This monograph contrasts two prominent models of education, Competence-Based Education (CBE), more recent and currently dominant in most school systems around the world, and Bildung-Oriented Education (BOE), once the basis of the school systems of Northern Europe. CBE is assessment-oriented and interprets learning as the acquisition of clearly definable and allegedly measurable competences, and is supported by supranational organisations, such as the OECD, which approach education from the perspective of human capital theory. BOE is (...) instead teaching-oriented and characterises learning holistically as aimed at the progressive articulation of a meaningful ‘big picture’ in the student’s mind. Emerged in Northern Europe under the influence of the ideals of the Enlightenment and Neo-Humanism of individual and collective autonomy and responsibility, BOE was subsequently enriched with a hermeneutical approach to teaching and socio-political objectives of emancipation and solidarity originating within Critical Theory. The book first analyses CBE and argues that, in spite of its celebrated ‘scientificity’, it is internally incoherent and unreliable, contributes to structural forms of oppression and injustice, can foster social pathologies, and fails to provide students with the kind of intellectual autonomy they need as both human beings and citizens of our complex post-industrial societies. Then, it introduces BOE and articulates and defends an updated version of it from objections raised by critical theorists, poststructuralists and postcolonial thinkers. It argues that BOE is a coherent and flexible model of education that endows students with autonomy and responsibility, can reduce structural forms of oppression and injustice, and can heal social pathologies. (shrink)

This book radically counters the optimism sparked by Competence Based Education and Training, an educational philosophy that has re-emerged in Schooling, Vocational and Higher Education in the last decade. CBET supposedly offers a new type of learning that will lead to skilled employment; here, Preston instead presents the competency movement as one which makes the concept of human learning redundant. Starting with its origins in Taylorism, the slaughterhouse and radical behaviourism, the book charts the history of (...) competency education to its position as a global phenomenon today, arguing that competency is opposed to ideas of process, causality and analog human movement that are fundamental to human learning. (shrink)

This paper notes the critical response that the ‘competence movement’ has received from writers in philosophy of education and argues for a more positive assessment of what it offers in relation to: (i) the place of practical competence in a liberal education, (ii) the meritocratic principles underlying the competence movement, (iii) the ‘transparency’ of expectations in assessment, and even (iv) the element of practical competence in moral performance. It emphasises, however, that not all versions (...) of ‘competence’ can be defended in these terms and that this requires a more generic and cognitively laden concept of personal and professional competence. (shrink)

The rapid expansion of competence‐based education through the work of the National Council for Vocational Qualifications has now, thanks to generous public funding and official endorsement by the Department for Education, penetrated the theory and practice of professional studies in teacher education at both school and post‐school levels. The NCVQ model of CBE is criticised and alternatives described. The current NCVQ approach is neither the only nor necessarily the most appropriate model of occupational development on (...) offer. Models of professionalism based on the concept of ‘expertise’ are recommended as the ones most likely to produce the reflective practitioners required to enhance the status and quality of teaching in schools and colleges. (shrink)

La formación basada en competencias es una orientación educativa que pretende dar respuestas a las necesidades de la sociedad contemporánea; el término competencia, a pesar de su amplia utilización y reconocimiento desde las Ciencias Pedagógicas, ha tenido diversas significaciones y es objeto de múltiples interpretaciones a partir de las disímiles posturas epistemológicas de los investigadores. En el artículo fueron valoradas algunas de las propuestas realizadas en el último decenio por varios autores sobre la formación de competencias, lo cual permitió asumir (...) posiciones acerca de esta problemática de acuerdo con los retos y problemas del contexto social, comunitario, profesional y organizacional de la universidad cubana. The competency-based learning and development is an educational orientation that seeks to respond to the needs of the contemporary society, the term "competence", despite its widespread use and recognition from the Pedagogical Sciences with different meanings and subject to multiple interpretations given the dissimilar epistemological positions of researchers. The article examined some of the proposals made in the last decade by several authors on competence formation that helped to assume scientific positions about this problem according to the challenges and problems of the social, community, professional and organizational of Cuban universities. (shrink)

Competency has become a key concept in education in general over the last four decades. This article examines the development of the competency‐based movement with a particular focus on the significance it has had for nursing education. Our hypothesis is that the competency movement can only adequately be understood if it is analyzed in relation to the broad societal transformation of the last decades—often summarized under the catchword neoliberalism—and with it the emergence of managerial models for Human (...) Resource Management (HRM) for the reorganization of social services. Classical professions, which were characterized under welfarism by an esoteric knowledge based on ethical norms, have now become marketable commodities that can be evaluated in the same way as other commodities. We want to underline that while this development is still under way, it is the concept of competency that was the decisive political instrument enabling this profound change. With the widespread implementation of competency‐based education that now governs nursing knowledge, the development of a critical, oppositional perspective becomes more challenging, if not entirely impossible. We will be focusing primarily on nursing education in Canada, although we maintain that it has relevance for nursing internationally. (shrink)

This paper notes the apparent ineffectiveness of the critical response to competence-based education and training (CBET) and suggests that this results from a failure to correctly isolate CBET's unique, identifying features. It is argued that the prevailing tendency to identify CBET with ‘competence’ is fundamentally mistaken and that the competence approach is more properly characterised in terms of its philosophically naïve methodological strategy. It is suggested that this strategy is based upon untenable assumptions relating (...) to the semantic status of statements of outcome and the epistemological and ontological constructs to which such statements are intended to correspond. (shrink)

Paul Hager and I worked on a large number of research projects and publications throughout the 1990s. The focus of this work was on developing a competency-based approach to professional education and assessment. I review this work and its impact over the years. Notwithstanding the fact that most professional associations today have a competency framework and that most university courses use them in their courses for initial professional education, they still have a relatively naïve view of the (...) relationship between theory and practice. The second part of the article outlines how this might be theorized in health education. (shrink)

Reducing the global treatment gap for mental health conditions in low- and middle-income countries requires not only an expansion of clinical psychology training but also assuring that graduates of these programs have the competency to effectively and safely deliver psychological interventions. Clinical psychology training programs in LMICs require standardized tools and guidance to evaluate competency. The World Health Organization and UNICEF developed the “Ensuring Quality in Psychological Support” platform to facilitate competency-based training in psychosocial support, psychological treatments, and foundational (...) helping skills, with an initial focus on in-service training for non-specialists. Our goal was to design the first application of EQUIP to implement competency-based training into pre-service education for clinical psychology trainees. With Makerere University in Uganda as a case study, we outline an approach to develop, implement, and evaluate a competency-based curriculum that includes seven steps: Identify core clinical psychology competencies; Identify evaluation methods appropriate to each competency; Determine when competency evaluations will be integrated in the curriculum, who will evaluate competency, and how results will be used; Train faculty in competency-based education including conducting competency assessments and giving competency-based feedback; Pilot test and evaluate the competency-based education strategy with faculty and students; Modify and implement the competency-based education strategy based on pilot results; and Implement ongoing evaluation of the competency-based curriculum with continuous quality improvement. This approach will be formally evaluated and established as a foundation for pre-service training in other low-resource settings. (shrink)

Public health ethics began to emerge in the 1990s as a development within bioethics. Public health ethics education has been implemented in schools of public health in recent years, and specific professionalism and ethics competencies were included in the Master of Public Health (MPH) competency set developed nationally and adapted by individual schools of public health around the country. The University of Texas School of Public Health approved the present set of MPH competencies in 2005. After 4 years of (...) experience, we now report information measuring the extent to which Professionalism and Ethics competencies and subcompetencies are being met in the MPH degree program. To this end we have audited the MPH Professionalism and Ethics competency forms for FY2009 MPH graduates (n = 61). Eight courses, including required MPH core courses plus the practicum and culminating experience, were found to have substantial professionalism and ethics content. Further, 67.2% of graduates met eight or more of the 13 competencies and subcompetencies, but only 36.1% met all thirteen, indicating a need to identify topic areas to be added to, or enhanced in, the MPH curriculum. In addition, these findings will inform ongoing efforts to enhance ethics education in our health science center. Assessment of these competencies and subcompetencies is an essential step in strengthening ethics education at our institutions and in better preparing our graduates for a challenging future. We report our efforts here to demonstrate one way of carrying out programmatic assessment of ethics education in a school of public health. (shrink)

Evidence-based practice is often acknowledged as the future state of psychology, yet those graduate students who will soon be applying such practices tend to hold several misconceptions about the major components within this framework. This review highlights implications for graduate education, clinical training, and professional competence in light of the movement toward evidence-based practice in psychology. These implications are discussed in relation to the close parallel between the major components of the evidence-based framework and the (...) current Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. The evidence-based framework is discussed as an ideology that promotes lifelong learning and best prepares graduate students for ethical clinical practice throughout their careers as psychologists. (shrink)

Résumé : L’article propose une démarche méthodologique permettant d’identifier la réflexion professionnelle chez des stagiaires en formation à l’enseignement. En effet, la capacité d’analyser sa pratique de façon réflexive est une composante d’une compétence professionnelle à développer selon le Ministère de l’Éducation du Québec. Une certaine forme de réflexion chez les étudiants est donc à acquérir et, du point de vue des tuteurs de stage, à faire acquérir. Quels sont les critères implicites que les enseignants associés des écoles ou les (...) superviseurs universitaires identifient afin d’évaluer la présence ainsi que la qualité de la compétence réflexive chez le stagiaire ? L’étude identifie une dizaine de points de repère afin de favoriser chez les tuteurs de stage l’évaluation de la compétence réflexive de leurs stagiaires. L’article valide ces critères à partir d’un extrait de discours de stagiaire, puis confronte cet extrait à une autre approche, consistant à détecter des reconceptualisations chez les stagiaires pour dépister de la réflexion. Une certaine cohérence s’établit avec les critères empiriques d’identification de la réflexion identifiés par induction chez les tuteurs de stage. S’ensuit une discussion sur ces critères en lien avec les approches méthodologiques adoptées. La recherche utilise un devis qualitatif et s’appuie sur des entretiens semi-structurés. Abstract : This article proposes a methodological process aimed at identifying professional reflection among student teachers in teacher education. The ability to analyze one’s practice reflectively is a component of one of the professional competencies that must be developed according to Quebec’s Ministry of Education. A certain form of reflection must therefore be acquired by students, and, from the standpoint of practicum supervisors, it must be developed in students. What are the implicit criteria that mentor teachers in schools or university-based supervisors identify in order to assess the presence and quality of student teachers' reflective competence? This study identifies a dozen guideposts to assist supervisors in this direction. The article first validates these criteria based on an excerpt of a student teachers’ statements, then submits the same excerpt to another approach aimed at detecting the student teacher’s reconceptualizations with a view to pinpointing reflection. A certain degree of coherence is established with the empirical criteria for identifying reflection as identified inductively by practicum supervisors. A discussion follows on these same criteria in line with the methodological approaches adopted. This research is based on a qualitative study and draws on semi-structured interviews. (shrink)

The curricula of the undergraduate study programs on Zakat and Waqf management in Indonesia are still in their early stages of development. In this research, we aim to evaluate these curricula using a competency-based approach towards several study programs. Specifically, we compare the needs of Zakat and Waqf management with the curricula of undergraduate study programs in Indonesian universities. To fulfil our objective, we conduct several interviews with the program heads and practitioners. We also propose a particular curriculum for (...) the study programs on Zakat and Waqf management. For this purpose, we apply a comparative research method and engage in qualitative research. Our results show that some competencies are not accommodated in the current curricula to meet the expectations of the Zakat and Waqf management. Therefore, we argue that it is important to change these curricula content to achieve the expected competencies. (shrink)

Since the establishment of the National Council for Vocational Qualfications (NCVQ) in 1986, the influence of the competence-based approach, which underpins National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs), has spread beyond its original remit and now extends into schools and higher education. Competence strategies are criticised for their conceptual imprecision and their behaviourist, foundation. More significantly, it is argued that the competence approach displays confusion and incoherence in its interpretation and use of the ideas of ‘knowledge’ and ‘understanding’, (...) and so should be challenged and resisted by educators committed to these values. (shrink)

Research shows that entrepreneurial activities significantly promote economic development, which enhances the importance of the innovative entrepreneurial potential of college students. This study analyzes the effect of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intention from the perspective of planned behavior theory. By examining the significant role of entrepreneurship education at colleges and universities on economic and social development, we established a conceptual model. To understand the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention, the hypotheses propose the intermediary role of (...) entrepreneurial ability, and the study provides evidence from China the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention. Improving entrepreneurial intention and encouraging college students to establish businesses through entrepreneurship education in universities is crucial. This study proposes a hypothetical model of the relationship between entrepreneurial competence and entrepreneurial intention in entrepreneurship education at universities. Using a questionnaire survey of college students with practical experience in the Yangtze River Delta of China, the bootstrap method in the SPSS macro program process software verifies the hypotheses. The results show that entrepreneurial teaching, business plan competition, and entrepreneurial practice support positively affect entrepreneurial competence. In addition, entrepreneurial competence plays an intermediary role in the relationship between entrepreneurial teaching, business plan competition, entrepreneurship practice support, and entrepreneurial intention. Entrepreneurship education improves the ability to establish a business in the present and in entrepreneurial activities in the future. Entrepreneurial competence obtained through entrepreneurship education continuously affects entrepreneurial intention. (shrink)

The American Society for Bioethics and Humanities has created a quality attestation process for clinical ethics consultants; the pilot phase of reviewing portfolios has begun. One aspect of the QA process which is particularly challenging is assessing the interpersonal skills of individual clinical ethics consultants. We propose that using case simulation to evaluate clinical ethics consultants is an approach that can meet this need provided clear standards for assessment are identified. To this end, we developed the Assessing Clinical Ethics Skills (...) tool, which identifies and specifies specific behaviors that a clinical ethics consultant should demonstrate in an ethics case simulation. The aim is for the clinical ethics consultant or student to use a videotaped case simulation, along with the ACES tool scored by a trained rater, to demonstrate their competence as part of their QA portfolio. The development and piloting of the tool is described. (shrink)

A significant historical role in the development of competence-based vocational qualifications in England and Wales is customarily ascribed to the 1985 to 1986 Review of Vocational Qualifications (RVQ), the body which invented the National Vocational Qualification (NVQ). This paper analyses the RVQ's internal debates. The paper demonstrates that the RVQ proposed only the general principles of a structure and an administration for a reformed vocational qualifications system. The RVQ did not address in detail either the definition of occupational (...) competence or the curriculum and assessment models to be embodied in the NVQ. In the light of this analysis, the paper re-evaluates the role of the RVQ in the development of competence-based vocational qualifications, and suggests some potentially fruitful areas for future research. (shrink)

There is little research on the effectiveness of self-leadership programs (SLPs) in graduate education based on the progress in emotional competences development (ECD), and only a few of the studies incorporate its relationship with personality traits (PTs). This article studies the differentiated impact of an optional SLP, which has eight workshops with a learner-centered and experiential approach, depending on PTs. With a quasi-experimentalex post factodesign, students' scores in EDC were analyzed according to their PT extremes:introversion, antagonism, lack of (...) direction, neuroticism, andclosed to experience. ANCOVA tests, with ECD pretest as a co-variable, were applied for each PT. The results indicated that the SLP presented a differentiated impact in ECD in four of the five PTs: neuroticism, introversion, antagonism, and lack of direction. These findings can be a key element for the participating students in SLPs because self-leadership requires self-knowledge. ECD can contribute to more integral learning in the graduate education experience, enhancing the preparation for the world of work. (shrink)

Recent findings suggest that medical students’ moral competence decreases throughout medical school. This pilot study gives preliminary insights into the effects of two educational interventions in ethics classes on moral competence among medical students in Munich, Germany. Between 2012 and 2013, medical students were tested using Lind’s Moral Competence Test prior to and after completing different ethics classes. The experimental group participated in principle-based structured case discussions and was compared with a control group with theory-based (...) case discussions. The pre/post C-scores were compared using a Wilcoxon Test, ANOVA and effect-size calculation. The C-score improved by around 3.2 C-points in the EG, and by 0.2 C-points in the CG. The mean C-score difference was not statistically significant for the EG or between the two groups. There was no statistical significance for the teachers’ influence on C-score. In both groups, students with below-average C-scores improved and students with above-average C-scores regressed. The increase of the C-Index was greater in the EG than in the CG. The absolute effect-size of the EG compared with the CG was 3.0 C-points, indicating a relevant effect. Teaching ethics with PBSCDs did not provide a statistically significant influence on students’ moral competence, compared with TBCDs. Yet, the effect size suggests that PBSCDs may improve moral competence among medical students more effectively. Further research with larger and completely randomized samples is needed to gain definite explanations for the results. (shrink)

A models-based approach has been advocated as a means of overcoming the serious limitations of the traditional approach to physical education. One of the difficulties with this approach is that physical educators have sought to use it to achieve diverse and sometimes competing educational benefits, and these wide-ranging aspirations are rarely if ever achieved. Models-based practice offers a possible resolution to these problems by limiting the range of learning outcomes, subject matter and teaching strategies appropriate to each (...) pedagogical model and thus the arguments that can be used for educational value. In this article, two examples are provided to support a case for educational value. This case is built on an examination of one established pedagogical model, Sport Education, which is informed by a perspective on ethics. Next, I consider Physical Literacy which, I suggest, is an existentialist philosophical perspective that could form the basis of a new pedagogical model. It is argued, in conclusion, that a models-based approach along with a reconstructed notion of educational value may offer a possible future for physical education that is well grounded in various philosophical arguments and the means to facilitate a wide range of diverse individual and social educational ?goods? (shrink)

This paper describes the discourses underlying nursing teachers’ talk about their own norm‐critical competence. Norm criticism is an approach that promotes awareness and criticism of the norms and power structures that exert an excluding effect in society in general and in the healthcare encounter in particular. Given the unequal relationships that can exist in healthcare, for example relationships shaped by racism, sexism and classism, a norm‐critical approach to nursing education would help illuminate these matters. The studied empirical material (...) consisted of focus group interviews. Nursing teachers discussed their norm‐critical competence based on the university course “Norm‐Aware Caring” in which they had recently participated. Through a critical discourse analysis, three discourses were identified in their talk, all of which had the potential to disrupt traditional, normative nursing education. However, in all three discourses there was an underlying discourse of normality, clearly positioning the teachers as exemplifying the “normal.” The binary constructed between normality and otherness contradicts a basic tenet of the norm‐critical approach and may hamper the development of genuine norm‐critical competence in nursing education. (shrink)

This study aims to evaluate the impact of an educational intervention on social competence and social acceptance among adolescents. The participants were 106 adolescents aged 12-15 years (M = 13.41 years; SD = 0.81 years). Participants were randomly assigned to the control group (n = 44) and an experimental group (n = 69). In the experimental group, an intervention based on the Sport Education Model (SEM) was applied. While in the control group, an intervention based on (...) the Traditional Model of Direct Instruction (TM-DI) was carried out. An experimental design with repeated pretest and posttest measurements was developed. The Adolescent Multidimensional Social Competence Questionnaire (AMSC-Q) was used to assess social competence. The Guess Who (GW4) questionnaire was used to assess social acceptance (SA) among peers. The preliminary results obtained in this investigation showed that the intervention based on the SEM (experimental group) promoted greater improvements in some indicators of social competence and social acceptance among peers than those obtained with the TM-DI (control group). Furthermore, the results confirm a similar impact of the intervention between boys and girls. It is also relevant to note that these findings highlight the efficacy, feasibility, and suitability of this educational intervention with adolescents. (shrink)

Entrepreneurship education has a lot of research on influencing factors of entrepreneurial intention but rarely studies the influence mechanism of emotional competences on entrepreneurial intention from the perspective of social entrepreneurship. This article takes college students’ social entrepreneurs as research objects, drawing on Krueger’s model, theory of planned behavior, social cognitive theory, and triadic reciprocal determinism theory. This paper constructs a conceptual model with emotional ability, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial intention, to further study their relationship. The 312 students from (...) China College Students’ Social Entrepreneurship Project engaged in early entrepreneurship practice, conducted a questionnaire survey and used the empirical test of the structural equation model to analyze the relationship between college students’ emotional competences, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial intention. The result show: First, social–emotional competence had a positive effect on entrepreneurial intention, and the positive effect of personal affective competence on entrepreneurial intention was not supported or only partially supported. Second, all the dimensions of entrepreneurial self-efficacy were significantly and positively correlated with entrepreneurial intention. Third, emotional competence has a significant positive impact on entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Fourth, entrepreneurial self-efficacy mediated the relationship between emotional competence and entrepreneurial intention. (shrink)

There is a critical need to understand the effect of changing assessment methods on demonstrated competencies in teacher education. This study examined how the transition from online to in-person testing affects the measured teaching competencies of students who completed a Competency-Based Enhancement (CBE) program, aiming to identify factors contributing to performance differences and strategies for adaptation. Using a one-group pre-test-post-test design, the study involved 669 graduating teacher education students at Pangasinan State University. Participants completed online pre-tests and (...) in-person post-tests, with data analyzed through paired samples t-tests, multiple regression, and ANCOVA. Findings revealed a significant decline in post-test scores despite CBE participation, suggesting a substantial effect of the testing modality change. The change in the testing environment emerged as the most significant predictor of score differences, while student engagement levels were positively associated with minor score decreases. These results underscore the need for adaptive assessment strategies in competency-based education programs. While limited to a single institution, this study recommends implementing a scaffolded approach to assessment transitions and enhancing student support services to mitigate adverse effects on performance across different testing modalities. (shrink)

Educational philosophers and sociologists have pointed out the potential risks of an educational trend of therapy, which seems to have connotations with Western macro-discourses of individualisation, popularised psychology and privatisation of the public room. The overall purpose of this article is to discuss potential risks and possibilities regarding moral aspects of therapeutic approaches in education from a teacher perspective. I will present the non-mandatory Swedish topic Livskunskap, life competence education (LCE), in a case study in the field (...) of therapeutic education. The article is based on a small, qualitative empirical study of teachers’ experiences of teaching LCE and observations of LCE lessons. The empirical material is analysed through two theoretical lenses, the first being critical aspects of therapeutic education, the second being an educational theory of the ethics of care, mainly developed by Nel Noddings. (shrink)

This book addresses the following question: What is a sustainable society, and how can higher education help us to develop toward it? The core argument put forward is that the concept of sustainability reaches much farther than just the direct aspects of environmental threats and carbon emissions. Using higher education as a point of departure, the book shows that sustainability involves a broad range of disciplines, from nursing and nutrition to technology and management. It argues that a sustainable (...) society entails a distinct perspective on society that influences our social thinking in terms of ethics, democracy and knowledge development. The book also discusses if (and if so, how) higher education can and should contribute to such a development based on the principles of the freedom of science in a liberal, democratic society. The book presents Mutual Competence Building as a concept higher education can adapt in order to contribute to a sustainable Society. (shrink)

Competence based education (CBE) and Bildung oriented education (BOE) fare differently when faced with problems that afflict our societies. CBE intends learning as the acquisition of separate competences thought of as objective measurable dispositions and goals to achieve, characterised by motivational states and intellectual and technical skills. By contrast, BOE is holistic and transmission oriented. BOE is understood as a process of interaction between the self and the world in the most general and widest possible way. (...) BOE conceptualises learning as a kind of construction of a meaningful picture of the world in learners’ minds. In this paper, I make a general case in support of BOE and against CBE that draws on Rahel Jaeggi’s conception of a form of life as an organised cluster of practices with a normative character. Forms of life are basic constituents of the social world. I first dissect the notion of form of life and that of immanent critique, which is, according to Jaeggi, the type of critique used by participants in a form of life to overcome problems and crises and make the form of life flourish (Jaeggi, 2022). I then contend––following Jaeggi––that forms of life can be conceptualised as collective problem-solving and learning activities with normative structure and historical character. This is so, because emancipatory forms of life are those that progressively resolve their own problems by learning about social reality through the exercise of immanent critique. Next, I argue that CBE and BOE represent two distinct types of critical attitude which ground respectively to diverse ways to conceive the norm underlying a certain form of life. I contend that CBE is a deviant form of life because its capacity for critical transformation is structurally limited due to a normative failure. This type of failure happens when the norm – and the critique -- is external to the form of life and applies to it from outside. Here the norm aims to be universally applicable because it is conceived as neutral, in line with the so-called “ideal of impartiality” -- that is the idea that there are neutral and impartial criteria by which it is possible to assess forms of life -- or alternatively when the norm assumes the form of an ideal perceived as never perfectly obtained in practice. One mode of the ideal of impartiality is represented by instrumental rationality which is exclusively concerned with the search for efficient means, and which consequently is not concerned with assessing the goals or ends pursued, differently from forms of life’s attitude. Furthermore, instrumental rationality is considered a dominant view because due to its alleged neutrality, it shapes not only the economic field but also those social practices that involve people and institutions (cf. Cruickshank, 2014, Mattei, 2023, Popp Berman 2022). However, the feeling is that neutral (instrumental) rationality allows to evade the question of meaning that social practices and forms of life have for people involved in them, and which have a distinct normative nature. By contrast, the type of rationality that BOE endows learners with is a form of immanent rationality, i.e. a form of rationality which considers contingencies and different contexts and situations which pose different problems to solve. BOE asks for reflection and this, in turn requires the use of historically, culturally and socially situated notions. In immanent critique trade-off procedures are used to strike a balance between the need to preserve the characteristics of a temporally situated form of life to safeguard its identity and the need to change some of them to cope with new problems. I conclude that while CBE does not stimulate the abilities required to heal the pathologies of forms of life and might even hinder their development, BOE is well suited to equip students with these abilities. In this work I will refer to ‘continental’ as well as to ‘analytical’ philosophers, while the style is more analytical as what pertains argument presentation. (shrink)

In this paper, we use the competency labor framework to examine how individuals with disabilities ‘fit in’ their mainstream education and early work contexts. Competency labor is an impression management tactic that regulates one’s perception of competency using cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects to project competence within societal norms and display rules. We draw on longitudinal interview data collected over 3 years (late 2019 to early 2023) on the lived experiences of eight individuals with disabilities, from their initial (...) encounters with disability as recalled, to their real-time experiences in a top-ranked business school and early work contexts. Despite being seen as less competent in their initial years, they showcased their competence through performance-based counters to ableism and by pivoting on their mind–body differences. The study uncovers the emotional (fear, anxiety) aspects of being perceived as less competent, causing internalized microaggressions. By covering three life phases and transitions, this research illuminates how individuals with disabilities employ competency labor strategies to fit into different ableist contexts over time. The study offers theoretical and practical insights for organizations, suggesting that individuals with disabilities can enhance their on-the-job self-efficacy and be more competitive, without requiring additional accommodations, thus maintaining an illusion of inclusivity in colonial environments. (shrink)

Higher education has become more student-centered as the Bologna process assigns students more time to study and research. Online teaching has been needed during the pandemic, which can be challenging regarding didactic and assessment. This paper analyzes project-based learning (PBL) as a form of teaching and assessing students in a bioethics course on reproductive ethics. The team project was the final assessment of the Faculty of Bioethics core curriculum course, "Bioethics, Technology and Procreation,” offered to two student groups (...) in the 2019–2020 school year. The analysis of the results of PBL is descriptive qualitative with semi-quantitative data from student feedback. Forty students were presented with a detailed methodology of team projects and were encouraged to form teams of 3 to 5. They need to develop a team project with creativity and pastoral sensibility that will communicate the content assimilated in class to a selected target audience, with adequate means to measure the impact of their project on their target. Thirty-eight students formed ten teams and presented ten projects. Each team had 2–4 encounters with the professor and 6–10 encounters among team members. Six of the ten projects were categorized as didactic, three mediatic, one didactic-mediatic and 0 artistic. The grades of this final assignment ranged from 7 to 10, with an average of 8.7 out of 10. The survey feedback demonstrated high satisfaction, as students discovered new values in teamwork and pastoral applications. However, this innovation can be more time-consuming for the professor and the students, requiring more significant time management, teamwork and communication competency. (shrink)

Attempts by David Bridges and others to justify certain models of competence-based education and training (CBET) are criticised on the grounds that they do not challenge the behaviouristic nature of the functional analysis system which underpins CBET. Competence strategies serve to de-skill and de-professionalise teaching and other public-service occupations by their technicist and reductionist approach to human values and knowledge. Educators committed to liberal values should eschew competence strategies in favour of learning theories inspired by (...) the experiential tradition. (shrink)

WINDSOR C, DOUGLAS C and HARVEY T. Nursing Inquiry 2012; 19: 213–222 Nursing and competencies — a natural fit: the politics of skill/competency formation in nursingThe last two decades have seen a significant restructuring of work across Australia and other industrialised economies, a critical part of which has been the appearance of competency based education and assessment. The competency movement is about creating a more flexible and mobile labour force to increase productivity and it does so by redefining (...) work as a set of transferable or ‘soft’ generic skills that is transportable and is the possession of the individual. This article sought to develop an analysis of competency based clinical assessment of nursing students across a bachelor of nursing degree course. This involved an examination of a total of 406 clinical assessment tools that covered the years 1992–2009 and the three years of a bachelor degree. Data analysis generated three analytical findings: the existence of a hierarchy of competencies that prioritises soft skills over intellectual and technical skills; the appearance of skills as personal qualities or individual attributes; and the absence of context in assessment. The article argues that the convergence in nursing of soft skills and the professionalisation project reform has seen the former give legitimacy to the enduring invisibility and devaluation of nursing work. (shrink)

Background and purpose Educators’ ethical competence is of crucial importance for developing students’ ethical thinking. Previous studies describe educators’ ethical codes and principles. This article aims to widen the understanding of health- and social care educators’ ethical competence in relation to core values and ethos. Theoretical background and key concepts The study is based on the didactics of caring science and theoretically links the concepts ethos and competence. Methods Data material was collected from nine educational units (...) for healthcare and social service in Finland. In total 16 semi-structured focus group interviews with 48 participants were conducted. The interviews were analysed with a thematic analysis according to Braun and Clarke. Ethical considerations The study is approved by the Declaration of Helsinki, the legislation regarding personal data and the General Data Protection Regulation. The study received ethical permission from the University of Jyväskylä. Informed consent was obtained from all the educational units and participants in the study. Findings The findings are presented based on three general patterns, an ethical basic motive, an ethical bearing and ethical actions. Subthemes are Humane view of students as unique individuals with individual learning, Bearing of tactfulness and firmness, Bearing of perceptiveness and accessibility, Bearing of satisfaction and joy over student learning, Valuing bearing towards each oneself and colleagues, Ability to interact and flexibility, Collegiality and a supportive work community and Educators as role models and inspirators. Conclusion Educators’ personal and professional ethos is crucial to student learning, personal growth and ethical reasoning. Therefore, it is important to further develop educators’ training regarding ethical competence. (shrink)

Critical aspects in the field of education are currently related to low levels of socioemotional competences and high rates of school dropouts. However, there are no standard practices or guidelines for helping countries to assess and train social and emotional competences. To overcome this limitation, the project Learning to be (L2B) aims to propose a comprehensive model of the assessment and development of social and emotional competences that bring together policymakers, researchers, teachers, school authorities and learners from different participating (...) countries: Finland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain. The project attempts to create an international framework for regulating activities and supporting teachers working on the social and emotional competences of the students and to provide tools which can be used across countries. The aim of the paper is to describe how L2B has been developed in Spain by analyzing the contributions of the international framework and extracting the specific needs in the Spanish context. Specifically, we describe two products of the project: a) the process for creating a toolkit, a tool focused on creating activities and materials for helping teachers develop social and emotional competences of students and b) the results of an exploratory study in Spain in which social and emotional competences are assessed and compared to the international framework. First, we explain the definition of social and emotional competences used for creating the toolkit. Second, we analyze responses of Spanish students to questionnaires administered before applying the toolkit in the schools. The paper describes social and emotional competences in Spain and evaluates the overlap between relevant variables in Spain and those used for developing the toolkit, the international tool. Specific needs in Spain are discussed, as well as the contribution of the project for promoting the improved development of students’ social and emotional competences, improving learning outcomes and stronger social cohesion in schools and local communities, as well as the utility of the results for creating new educational policies. (shrink)

Sustainability education entails transforming values and habits as well as developing skills. Much progress has been made in developing the appropriate teaching and learning strategies which not only impart knowledge but shape attitudes and behaviour. However little attention has been given to the education of the educators who often are teaching and learning at the same time. A particularly important but also challenging competency to teach is systems thinking. This paper is based on the teaching and learning (...) experience of two of the authors who teach the same sustainability paper in different semesters in a business faculty. A two-tier reflection presents their learning journey. The reflection of the first author focuses on the challenges experienced with teaching systems thinking in the first semester. The reflection of the second author is based on the next iteration of the course modified in light of the first author’s learnings including the incorporation of student-faculty partnerships. The paper outlines practices and learning associated with this intervention. (shrink)

Ethics training is an important integrative theme in the American Psychological Association guidelines for the psychology undergraduate major. Similarly, preparation for ethical research and clinical practice are central to training health service psychologists. With the move toward competence-based education, skill-based assessment and training are needed to extend the usual didactic instruction in ethics. In this study, we examined the use of deliberate practice as a form of competence-based education in comparison to control groups (...) for the training of 63 novice undergraduates to handle basic ethical situations in therapy. We found that students’ ability to respond to simulated therapy clients improved in the deliberate practice group, but not in the case discussion or motivational interviewing control groups. Findings suggest that basic and focused applied ethics’ skill training can be effectively used early in a student’s training. (shrink)

Arts education in schools frequently experiences the pressure of being validated by demonstrating quantitative impact on academic outcomes. The quantitative evidence to date has been characterized by the application of largely correlational designs and frequently applies a narrow focus on instrumental outcomes such as academically relevant competencies. The present review aims to summarize quantitative evidence from quasi-experimental and experimental studies with pre-test post-test designs on the effects of school-based arts education on a broader range of competency outcomes, (...) including intra- and interindividual competencies. A systematic literature search was conducted to identify relevant evaluation studies. Twenty-four articles reporting on 26 evaluation studies were eligible for inclusion, and their results were reviewed in terms of art domains and outcome categories. Whilst there is some evidence of beneficial effects on some competencies, for example of music education on arithmetic abilities, speech segmentation and processing speed, the evidence across arts domains and for different outcomes is limited due to small sample sizes, small number of studies, and a large range of effect sizes. The review highlights that sufficiently powered experimental studies with pre-test post-test designs evaluating arts education are sparse and that the “gold standard” of experimental research comes at the expense of a number of other study characteristics such as sample size, intervention and follow-up length. By summarizing the limitations of the current experimental research, the application of experimental designs is critically assessed and a combination with qualitative methods in mixed-method designs and choice of relevant outcomes discussed. (shrink)

The present study aimed to examine how to improve the effectiveness of moral exemplar-applied interventions based on the pillars of the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) framework, autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Past research has mainly focused on the relatedness and attainability of moral exemplars for predicting motivation outcomes. The data for this study consisted of synthesized data sets from previous studies examining the motivational impacts of distinct moral exemplars and intervention methods. The main syntheses for these data sets used Multilevel (...) Modeling (MLM) focusing on relatability, attainability, and intervention methods, corresponding to relatedness, competence, and autonomy in the SDT, respectively, as predictors. In general, there was a significant interaction effect between the attainability or relatability, and the intervention method. Autonomous instruction methods, which support autonomy, were demonstrated to boost motivational outcomes. Implications from this study support the employment of SDT to examine the use of moral exemplars in moral education and were consistent with previous exemplar studies. (shrink)

Project-based teaching (PBE) has emerged as an effective pedagogical strategy for the development of key skills in higher education, especially in areas such as critical thinking and technological competencies. This study analyzes the impact of EBP on the development of these skills in university students of technological careers. Through a mixed methodology that includes surveys and analysis of academic results, the progress of 120 students was evaluated before and after participating in a project-based course. The findings suggest (...) that EBP not only significantly improves critical thinking skills, but also encourages a more efficient and creative use of technological tools. (shrink)

The multicultural characteristics of students belonging to ethnic minorities in China pose challenges for teachers. Teacher competence in dealing with culturally diverse students has been extensively discussed in international scholarship and referenced by Chinese researchers, but there is limited empirical research on how teacher education programmes in China respond to this challenge and theoretical discussions. Based on content analysis on teacher education programmes and syllabuses, as well as expert interviews with four teacher educators at two teacher (...) education institutions, this study investigates how the cultivation of multicultural competence is incorporated into teacher education programmes, and the external forces that shape it. Drawing on international scholarship on teachers’ multicultural competence and Cochran-Smith’s framework on external forces influencing multicultural teacher education practices, I argue that the cultivation of teachers’ multicultural competence for their future work in ethnic minority education is, to a great extent, missing from teacher education programmes. Furthermore, what pre-service teachers’ competence covers, and the external forces that influence how teacher education plays out in practice, are influenced and somewhat determined by the large social, economic and political context as well as the agenda for educational reform in China. (shrink)

Communication occupies a key place in the professional activities of physical education instructors, who involve students in physical culture and health activities, create conditions for them to master the experience of such activities through the implementation of health-preserving technologies in the process of student-centered education. The aim of the research is to investigate the psychological and pedagogical peculiarities of professional and communicative competence formation in future physical education instructors in postmodern education. The research involved 32 (...) students; it was conducted in 2019-2021. Questionnaire survey of students was carried out according to the authors’ fact-finding questionnaire, aimed at studying the state of professional and communicative competences formedness in conformity with motivational, cognitive, behavioural, value-based, emotional-volitional criteria. The ascertaining stage of the experiment revealed insufficient level of professional and communicative competences formedness in the students according to the specified criteria. The formative stage of the experiment, which provided the creation of a communication-oriented educational environment for students, revealed an increase in the number of students with high and sufficient levels of professional and communicative competences formedness. An increase in the level of students’ mastering of theoretical knowledge in the field of physical education and sports to form professional and communicative competences during their study of mandatory and optional components of the educational program was also established. A high level of professional and communicative competences and theoretical knowledge of future physical education instructors, formed during their studies at a higher educational institution, will contribute to improving the efficiency of their future professional activities. (shrink)

Entrepreneurship plays a significant role in promoting the social and economic development of a country. At present, entrepreneurship education is widely carried out in universities and colleges in order to improve students’ entrepreneurial ability, and then to provide support for the formation of a comprehensive entrepreneurial situation. As entrepreneurship education has gradually become a hot topic of teaching for innovation and entrepreneurship education of international students, studies on the influencing mechanism of entrepreneurship education of international students (...) in relation to their entrepreneurial behavior are conducive to providing theoretical basis and empirical evidence for international students’ entrepreneurship education, so as to pertinently guide international students’ innovation and entrepreneurship practice. This study aims to explore the influence of entrepreneurship education, government support for entrepreneurship, global competence, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial intention on the entrepreneurial behavior of international students in the Republic of Korea. It summarized and drew on the results of the existing literature research. According to the contents and points of research, this study takes the international students studying in Korea as the sample and uses statistical analysis software, SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 24.0, to establish a structural equation model to conduct empirical study on the influencing mechanism of entrepreneurial behavior of international students in Korea, so as to better understand the influence of entrepreneurship education in Korean universities and colleges on entrepreneurial behavior of international students in Korea. Based on the analysis results, this study puts forward the theoretical basis for the policies related to effective management of entrepreneurship, which will help alleviate the unemployment of young people studying in Korea and the tight labor market supply and demand. (shrink)

Courting competency: nursing and the politics of performance in practiceNurses have long anguished over how best to assess performance in clinical practice. The ‘competency’ movement appears to have provided a solution to this problem. In this paper I undertake a ‘radical hermeneutic’ interrogation of the cultural text of clinical practice doubled with a poststructuralist interpretation of the literal text of the Australian competency project. Through this work I attempt to expose some of the deeply embedded assumptions that underwrite the competency (...) movement and amplify the problems posed by an uncritical appropriation of competency based training and assessment in nursing education. (shrink)