What is an advantage of competency-based approaches to teaching?

Competency-based approaches to teaching focus on ensuring that students achieve specific skills or knowledge before moving on to more complex topics. This emphasizes mastery of foundational concepts and abilities, which is crucial for effective learning in any subject, especially in fields like firefighting where skills are cumulative and interconnected. By ensuring that students have thoroughly grasped the fundamental competencies, they are better prepared to tackle more advanced material, applying what they have learned in increasingly complex scenarios. This continuity and clarity in learning help students build confidence and competence in their skills, making them more effective practitioners in their field.

In this context, while aspects like motivation, pacing, and feedback are important in educational environments, they do not directly address the unique strength of competency-based approaches, which is the preparation of students to advance in a systematic and skill-appropriate manner.