Practices of implementation of competence-based education: Teachers’ experiences in the context of changes

Abstract

The competence-based education (CBE) offers conditions for achieving educational goals, emphasizing responsible implementation of value-based decisions and current knowledge to foster future development. Within this framework, students are provided opportunities to improve their results. Lithuania's education reform is shifting towards CBE, with teachers' agency playing a crucial role in implementing this approach and shaping students' learning outcomes. To explore how key components of CBE are being integrated into teachers' practices during the preparatory phase of the transition, data was collected through an open-ended survey involving thirty teams of comprehensive school teachers. Content analysis identified several components of CBE, including the connection between learning content and real-life problem situations, co-creative learning agency, teacher-student roles, responsibilities, personalized teaching processes, teachers’ perceptions of a good lesson, and the directions of agency in relation to core CBE elements. The study found that teachers already held value-based and ideological foundations of CBE. However, transitioning to an integrated educational culture requires a paradigm shift, enhanced professional agency, and systematic support to facilitate this transformation.