In Part 1 of this article published in the December issue of theTeacher, I described how Roy Killen of Australia and I applied the powerful OBE concept of “Outcomes of Significance” to South Africa’s 12 Critical Outcomes (COs).
By focusing on the underlying essence and nature of each outcome, we discovered that the 12 COs embody four quite distinctive kinds of abilities that learners could “take out the door” and apply in their careers, community and personal lives. We called them:
- Life-role functioning/performances (COs 3, 6b, 9, 11, and 12);
- Strategic/analytical/IQ competencies (COs 1a, 1b, 4, 6a, and 8);
- Social/relational/EQ competencies (COs 2 and 5); and
- Perspectives/orientations/ways of thinking (COs 7 and 10)
I also explained that we saw differences in the nature of these abilities, with the five life-role performances appearing to be the ultimate outcomes in the framework. They were the five things that seemed to “really matter most in the long run” – with the other three kinds of Cs serving as fundamental building blocks and supporting elements for developing and applying them, things often called “essential enablers”. Our analysis left us with three startling revelations.
Firstly, by creating and endorsing the 12 COs, South Africa’s leaders and policymakers were seeking to implement a transformational approach to education. And when understood from a transformational perspective, the 12 COs implied that the South African system would focus its resources on developing five life-role performance outcomes to equip learners (see table on life-role outcomes).
When expressed in “role performer” language, these outcomes directly address the qualities and abilities of human beings, not curriculum content, and they relate to what these individuals would be able to bring to their lives after finishing their schooling. In other words, this official South African vision of successful learning is future-focused and extends far beyond subject areas and schooling itself. It is clearly about empowered people functioning successfully in dynamic life contexts. Killen and I openly wondered how South Africa’s educators, who had been trained to teach from prescribed content syllabi, could and would respond to this enormous opportunity/challenge.
Secondly, from our experienced OBE vantage point, the entire Critical Outcomes framework represented what, in other places around the world, were being called “Exit Outcomes”. Systems such as those in Aurora, Colorado, that developed Exit Outcomes generally had two major goals in mind: 1) To create an inspiring vision of what all of their learners would be and be able to do upon exiting their system, and 2) to use that vision as the grounding and focus for all of their curriculum, instruction, and assessment design and implementation processes. In other words, these were systems that intended to base all their education practices and programmes on the highest-level outcomes they sought for all their learners – regardless of their years in school or programme of study.
From our perspective this represented the real meaning of OBE: base education on outcomes, rather than write outcomes about what already exists in education. It was also a golden opportunity to sort out “ends” and “means”: in an OBE model, the outcome is the end and the curriculum the means. You develop the tools, strategies and content based on the end you want to achieve.
Hence, we saw the 12 CO framework as both a wonderful opportunity for South Africa to pursue a set of powerful learning ends, as well as being a daunting challenge. Was the country truly willing to base its education system on the achievement of either the 12 COs or the sub-set of five Life-Role Outcomes?
Thirdly, by translating the language of the five Life-Role COs into “role performer” terminology, we had offered a way for educators to become firmly focused on the qualities and attributes of their learners, not just on the content and skills embedded in the formal curriculum. To Killen this meant that the 12 COs provided a way to make the system not only outcomes-based, but genuinely learner-centred as well. However, for that to happen we knew that the entire CO framework needed to be translated into similar “personalising” language.
We undertook this challenge with enthusiasm, and the result of our work – reflecting the other three categories of Essential Enablers in the CO framework – is shown in the table (top, right).
This fundamental shift in perspective – from skills to human qualities – gives the South African model a humanising, personalising and inspiring character. It enables teachers to see their learners as continuously growing and developing human beings, and it gives them a whole different way of viewing and facilitating outcomes. Furthermore, it invites teachers to use their imaginations and full range of abilities and life experiences to assist their learners. The prime question guiding their work becomes:
What can I do to help this learner become more of a _______ in what we do together today/this week/this term/this year?
Whether you place any one of the five Life-Role Outcomes or the nine Essential Enablers in the blank, your options will be unlimited, and your eventual results inspiring.
What does it take to foster Role Performer Outcomes such as these? That will be the focus of Part 3 of this series next month.