Competency-based assessment: what it is, how to evaluate, and examples

Competency-based assessment develops abilities, skills, and attitudes for a comprehensive education that responds to the needs of the 21st century.

Thanks to a relevant, pertinent, and more meaningful education, students will be better prepared and willing to face professional and life challenges with greater success.

In this article, we will delve into its meaning and how you can apply it in your training proposals.

What is competency-based assessment?

Competency-based assessment is an evaluation method focused on assessing students’ real capacity to apply knowledge in practical and contextualized situations, transcending the simple measurement of knowledge.

This approach seeks for students to acquire comprehensive capabilities and learn to use them effectively to solve real-life problems and situations.

For this, it is necessary for the student to acquire essential knowledge and competencies for their personal development, as well as to solve problems in different areas of their life.

You can assume that the focus is long-term, as it is centered on preparing the student for the future.

In this vein, assessment moves away from a punitive nature to become a formative tool at the service of student development, with the aim of responding to the demands of information societies.

In that sense, it helps develop strategic skills such as critical thinking, effective communication, creativity, and problem-solving.

Before moving on, it is worth remembering that competence is the combination of knowledge, capacities, and attitudes (including ethical values, emotions, and other social components) that allow the student to respond adequately to complex demands.

In Spain, the Organic Law Amending the Organic Law of Education (LOMLOE) is structured around competencies, where the curriculum must facilitate educational development that guarantees a comprehensive education for students.

Focusing on what this law mandates for basic education, the fundamental principles of competency-based assessment are:

• Inclusive education must be a fundamental principle and must address student diversity.
• The principles of Universal Design for Learning must be applied.
• Assessment must be global, continuous, and formative.

Thanks to this approach, learning becomes a continuous and personalized process that identifies each student’s strengths and weaknesses, which facilitates their guidance. The teacher shifts from evaluating correct answers to evaluating real performance.

Characteristics of competency-based assessment

Zabalza (2003) defines competency-based assessment as a comprehensive process of feedback, determination of suitability, and certification of learning, whose key elements are:

• Feedback: aimed at guiding the student with information about their progress.
• Determination of suitability: serves to analyze whether performance meets competency standards through real, pertinent, and challenging tasks and problems.
• Certification: confirms the achievement of reference competencies based on the analysis of performance in authentic contexts.

Based on these three foundations, the success of competency-based assessment lies in its ability to be integrative, applied to real and relevant situations, as well as based on clear criteria defined according to the student’s expected performance.

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What types of competencies should be assessed?

The competencies that must be assessed will depend on the precise needs of the students or workers (as it can also be applied to the professional environment).

In the Spanish educational system, the LOMLOE, in accordance with the Recommendation of the Council of the European Union, establishes 8 key competencies to help develop citizens prepared for the social and professional challenges they may face throughout their lives:

1. Linguistic communication competence. Knowing how to express and understand information in diverse contexts. It focuses on being able to understand, interpret, and value oral or written messages, avoiding disinformation.
2. Plurilingual competence. The use of several languages to communicate appropriately, in addition to integrating the associated cultural diversity.
3. Mathematical competence and STEM. Logical reasoning ability, and the resolution of scientific and technological problems.
4. Digital competence. The capacity to use digital technologies safely and critically, which includes digital literacy, security, digital hygiene, and privacy.
5. Personal, social, and ‘learning to learn’ competence. Soft skills such as self-awareness, emotional management, and autonomous learning.
6. Civic competence. Active and responsible participation in a democratic society based on the understanding of its functioning and the articulation of its political, economic, social, and legal structures.
7. Entrepreneurship competence. The capacity to create, innovate, and take risks. It also implies collaborating and communicating empathically and effectively with other people and developing negotiation skills.
8. Competence in cultural awareness and expression. Appreciation and expression of cultural heritage, respect for, and appreciation of the creative communication of different cultures and one’s own ideas.

Each of these basic competencies has specific competencies that will define the assessment criteria.

For example, in the subject of language, a concrete competence may be that of “producing coherent writings in different formats” or “syntactically analyzing sentences.”

Transversal competencies are also important. These are those developed in different areas such as critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, or teamwork. Today, they are highly valued in professional environments, which is why they are considered power skills.

How to assess competencies in the classroom?

Competency-based assessment requires designing situations and materials that can demonstrate that the assessed individual is capable of performing authentic tasks related to the competence that is to be verified.

This implies a change in the process, which moves from asking for content recall to observing performance in concrete and contextualized actions.

To organize it, you can follow 4 basic steps: plan, collect evidence, assess the level of each student, and communicate the results. Other steps are added to these. Let’s look at the details of the process.

Assessment planning

The objective of this first phase is to clearly define what competencies will be assessed. You can ask yourself in each case: What should the student be capable of doing at the end of the activity or unit?

Establishing assessment criteria

The criteria are the standards that will allow you to measure the assessment.

Try to ensure they are consistent with what is known as SMART goals, meaning they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

Selecting and designing contextualized activities

Regarding the selection of tasks that will generate evidence, you can combine different types such as projects, problems, presentations, or collaborative tasks.

It is imperative that they can demonstrate competencies in real situations or situations close to reality.

What tends to prevail are active methodologies, since the goal is for the student to become the driver of their own learning.

Collection of learning evidence

Next, it is necessary to collect performance evidence using different instruments such as:

• Assessment rubrics. These are matrices that define criteria and performance levels. They promote transparency, objectivity, and clear feedback.
• Checklists. These are lists of elements that must be present in a task. They work well for quick assessments and direct observation in the classroom.
• Anecdotal records. These are brief notes on observed performance and are valuable as authentic evidence in real contexts, despite their informal nature.
• 360º evaluation. This is a tool that collects feedback from multiple perspectives in the professional environment (feedback from supervisors, colleagues, other departments, suppliers, and clients). In education, it can involve the combination of self-assessment, peer-assessment, and teacher evaluation.

Other types of resources such as class diaries, portfolios, or prototypes can also be used.

The tools will depend on the type of activity performed, which in turn must be adapted to the competency or competencies that will be certified.

Analysis of each student’s evolution

Once you have collected the evidence, you must contrast the actual performance of each student against the previously defined criteria.

One of the advantages of competency-based assessments is that they are not limited to a final grade, but describe the levels of achievement the student is acquiring, and the areas they need to improve.

Clear feedback

The student must receive clear, concrete, and constructive feedback that allows them to improve their competencies.

Communication can be oral or written, or combine both channels, and can be done individually or in a group, but always ensuring that the student understands:

• What they did well.
• Where they made a mistake.
• How they can improve.

Within this strategy, it is useful to strategically combine several types of assessment. It is advisable to keep in mind that feedback must be specific, constructive, timely, and balanced.

For example, it is not enough to just point out the error, but to turn the error into an opportunity for improvement, guiding the student to find the solution themselves, or participating in it in collaboration with the teacher or other classmates, if they cannot achieve it alone.

Communication of results

Finally, whether the results are communicated to students, their families, or employees, keep in mind that it is about providing a report on the degree of competency acquisition.

This type of document is usually more relevant than a decontextualized grade.

6 types of competency-based assessment that can be combined

Competency certification can be done through continuous, formative, or process-based assessments, by observation, self-assessments, and even peer-assessments.

Let’s see what each of them consists of so you can understand how to combine them to improve your students’ results.

Continuous assessment

Continuous assessment organizes content into didactic units and measures the student’s progress regularly throughout the academic course or professional period in a corporate setting.

It allows for proactive adjustments to be introduced into the teaching and learning process as the students’ evolution unfolds in each didactic unit.

Its functioning allows for adjusting activities, rhythms, and feedback to the different learning styles in the classroom, although its objective is to gather evidence for a comprehensive final grade.

Formative or process-based assessment

Formative assessment, such as partial assessments or those carried out at the conclusion of a unit, provide data on student performance, but also on teaching practice and the effectiveness of the strategies used. It is important to note that it is not just about assessing, but about guiding.

In this case, adaptation is continuous and constructive, but without grading. The objective is to identify strengths, weaknesses, and needs to adjust teaching in real-time. This type of assessment is usually integrated into continuous assessments to complete them.

Summative assessment

While it is true that the LOMLOE prioritizes formative assessment, summative assessment is still necessary to certify the acquisition of competencies at the end of a cycle or educational stage.

As a complement to these assessments, there are others that also become important in environments where feedback is part of the process of acquiring competencies and skills.

Assessment by observation

As its name indicates, the teacher observes the students while they perform the assigned activities, analyzing aspects such as: teamwork, their problem-solving capacity, their negotiation skills, etc.

Systematic observation will allow you to optimize resource management, detect gaps, respond to doubts, and address needs during the development of the practice.

Self-assessment

Self-assessment of one’s own performance helps students become aware of their strengths, weaknesses, and take responsibility for their own learning process, ultimately self-regulating.

To achieve the best results, self-assessment must be accompanied by clear assessment rubrics.

Peer-assessment (co-evaluation)

To complete the process, peer assessment or co-evaluation with shared rubrics maximizes the benefits of competency-based assessment: it diversifies feedback, promotes collaboration, and enhances deep learning.

Ideally, work with pairs or small groups so that their members gradually gain confidence in the process.

Competency-based assessment: examples in the classroom and professional environments

The following examples, although simplified, will help you better understand how to assess competencies in your students.

Example of competency-based assessment in primary education

Suppose you are going to propose that your students work on a sustainability project, and the key competencies you will assess, which the LOMLOE considers basic, are civic competence and digital competence.

You propose that they work in groups to design an awareness campaign on the importance of responsible water use.

The roadmap could be as follows:

• Competency to assess: civic and digital competence.
• Activity: create an awareness campaign about responsible water use.
• Evidence to collect: research on the problem, creation of materials (banners, brochures, infographics, videos, posters, interviews, etc.).
• Presentation of evidence: oral or written presentation to the school community.
• Reflection on the campaign’s impact: teacher feedback, peer feedback, debate proposals, etc.

For the assessment, you could prepare a rubric that evaluates criteria in insufficient, sufficient, good, and excellent categories, such as:

• The research: whether the consulted sources have authority, whether the information is detailed, or whether multiple sources have been analyzed, among other verifications.
• The materials used: whether they are generic, clear, original and attractive, creative, or innovative.
• The communication: whether it is clear or confusing, persuasive, or effective.

Example of competency-based leadership assessment in a company

In a company, as you already know, you can also benefit from the advantages of this type of assessment.

For example, if you want to assess your leaders on criteria such as teamwork and decision-making, you can perform 360º evaluations.

This strategy allows you to collect evidence such as:

• The capacity for motivation from the perspective of their subordinates.
• Collaboration thanks to feedback from colleagues and other departments.
• Decision-making with respect to the analysis of superiors, management, or the results of the led projects.

Best practices to maximize competency-based assessment results

When conducting competency-based assessments, note some recommendations from education experts that we have compiled:

• Communicate with transparency and clarity what will be assessed, how, and when, to reduce anxiety and improve focus.
• Conduct continuous assessments, not just one-offs, that incorporate the necessary adjustments to maximize results.
• Use diverse types of assessment, because people learn and demonstrate competencies in very different ways and according to their learning style.
• Involve your students or teams from the beginning so they can participate in the design of assessments and how to improve them. They will increase responsibility in the practice and improve their results.
• Offer constructive, frequent, relevant, and personalized feedback throughout the entire training period.
• Strengthen your training as a teacher and trainer to stay up-to-date on new educational strategies for the development of authentic and innovative resources.
• Create a culture of formative assessment where students understand that assessment is a useful and motivating tool.
• Integrate information and communication technologies (ICT) in education to create interactive content and design more fair, inclusive, and respectful assessments.

In this last recommendation, Smowltech can become a valuable partner through its proctoring plans. Competency-based assessment demands an approach that can guarantee the equity and objectivity of each process.

In this regard, having tools that facilitate fair assessments for all students, reducing biases and guaranteeing academic integrity, is a point in favor of your strategies.

Technology applied to remote academic supervision helps simplify the assessment process, reducing the teaching workload. Additionally, it enhances access to education while promoting rigorous and transparent evaluation processes.

If you wish to see how all this translates into practice, we invite you to request a free demo. 

Competency-based assessment in the professional sphere

Competency-based assessment is not exclusive to the curricular environment, as we have mentioned.

In the business world, this type of assessment analyzes the ability, capacity, and knowledge of an employee or team based on the competencies required for a specific position.

Since it is a strategy that considers the long-term and the employee’s future, it helps retain talent and increase the project’s competitiveness, as employees improve their competencies and skills, and also their employability.

7 benefits of competency-based assessment

Competency-based assessment provides relevant advantages that influence the improvement of the quality of the teaching-learning process:

1. Contextualized and meaningful learning. This type of assessment helps connect theory with real situations. Student motivation and commitment increase because the student is able to verify the applicability of their knowledge firsthand.
2. Comprehensive development. The assessment is not only focused on knowledge and hard skills, but also on evaluating what is known as 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, creativity, or problem-solving, and values like autonomy and responsibility.
3. Effective professional preparation. By acquiring transversal competencies demanded in the labor market, students improve their future employability.
4. Holistic assessment. Competency-based assessment analyzes education in an integral manner: knowledge, skills, attitudes, and performance.
5. Personalization of learning. One of the premises of this type of assessment is inclusiveness, which is why the identification of individual strengths and weaknesses, and personalized guidance are fundamental elements.
6. Equity and inclusion. Given that the ways of demonstrating competency mastery are multiple, different ways of learning are respected among students.
7. Continuous improvement. Competency-based assessments are not punitive elements, as we have mentioned, but rather become a tool aimed at the continuous improvement of students, but also of educational strategies and plans.

However, it is also necessary to consider the challenges posed by competency-based assessment, such as overcoming resistance to change, ensuring adequate teacher training, establishing appropriate and relevant criteria, and designing instruments that measure competencies in real contexts.

Additional materials and resources

Use the following link to delve deeper into competency-based assessment:

• The European Qualifications Framework (EQF) provides a common framework of 8 levels that facilitates the comparison of qualifications between European countries.