Understandings and attitudes regarding skill-based and competency-based cultures for learning: a comparative study of No
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Understandings and attitudes regarding skill‑based and competency‑based cultures for learning: a comparative study of Norwegian and New Zealand teacher educators Siri Sollied Madsen1 Received: 28 June 2018 / Accepted: 9 January 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract This is a study of Norwegian and New Zealand teacher educators’ attitudes and understandings of what constitutes learning in schools. Excerpts of curriculum differences between the countries were used as catalysts to gain insight into teacher educators’ espoused theories regarding their understanding of learning, using examples of skill-based and competency-based perspectives on learning. This article describes reactions from Norwegian and New Zealand teacher educators when presented with examples of these two different educational cultures. The majority of both the Norwegian and the New Zealand teacher educators express a critical stance towards a skill-based perspective when asked about the matter. A concern regarding political pressure as an agent of change in educational systems was explicit in both countries. Norway appears to be politically governed top down to a greater degree than New Zealand, and this article examines whether the top-down governing of education can lead to discrepancies between formal curriculum, perceived curriculum, and operationalised curriculum. The findings indicate that such discrepancies exist among Norwegian teacher educators. The results show that inconsistencies of this nature could affect teacher educators’ motivation for their profession and can be perceived to undermine the trust that practitioners have in their professional and pedagogical competencies. This article contributes to broadening the understanding of how the governing of education could affect practitioners at a time of political pressure and requirements for measurable results. Keywords Curriculum differences · Political governing · Teacher education · Educational cultures · Skill-based · Competency-based
1 Introduction Over time, there have been many different theories regarding how to understand learning, and there are still different paradigms that compete for definitions when it comes to what to emphasise when learning is to be understood (Sollied et al. 2017; Saari 2018). An example
* Siri Sollied Madsen [email protected] 1
UiT, The Arctic University of Norway, Tromso, Norway
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of different perspectives on learning is a skill-based focus and a competency-based focus. These two perspectives on learning can be exemplified by looking at excerpts from the Norwegian and New Zealand primary school curricula. Both curricula contain five-item bullet lists defining what is understood as basic and key prerequisites for learning. New Zealand has defined its bullet list as key competencies, described as ‘capabilities people have, and need to develop, to live and learn today and in the future’ (Ministry of Education [MoE] 2014). In the Norwegian curriculum, the basic skills are ‘defined as basic to learning in scho
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