Group 6: Competences in Formal, Non-Formal and Vocational Education
Competences in Formal, Non-Formal and Vocational Education
Prof. Dr. Hajo Petsch
Prof. Dr. Soren Ehlers
Along with the PISA and the PIAAC study the term ‚competence‘ has gained high attention in educational discourses. Hereby the psychological understanding of the term became relevant. The definition and measurement of competences are being discussed in different psychological and philosophical discourses. Furthermore the term ‚competence‘ is being discussed together with other terms as `qualification skills´ `ability´ and `performance´.
As there are different approaches of understanding the term `competence´ we want to define our understanding and compare it from our different nationalities points of view. Hereby it is going to be examined, how helpul the term can be to describe results of educational and vocational learning processes at different stages of learning.
This working group will aim at understanding the term ‚competence‘ in the different participatingn countries. Therefore, the following analytical and comparative questions into focus to understand what role the topic has in the current adult and lifelong learning discourse. To that end, the following aspects will be examined trough individual examples collected and briefly analysed by participating students:
1. What are the different understandings of the term competence?
2. What disciplines are involved in the competence discourse? How do they differ?
3. How can the term “competence” describe aims and contents of educational and vocational learning processes in different stages of learning?
4. What does `competence´mean in linguistic and scientific contexts?
