Using Frameworks in Competency-Based Learning During the 1990s, many science programs across the country replaced concept-based learning with skills-based. Many teachers, however, have had difficulty making the transition. Additionally, they noted that some students do not appear to benefit from competency-based learning. One reason is that in many competency-based courses, students are not provided a conceptual framework into which they can place the competencies emphasized by the course. Instead, many instructors simply ask their students to practice skills, without providing them with the conceptual frameworks that give meaning to those skills. In my experience, no matter how much students practice any skill, few are able to develop a clear conceptual matrix for those skills without significant guidance from the instructor. A direct approach to this problem means that the instructor first provides students with the scaffolding of concepts for each skill. In this essay I describe an exercise that can be used to develop a framework for students to evaluate what they observe in their laboratory exercises. Throughout the course, I dedicate portions of several class meetings to developing a conceptual framework for evaluating explanations of observations. A week before each session, I hand out two questions that we will discuss in class the following week. In the next class meeting I divide the students into small groups and brainstorm answers for about fifteen minutes. For the next ten minutes, I moderate as each group shares their ideas with the entire class and record the consensus position derived from the opinions presented by the groups. As soon as possible, I will distribute a statement of this consensus position. This way, in students' minds, the session's work spans two or three weeks even if the session itself lasts only part of a class meeting. In each session I pose two discussion questions that address or a key question that helps students work toward the larger goal of creating a conceptual framework for explaining observations. I don't reveal the goal to students before they brainstorm because focusing on the goal itself could short-circuit their thinking in the crucial early stages of the process. The objectives are organized so that the work of each session builds on the work of the previous session. Objective of the first session: identify different types of explanation.