PROF.ED.
OBE & CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 21ST CENTURY ASSESSMENT
Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
define correctly and discuss OBE thoroughly; and
identify correctly and analyze logically the fundamental concepts and characteristics of
21st century assessment.
OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION: RESPONSE TO QUALITY LEARNING
• The shift from the traditional Input-Based Education (IBE) to Outcome-Based
Education (OBE) is being energized by the increasing demand for vigilant enforcement
and accountability in all sectors of education.
• Stakeholders consider this (OBE) student-centered and constructivist platform as a
timely response to quality learning.
What is OBE?
• OBE stands for OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION.
• It is a process of curriculum design, teaching, learning and assessment that focuses on
what students can actually do after they taught.
• The basic tenets (principle or belief) of OBE were advanced by the American Sociologist,
William Spady.
• William Spady defines OBE as a comprehensive approach to organizing and operating
an education system that is focused on and defined by the successful demonstrations of
learning sought from each student (Spady, 1994).
• William Spady underscores OUTCOMES as…
clear learning results that we want students to demonstrate at the end of significant learning
experiences and
are actions and performances that embody and reflect learners’ competence in using content,
information, ideas, and tool successfully.
William Spady (1993)
FOUR BASIC PRINCIPLES OF OBE
1. Clarity of focus about outcomes
2. Designing backwards
3. Consistent, high expectations of success
4. Expanded opportunity
1. Clarity of focus about outcomes
• Learners are certain about their goals and are always given significant, culminating exit outcomes.
• 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 (Spady, 1994; http://cei.hkust.edu.hk/teaching-resources/outcome-based-
education/institutional-resources/obe-principles-and-process).
2. Designing backwards
• Using the major learning outcomes as the focus and linking all planning, teaching and
assessment decision directly to these outcomes.
• Backward design, also called backward planning or backward mapping, is a process that
educators use to design learning experiences and instructional techniques to achieve specific
learning goals.
• Backward design begins with the objectives of a unit or course — what students are expected to
learn and be able to do—and then proceeds “backward” to create lessons that achieve those
desired goals.
• In most public schools, the educational goals of a course or unit are stated in the learning
standards—i.e., concise, written descriptions of what students are expected to know and be able
to do at a specific stage of their education. (https://www.edglossary.org/backward-design/).
• The basic rationale motivating backward design is that starting with the end goal, rather than a
starting with the first lesson chronologically delivered during a unit or course, helps teachers
design a sequence of lessons, problems, projects, presentations, assignments,
and assessments that result in students achieving the academic goals of a course or unit—that
is, actually learning what they were expected to learn (https://www.edglossary.org/backward-
design/).
Learning Outcome 5. Demonstrate
skills in interpreting test results and
reporting grades.
Learning Outcome 4. Develop a portfolio as an
assessment tool specifying the types of assessment,
sample products, scoring rubrics, and rating forms.
Learning Outcome 3. Develop instrument for
assessing effective learning.
Learning Outcome 2. Apply the principles in constructing and
interpreting performance-based assessment.
Learning Outcome 1. Analyze the fundamental concepts and
characteristics of 21st century assessment
• Furthermore, 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 (Spady, 1994;
http://cei.hkust.edu.hk/teaching-resources/outcome-based-education/institutional-
resources/obe-principles-and-process).
3. Consistent, high expectations of success
• Helping students to succeed by providing them encouragement to engage deeply with the issues
they are learning and to achieve the set of high challenging standard.
• 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 that successful learning promotes more successful
learning (Spady, 1994; http://cei.hkust.edu.hk/teaching-resources/outcome-based-
education/institutional-resources/obe-principles-and-process.
4. Expanded opportunity
• Developing that allows every learner to progress in his/her own pace and that caters to individual
needs and differences.
• 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.
(Spady, 1994; http://cei.hkust.edu.hk/teaching-resources/outcome-based-education/institutional-
resources/obe-principles-and-process.)
Why shift to OBE?
• OBE is distinguished from other reforms by its focus on outcomes, thereby enabling it to
address the pressing world-wide concerns on accountability, and effectively pairs
legislative control with institutional autonomy (Evans, 1991)
• OBE makes it imperative to lay down what are intended learning outcomes of an
institution, and commit its educational resources until the goals are achieved.
• OBE, in its transformational phase, is the benchmarking concept trending in higher
education.
• It aims to organize a work-integrated education (WIE) at the program level to link
students and faculty with the industry and eventually engage leaders of the profession
and industry to enrich the teaching and learning activities.
• As diverse countries are synergizing (combining or coordinating the activity of two or
more agents) towards connectivity propelled by technology, OBE is preparing young
learners for global living.
Institutional Intended Learning Outcomes (IILO)
What the graduate of the university/college are supposed to be able to do.
CPSU Vision, Mission, Goal, and Quality Policy.
Common to Graduates of a horizontal type of institution as defined in CMO 46, 2012
Graduates of professional institutions demonstrate service orientation in their respective
professions.
Graduates of colleges are qualified for various types of employment and participate in
development activities and public discourses, particularly in response to the needs of the
communities they serve.
Graduates of universities contribute to the generation of new knowledge by participating in
various research and development projects.
