Reflection as attitude, not competence: a document-led case study of outcome-based education in an Indonesian economics teacher education program

Background Outcome-based education (OBE) is the mandated curriculum paradigm in Indonesian higher education, yet critics warn that outcome frameworks favor what is easiest to specify and measure. This study examined how technical, reflective and adaptive competence are represented in the 2025 curriculum of an Economic Education program and how program staff describe its enactment. Methods A single qualitative case study was conducted at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Negeri Semarang. The primary data source was the program’s 2025 curriculum document, analyzed through directed content analysis with a Technical, Reflective (reasoning and disposition) and Adaptive coding frame. Two semi-structured interviews with program staff served as explanatory data and were analyzed thematically. Findings were triangulated across sources. Results Technical and adaptive codes appeared in eight of the nine program learning outcomes. Reflective content appeared in seven, but in six of these it took the form of an attitudinal statement (commitment, integrity, ethics) appended to a technical outcome; reflective reasoning that could be demonstrated and assessed appeared in three, and the word “reflective” in one. The document explicitly ranked scientific and pedagogical outcomes as dominant and attitude outcomes as supporting. Reflection was named in assessment principles and in one portfolio rubric, while stage progression relied on grades and grade-point thresholds. Both informants described implementation as partial; they diverged on the adequacy of institutional support, and one reported that final grades were still awarded as single aggregates rather than by course outcome. Conclusions In this program, reflective competence is written into the curriculum mainly as an attitude rather than as an assessable capability, while assessment infrastructure remains grade-based. Findings are limited to one program, one document and two informants, and are offered as an analytic case.