Problems Encountered by Teachers in the Implementation of the Basic Features of Competency Based Education (CBE) in the Classroom

Abstract

Under the competency based, activity oriented, student centered curriculum introduced to state schools in Sri Lanka since 2007, a new role for teachers has been proposed to guide students to construct knowledge and derive meaning through their day-to-day experiences. In order to adopt this role, teachers first need to know the philosophy of the intended CBE and its basic features. Misinterpretations in this regard lead to a wide gap between the expected curriculum and the implemented curriculum. Researchers have pinpointed that previous curriculum reforms have failed to achieve most of the objectives for which they were introduced, mainly due to inefficiencies in teacher preparation for the expected curricular changes. (Karunasena, 1994, Leelaratne, 1994). Seneviratne( 2009) carried out a research on the organization of science lessons under CBE and concluded that teachers have faced problems in its implementation because the basic features of CBE have not been disseminated to teachers considering their actual practices and the realities of many schools. Thus, the responsibility of the teacher preparation institutes is to find out the feasibility of a curriculum reform by teachers at regular intervals and take necessary measures to fill the existing gaps. Therefore, this study attempts to explore the issues associated with the implementation of basic features of CBE among the in-service teachers of different subjects in order to support them to adopt this new role in the classroom.