Abstract:

Competency-based Education enables students to reach a specific level of mastery to learn a concept or a skill at a certain level at their own pace with no concern about the learning context. However, a modified version of competency-based learning will facilitate the science methods course because it will conform to the time set by the university. Therefore, the students are expected to complete this course in a semester. There are four modules in this science methods course based on the Common Knowledge Construction Model of teaching and learning. They are as follows: Exploring and Categorizing Students' Conceptions of a Natural Phenomenon; Constructing and Negotiating Scientific Explanations; Translating and Extending to Socio-Scientific Inquiry; and Reflecting and Assessing. The modules are grounded in the Variation Theory of Learning espoused by Phenomenography, which studies how individuals experience, conceptualize, and understanding in differing ways. Students' conceptions constitute categories of description or outcome space in which the learners move around. Each module comprises one primary competency and several sub-competencies. There will be a timeline or due date for the completion of each module, and the associated competency and sub-competencies. There are videos of teacher professor modeling; and rubrics or criteria related to each competency and some or all the sub-competencies with which students can assess their achievement. The discussion will involve Module One design and development in the Canvas Virtual Platform and its enactment in the science methods course.

Keywords:

Competency-based learning, virtual learning, science teaching and learning methods, variation theory of learning, phenomenography.