The ‘mastery’ qualifications at the heart of this blog are ones in which:
- unit content is specified via learning outcomes
- the unit standard is specified via assessment criteria for each learning outcome
- to pass each unit, a learner must acquire all specified learning outcomes, which we refer to as the mastery requirement
Since the 1980s, many qualifications have adopted this approach to qualification design, from National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) to BTECs, and all of the qualifications that were accredited into the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF). For want of a name for this broad family of qualifications, we recently christened them CASLO qualifications, because they all ask assessors to “confirm the acquisition of specified learning outcomes”.
Although the CASLO approach came to dominate the landscape of regulated qualifications in England, it has always been controversial. NVQs were heavily criticised by educationists from the outset. More recently, characteristics of QCF qualifications – including the mastery requirement – have been challenged in a number of high-profile policy reviews, including the Wolf report. I’m currently leading a research programme at Ofqual into the past, present, and possible future of the CASLO approach, and one of my questions is whether the appetite for mastery qualifications has receded in recent years.
