Schools are introducing project based education in which, aside from knowledge and skills, a lot of attention is given to personal competence development for students. The Competence Monitor is a tool which can help students and teachers gain insights into how well students are doing in their competences, and show which steps the student can take to further develop themselves.
With the Technasium Foundation as initiator of this project and Atrocit as technical partner, we are working on something great: a technically and educationally strong tool, tech which can be deployed immediately in Technasium-schools throughout the Netherlands. Agile development is how we accomplish that.
In competence focused education it is both difficult and undesirable to try and capture personal development in grades. The aim is to provide insight in the competences of the students and to facilitate setting goals and talking about personal progress with teachers. The Competence Monitor is based on self-evaluation, and helps to provide information in more than 20 dimensions directly to the student.
As teacher your goal is to help students and to facilitate their growth. The Competence Monitor is the perfect tool in pursuit of that goal: Instead of judging the student one-directionally, the information is the start to a coaching conversation. The Competence Monitor is not a grading tool, but a system that helps students see what facets of their personal development need more attention.
The development graphs show beautifully how a student has evolved over time. Where grades measure progress relative to the expectation set by school, the Competence Monitor shows absolute growth.
Students fill out the forms once or twice a year, set personal goals, and talk about their development with teachers. Through this a visualization of growth is created over time, which can be used in the students portfolio.
We are proud of the Competence Monitor, and think it has enormous potential. In case you want to know more about this tool, do not hesitate to contact us.
Of course we would love to discuss other ideas for educational software as well. Please also have a look at our development philosophy when it comes to tailor made software.