Outcome-Based Education

for Students
FRANKLIN V. AMANDY
CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT
What are Outcomes?
Outcomes are the learning results that we desire from students that
lead to culminating demonstrations.

An outcome is NOT a collection of average of previous learning

experiences, but a manifestation of what learners can do once they have
had and completed all of those experiences.

Outcomes are what students actually CAN DO with what they know
and understand.
Industrial vs. Information Age
TIME-BASED, INDUSTRIAL AGE
PARADIGM
Calendar-Defined
Attendance, eligibility, grouping patterns,
curriculum, instructional delivery, learning
opportunities, assessment and reporting,
and student advancement and
credentialing are all defined and
administered in terms of time.
OUTCOME-BASED, INFORMATION AGE
PARADIGM
Outcome-Defined
Exit outcomes or the ultimate culminating
demonstrations of learning simultaneously
serve as the focal point, mission,
fundamental purpose, top priority, bottom
line, and starting point for everything else
that occurs within the system
Industrial vs. Information Age
TIME-BASED, INDUSTRIAL AGE
PARADIGM
Constrained Opportunity
All must be done of a fixed schedule.
Students usually have only one single
chance to encounter any learning
experience and prove they have “learned”
it.
“Do it right the first time or suffer the
permanent consequences”
OUTCOME-BASED, INFORMATION AGE
PARADIGM
Expanded Opportunity
Expanding opportunities for students to
succeed occurs naturally when educator do
not define and limit chances for learning
and performing to the fixed, prescheduled
blocks of time.
It pertains to a whole constellation of time
factors as well as methods, tools, resources
and principles used in instructing and
assessing students.
Industrial vs. Information Age
TIME-BASED, INDUSTRIAL AGE
PARADIGM
Custodial Credentialing
“Credentialing” means giving a unit of
credit toward the completion of graduation
requirements. The term “custodial” means
that students must be in attendance for a
fixed period of time to receive credit.
This is often referred to as a “seat-time”
system because the amount of time
students spend in their seats in a course is
tied directly to how much credit they get.
OUTCOME-BASED, INFORMATION AGE
PARADIGM
Preferential Credentialing
Performance credentials are defined by
criteria, not by calendar dates or time
blocks. By tying the term “performance”,
we are indicating that all of these
components will be defined by and will
directly reflect the clear criteria embodied
in a system’s culminating outcomes.
Therefore, to earn a performance
credential, one must clearly demonstrate
all of the criteria that constitute that
outcome.
Industrial vs. Information Age
TIME-BASED, INDUSTRIAL AGE
PARADIGM
Content Segmentation
The curriculum structure is organized
around the separate and clearly
distinguished academic disciplines of the
university – which are treated as if they
were distinct and unrelated – it is further
segmented into nine-month chunks called
courses and grade levels.
OUTCOME-BASED, INFORMATION AGE
PARADIGM
Concept Integration
The curriculum is designed in such a way
that it continuously link content and
concept together, both across subject
areas and grade levels, and that ask
students to make and demonstrate those
linkages on a continuing basis.
Industrial vs. Information Age
TIME-BASED, INDUSTRIAL AGE
PARADIGM
Curriculum Coverage
The teacher’s role is to cover all content
for each curriculum segment to each class
within the calendar-defined constraints of
the system. This compels teachers to get
through the curriculum in the time allowed
regardless of how individual students
might do with the material.
OUTCOME-BASED, INFORMATION AGE
PARADIGM
Instructional Coaching
This type of instructional role requires
teachers to model actively successful
techniques and behavior, continuously
diagnose and assess on-going student
practice and performance, offer frequent
and focused feedback, and intervene
constructively in the learning process in a
timely manner.
Industrial vs. Information Age
TIME-BASED, INDUSTRIAL AGE
PARADIGM
Cumulative Achievement
Everything students do ultimately is
translated into numbers and percentages,
which are kept in a student’s permanent
record. These numeric “symbols” are them
endlessly accumulated and averaged
together, as if they represented equivalent
things – which they clearly do not.
Once a number is entered into record it
remains there permanently and continues
to be a part of the ultimate average.
OUTCOME-BASED, INFORMATION AGE
PARADIGM
Culminating Achievement
Educators are compelled to shift their
focus on what students learn from “during”
to “after” and from discrete micro-
performances to ultimate applications of
prior learning experiences.
Culminating achievement is the ultimate
“So what?” of all things students do on a
daily basis to develop and improve their
learning.
Industrial vs. Information Age
TIME-BASED, INDUSTRIAL AGE
PARADIGM
C’lection Categories
C’lection means selection – the process of
sorting and selecting students on the basis
of their perceived ability and early
achievement translates over time into
totally different streams of learning,
achievement, and opportunity.
OUTCOME-BASED, INFORMATION AGE
PARADIGM
Inclusionary Success
OBE systems impose no quotas on which
or how many students can be successful,
nor do they limit what students will be
allowed to learn and how high they can
aspire.
Industrial vs. Information Age
TIME-BASED, INDUSTRIAL AGE
PARADIGM
Contest Learning
The overall distribution of winner and
losers is related to a faculty or district’s
devotion to what is called “the bell curve”.
Students who are motivated to receive
high grades, the symbols of learning
success, must compete with others on an
individual level.
OUTCOME-BASED, INFORMATION AGE
PARADIGM
Cooperative Learning
Coaches know that group performance is
tied directly to the ability of the weakest
member of the group. Smart coaches get
everyone into the act of helping everyone
else get better so that the performance of
everyone is enhanced in the process.
When teachers do it, it’s called “peer
coaching”. When applied to students, it’s
called cooperative learning.
Industrial vs. Information Age
TIME-BASED, INDUSTRIAL AGE
PARADIGM
Comparative Evaluation
Evaluation focuses on “better than/worse
than”, “higher than/lower than”, and
“win/lose” comparisons among students on
many different kinds of factors, all of which
show up as differences in student
performance records, no matter how slight.
OUTCOME-BASED, INFORMATION AGE
PARADIGM
Criterion Validation
A criterion defines what must be present in
the performance; otherwise the
performance is judged to be incomplete.
The term “validation” means “confirmation”
or verification”.
The essence of combining these terms is
to deal directly with the substance of what
is being assessed on its own terms, rather
than attaching scores, labels, or symbols
to it.
Industrial vs. Information Age
TIME-BASED, INDUSTRIAL AGE
PARADIGM
Cellular Structure
This physical isolation affords teachers the
appearance of a high degree of autonomy
and protection from outside interference,
however, it compels them to be all things
to all students, quickly exposes their
limitations to students, and confines
student learning to what a particular
teacher knows and can do.
OUTCOME-BASED, INFORMATION AGE
PARADIGM
Collaborative Structure
Teachers work together to invent and
implement the learning experiences and
strategies that will allow complex
performance ability of students to emerge.
Staff are compelled to build lines of
communication and collaboration across
traditionally impenetrable content and
grade-level boundaries.