Outcomes-based teaching
Outcome based education (OBE) was propounded by William Spady in the 90s to
bring the focus of formal education to what the students learn rather than what
they were taught. OBE is a system of education giving priority to ends, purpose,
accomplishments, and results
Outcome-based education is a system where all the parts and aspects of education are
focused on the outcomes of the course. The students take up courses with a certain goal
of developing skills or gaining knowledge and they have to complete the goal by end of
the course.
Background:
Tyler (1949): Emphasize the idea of a curriculum as an expression of planned intentions
in terms of student outcomes.
Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956): Traditional framework for structuring learning outcomes.
Levels of performance for Bloom’s cognitive domain include knowledge, comprehension,
application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
Spady (1988): Criterion-referenced learning outcomes are the basis of developing
teaching programs. OBE is a way of designing, delivering, and documenting instruction
in terms of its intended goals and outcomes.
(Norm-referenced tests make comparisons between individuals, and criterion-
referenced tests measure a test taker's performance compared to a specific set of
standards or criteria. OBE is criterion referenced and not norm-referenced.)
Key issues:
(Some regard outcomes based teaching as a perspective on curriculum
conceptualization)
This learner-focused and learning-oriented perspective is linked to the process of
constructive alignment, which comprises three steps (Biggs 1996, 2003):
The prespecification of teaching and learning goals is the glue that holds the pedagogic process
together.
One can readily see traces of Bloom’s ideas of mastery learning and some aspects of formative
assessment as discussed by Black and William in this account of outcomes-based teaching.
Pedagogic and professional questions:
The discussion so far would suggest that there are three main questions associated with outcomes-
based teaching:
Are the pre-identified outcomes appropriate to students’ needs in context?
Is there alignment between outcomes, curriculum and classroom pedagogy, and assessment
in respect of learner needs?
What part, if any, do teachers play in the design of such a program? (or conversely, are they
seen as mere operators in its implementation?)
We can use the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) as a
reference point to discuss these questions. The CEFR is designed to provide a “common basis
for explicit description of objectives, content, and methods” for the study of modern
languages, within a wider purpose of “elaboration of language syllabuses, curriculum
guidelines, examinations, textbooks, etc” across Europe. Perhaps it should be pointed out at
once that the CEFR itself does not claim to be prescriptive in relation to classroom pedagogy
and the actual design of specific language assessment tasks/tests. But it does set out a
framework of learning outcomes in terms of language proficiency levels and level
descriptors. There are six levels, from A1 (lowest) to C2 (highest):
Basic user- A1, A2
Independent user- B1, B2
Proficient user- C1, C2
The four basic principles are (Spady, 1994):
Clarity of focus: This means that everything teachers do must be clearly focused on what they want
students to know, understand and be able to do. In other words, teachers should focus on helping
students to develop the knowledge, skills and personalities that will enable them to achieve the
intended outcomes that have been clearly articulated.
Designing down: It means that the curriculum design must start with a clear definition of the
intended outcomes that students are to achieve by the end of the program. Once this has been done,
all instructional decisions are then made to ensure achieve this desired end result.
High expectations: It means that teachers should establish high, challenging standards of
performance in order to encourage students to engage deeply in what they are learning. Helping
students to achieve high standards is linked very closely with the idea t successful learning promotes
more successful learning.
Expanded opportunities: Teachers must strive to provide expanded opportunities for all students.
This principle is based on the idea that not all learners can learn the same thing in the same way and
in the same time. However, most students can achieve high standards if they are given appropriate
opportunities.
Assessment:
Assessment is a key part of outcome-based education and used to determine whether or not a
qualification has been achieved. Outcome based assessment means that the assessment process
must be aligned with the learning outcomes.
This means that it should support the learners in their progress (formative assessment) and validate
the achievement of the intended learning outcomes at the end of the process (summative
assessment).
Limitations and criticism:
The curriculum is continually changing:
OBE curriculum assumes that all students are ready to learn at the same level. The preparation of
teaching materials such as notes, questions, and rubrics needs to be implemented repeatedly, which
becomes a burden to teachers, which may not be feasible within the mandated objectives of the
OBE.
Inappropriate outcomes:
Many people oppose OBE reforms because they dislike the proposed outcomes. They may think that
the standards are too easy, too hard, or wrongly conceived.
Analyzing Assessment Pattern:
The assessment should be based on a significant learning task, such as a project, a portfolio, a
presentation, or a demonstration, that simulates a real-life problem for which there is no defined
answer. Pooling in data from all activities is a humongous task and so is calculating attainments of
each student in each activity.
Lack of evidence that OBE actually works:
OBE is a loosely-bound collection of ideas, with little uniformity in the way it is implemented from
case to case. This makes it difficult to test OBE's effectiveness in a way that applies universally.
Furthermore, there is little published evidence that OBE actually works.
Outcomes-based teaching can be implemented in a variety of ways.
