
in teaching mathematics among the students is as effective as the usual traditional lecture
discussion method. Positive changes taking place when teachers change their teaching methods
towards a more student-centered approach like outcomes-based education. Therefore it is
recommended to adopt outcomes-based education (OBE) in teaching as an innovative approach
in teaching mathematics.
View at ingentaconnect.com

11. Outcomes-based education reexamined: From structural functionalism to

poststructuralism

Colleen A Capper, Michael T Jamison

Educational Policy 7 (4), 427-446, 1993
Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) views itself as a drastic break from current educational
practices and a means of providing educational success for all students. Though not stated in
overt terms, OBE also positions it self as a means of "emancipating " students and teachers from
traditional practices which lead to educational inequity. This article reexamines OBE from a
multiparadigm perspective of organizations and educational administration. This examination
reveals that although there does indeed seem to befacets of outcome-based practice which are
empowering to students and teachers, much of the system continues to be lodged in a framework
which aims toward structure and control.
View at journals.sagepub.com

12. Predicting academic performance of college freshmen in the philippines using

psychological variables and expectancy-value beliefs to outcomes-based education: a
path analysis

Mark Alipio
EdArXiv, 2020
This study was designed to verify the connections between psychological factors, expectancy-
value beliefs, and academic performance. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a
systematic sample of 12,452 college freshmen from 70 higher education institutions (HEIs) in
the Philippines. Zero-order correlations revealed that psychological factors, expectancy-value
beliefs, and academic performance are significantly interrelated with each other. Path analysis
revealed that help-seeking, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and social support positively influence
expectancy-value beliefs and academic performance. Furthermore, the path analysis showed that
academic overload and perceived stress exerted a negative influence on expectancy-value beliefs
and academic performance, while expectancy-value beliefs had a positive influence with
academic performance. Mediation analysis revealed that expectancy-value beliefs to OBE
partially mediate the effects of the six psychological variables, namely help-seeking, self-esteem,
self-efficacy, social support, academic overload and perceived stress, on academic performance.
Based on the results of the study, a model that would predict the academic performance of
students under OBE approach using psychological factors and expectancy-value beliefs, was
developed.
View at edarxiv.org

13. Teaching strategies for outcomes-based education

Roy Killen
Juta and Company Ltd, 2007
This is an easily understandable and practical guide to effective teaching for teachers and trainers
in all instructional settings: school, further education and training, and higher education. It is
particularly useful for students, both as a text for their theoretical studies and as a reference
during their practical teaching experiences and their later teaching careers. This second edition
has been extensively revised and now includes introductory chapters that provide a strong
theoretical base as well as a chapter on outcomes-based assessment.
View at books.google.com

14. Mental health effects of adolescent trauma exposure in a female college sample:
Exploring differential outcomes based on experiences of unique trauma types and
dimensions

Janice L Krupnick, Bonnie L Green, Patricia Stockton, Lisa Goodman, Carole Corcoran, Rachel
Petty
Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes 67 (3), 264-279, 2004
Most studies on the psychological impact of trauma exposure focus on the response to a single
type of trauma, with little or no attention paid to the contribution of prior traumatic experiences.
The goal of this study was to disentangle some of the confounding effects of multiple trauma
exposures by exploring the unique contribution to mental health outcomes made by specific
types and dimensions of trauma. This report compares the psychological outcomes of college
women who experienced different types of trauma during adolescence, including traumatic
bereavement, sexual assault, and physical assault. Young women who had experienced a single
event of one of these types were compared with peers who had experienced multiple single
events, ongoing sexual and/or physical abuse, as well as those who had experienced no trauma.
Results, based on structured clinical interviews, and self-report measures showed that there were
some significant differences in mental health outcomes based on trauma type. However, trauma
exposure versus no exposure and the cumulative effects of exposure versus one-time experiences
played the key roles in differentiating the groups.
View at guilfordjournals.com

15. Assessing the impact of outcomes-based education, family dynamics, and

psychosocial stressors on student academic adjustment in South Africa

Ileana Rogobete, Ashley A Smyth, Geraldine Franciscus

AUDEM: The International Journal of Higher Education and Democracy 2 (1), 121-143, 2011
This study aims to investigate factors that impact on students’ academic adjustment to higher
education in South Africa. The research framework adopts qualitative methods based on focus
groups with students attending the undergraduate programs at one of the nationally accredited
academic institutions in Cape Town. The thematic analysis of focus group transcripts highlighted
that the outcome-based curriculum in previous (secondary) education, family difficulties, and
individual psychosocial stressors have a major influence on students’ abilities to adjust to a
higher education program, especially in the first year of study. Based on these findings, the
authors have developed the Multi-systemic Assessment Scale (MAS) for evaluating various
challenges in the process of students’ academic adjustment to a higher education institution. The
purpose of such a scale is to help both students and colleges search for meaningful strategies to
enhance students’ cognitive abilities and emotional stability, thereby facilitating the development
of more stable identities over the duration of their undergraduate studies.
View at muse.jhu.edu

16. Enhancing learning in South African schools: Strategies beyond outcomes-based

education

Alexa Todd, Mark Mason

International journal of educational development 25 (3), 221-235, 2005
This paper addresses the problem of post-Apartheid South African schools as ineffective learning
environments, and the question whether there are strategies for enhancing learning that are more
effective and that might be more easily and successfully implemented than an outcomes-based
education. Because of historical and situational constraints, an outcomes-based education has
limited potential for enhancing learning there. We argue that there are other factors, notably
proximal variables such as teaching strategies that focus on the setting of …
View at sciencedirect.com

17. Outcomes-based education has different forms

Cliff Malcolm
Changing Curriculum: Studies on Outcome-Based Education in South Africa, 77-113, 1999
Over the last six or seven years I have given many conference and workshop presentations on
OBE, both in Australia and South Africa. A question participants often ask is:'Yes, but does it
work?'The question is loaded, with its Yes but...'form and in other ways as well. For example,
what is ‘it? Outcomes-based education is a way of managing curriculum and assessment that has
many forms. Spady describes models in the USA (Spady, 1994, 1997, 1998; Spady & Marshall,
1991) that vary between themselves and are remarkably different, for example, from the
Australian model (Australian Education Council (AEC), 1994a, b). These are differences at the
level of theory—long before we get to variations in details and ways the systems are interpreted
and applied in schools. They make a short answer to the conference question difficult (if not
impossible). Yet I have heard speakers as well as questioners blithely draw evidence and ideas
from different models even in the one statement.
View at books.google.com

18. The impact of school mental health on student and school-level academic outcomes:
Current status of the research and future directions

Shannon M Suldo, Matthew J Gormley, George J DuPaul, Dawn Anderson-Butcher

School Mental Health 6 (2), 84-98, 2014
This manuscript summarizes areas of school mental health (SMH) research relevant to the
interplay between students’ academic and social–emotional outcomes. After advancing a
multidimensional conceptualization of academic success at the levels of individual students and
schools, we summarize observational and intervention studies that connect students’ mental
health to their academic achievement, with acknowledgment of the bidirectional relationship.
Then, current and future directions of SMH research are discussed, including (a) the impact of
SMH health initiatives and services on schools’ achievement, (b) the need to address the mental
health of historically neglected subgroups of students, and (c) interdisciplinary collaborations
necessary to support enhanced outcomes. Based on the findings from these literature
integrations, we conclude with recommendations and implications for research and practice.
View at link.springer.com

19. Developing an outcomes-based curriculum

Ntombifikile G Mtshali
Curriculum Development in Nursing: Process and Innovation 179, 2004
Outcomes-based education (OBE) is a competency-oriented, performance based approach to
education which is aimed at aligning education with the demands of the workplace, and at the
same time develops transferable life skills, such as problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.
A paradigm shift to OBK came about as a result of its potential to address the concerns about
graduates from conventional nursing programmes. Some of these concerns include that newly
employed graduates come to clinical settings academically equipped, yet with limited ability to
apply their knowledge. Their mastery of life skills (such as, problem solving skills, leadership
skills, communication skills, critical thinking skills) required in contemporary clinical
environments, is limited. They struggle to cope with the dynamics in clinical settings.
Professionals in healthcare settings find themselves helping these graduates make the transition
from being students to being professional practitioners. Employing such graduates has many
legal and financial implications in the workplace or healthcare system with the institutions
having to spend time and money during the first years of practice of such practitioners to get
them up to speed. Another motivation for the move to OBE is that this approach allows for the
recognition of prior learning, and transfer of credits, thus avoiding unnecessary duplication of
learning. This chapter is divided into two sections, the understanding of outcomes-based
education and the process of developing an outcomes-based curriculum.
View at books.google.com

20. Aiding and ABETing: The bankruptcy of outcomes-based education as a change

strategy

Donna M Riley
2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, 25.141. 1-25.141. 13, 2012
Aiding and ABETing: The Bankruptcy of Outcome-Based Education as a Change
StrategyABET’s criteria 2000 were widely heralded among engineering education reformers as a
harbinger ofchange. And while historians in the Liberal Education Division reminded us that
calls for bettercommunication and consideration of social context were not new in engineering
education, many of usdared to hope that things would be different this time. New engineering
programs founded in this erapromised a clean slate from which to create models of new,
balanced curricula. ABET’s bean countingformulas had so obviously constrained creativity and
stifled reform efforts; surely this shift would provideboth flexibility and external incentive to
engineering programs to make much needed changes. A decade later, with most programs having
gone through two accreditation cycles under Criteria 2000, wehave seen at best incremental
change. In retrospect, adopting outcome-based education (OBE) shouldhave raised red flags for
more of us, as its problems have been well known to education scholars for sometime. Drawing
on social theories of education that take a critical view of OBE, this paper will show
howABET’s implementation across engineering education reproduces and reinforces a certain
social order inthe profession and in society, one that continues to resist real change in
educational structures, curriculum, and pedagogy. This more theoretical discussion will be
supported by findings from my research developing, implementing, and assessing critical
pedagogies in engineering education. Within the power structuresthat exist in my institution and
across engineering education, ABET outcomes sometimes can be used to justify broadening the
curriculum when such efforts come under attack by self-appointed technical rigor police.
However, just as often, it constrains what is possible in engineering classrooms through its drive
for (certain kinds of) evidence of achievement of (specific) outcomes, regardless of process.
ABET supports students’ focus on credentialing to the exclusion of intellectual curiosity,
undermining its stated outcome of lifelong learning. What’s missing from the defined outcomes
is also telling; ABET’s educational outcomes reinforce the invisibility of underrepresented
groups in engineering communitiesand devalues discussions of diversity altogether. The paper
will close with some discussion of alternatives to outcomes-based education that might
bettersupport change in engineering education.
View at peer.asee.org

21. Improving practice through outcomes based planning and assessment: A counseling
center case study

Amy L Reynolds, Stephen Chris

Journal of College Student Development 49 (4), 374-387, 2008
Addressing the increasing psychological needs on campus is a central mission of most college
counseling centers. In addition, many centers are expected to contribute to student academic
success and retention. Through the use of outcomes based assessment, which examines the
needs, expectations, and perceptions of students, counseling centers can develop state-of-the-art
services. This article explores the impact of an outcomes based assessment and planning process
at a college counseling center and its influence on the services and practices of the center.
Implications for future research and practice and the relevance of this outcomes based
assessment project for other student affairs units is also explored.
View at muse.jhu.edu

22. School-level environment and outcomes-based education in South Africa

Jill M Aldridge, Rüdiger C Laugksch, Barry J Fraser

Learning Environments Research 9 (2), 123-147, 2006
In this study, we developed and validated a questionnaire to assess teachers’ perceptions of their
actual and preferred school-level environment, investigated whether teachers involved with
Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) perceive the school-level environment differently from those
who are not, and investigated factors in the school-level environment (such as resources and staff
freedom) linked with a school’s likelihood of successfully implementing OBE. The study
involved modifying and validating an existing questionnaire to make it suitable for assessing the
school-level environment in South Africa, as well as adding to the School-Level Environment
Survey (SLEQ) the scales of Familiarity with OBE and Parental Involvement. Analysis of data
collected from 403 teachers provides evidence for the validity and reliability of the new SLEQ-
SA. MANOVA for repeated measures revealed a statistically significant (p < 0.01) difference
between teacher perceptions of their actual school environment and the one that they would
prefer for all seven SLEQ-SA dimensions. When MANOVA was used to examine whether
teachers involved in OBE perceive their school-level environments differently from those who
are not, statistically significant differences emerged for two of the seven school-level
environment scales, with teachers involved with OBE perceiving significantly more Familiarity
with OBE and Work Pressure. The constraints faced by teachers are wide ranging and include a
number of factors such as a lack of material resources and large class sizes. The results provide
valuable information to policy-makers, principals and researchers that potentially could help to
guide the implementation of OBE.
View at link.springer.com

23. Outcomes-based education: Principles and possibilities

Roy Killen
Unpublished manuscript, University of Newcastle, faculty of education, 2000
This paper explores some of the basic principles of outcomes-based education and relates them
to the Australian school and vocational education context. It is intended to help teachers2
understand how they can translate the theory and philosophy of OBE into practical action in their
instructional planning, teaching and assessment of student3 learning. The paper recognises that
OBE has critics as well as advocates, and responds briefly to some of the concerns that are
commonly expressed about OBE. In several respects, the paper is deliberately provocative,
challenging teachers to question their current teaching practices and to find ways in which some
of the philosophies of outcomes-based education can be incorporated into their teaching. The
paper does not attempt to be a complete treatise on OBE. Rather, it introduces some ideas that
are central to OBE and suggests ways in which these ideas could be explored in greater depth.
The quality of an educational system can be judged from at least three perspectives: the inputs to
the system, what happens within the system, and the outputs from the system. Those who are
interested in inputs will focus their attention primarily on finances, resources, infrastructure, etc.,
and may use economic rationalism as the basis for their judgements about the quality or value of
the system. Those interested in what happens within the system will focus their attention
primarily on the processes used to organise, control and deliver education and training. Those
interested in outcomes will focus their attention primarily on the products or results of education.
It can be argued that all aspects of education are important and that quality should not be judged
from any narrow perspective. However, in recent years there have been increasing calls in
Western society for greater attention to be paid to the outcomes of education so that the return on
investments in education (particularly public education) could be evaluated. These increasing
calls for accountability were one reason for the rapid spread of various forms of outcomes-based
education in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom during the 1980s and
1990s. In Australia also, the concept of educational accountability was one of the driving
motives behind the introduction of OBE. Here, the stimulus for outcomes-based education came
from several sources: political, economic and educational. In particular, the development of
National Profiles (descriptions of the progression of learning typically achieved by students
during the compulsory years of schooling)“reflected a new political will in the States towards
collaboration and rationalisation”(Eltis, 1995, p. 11). These developments were closely related to
the Federal Government's drive for national economic efficiency, which itself reflected a
worldwide emphasis on accountability (including calls for schools to produce measurable
“outputs” commensurate with the public moneys invested in them).
View at academic.payap.ac.th