Outcomes based education: Where has it come from and where is it going?

This paper examines some of the research for outcomes-based education in Australia. It does not claim to be a comprehensive review - only indicative of the sorts of research behind a movement that has frequently been dismissed as being only ideologically driven. It traces the genesis of the OBE movement in the USA, how it developed in Australia in the 1990s and in particular the way in which it developed in WA. It highlights some of the research that informed the critical theoretical bases of the WA Curriculum Framework, viz, the development of the overall principles and the more specific principles of teaching, learning and assessment.