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A Conceptual Framework for Competencies Assessment.

In-Progress Reflection No. 4 on Current and Critical Issues in Curriculum, Learning, and Assessment:

By Xavier Roegiers

There can be no denying the influence of competencies on the development of the school and its curricula. It is increasingly the case that, to enrol in a socio-economic fabric, whether locally or globally, learners– male or female – must learn to place their knowledge and know-how at the service of action: they must be able to deal with complex situations of daily and professional life. In short, they must be taught to transfer their knowledge and know-how. The school and its stakeholders must therefore be tooled to be able to handle this novelty: conducting learning processes in terms of competencies, but also assessing learners in terms of competencies.

This article emphasises competencies assessment, particularly in a comprehensive curriculum vision, attempting to articulate all the facets of a school cursus for all. It begins by situating the contribution of competencies in the world of the school: Where do they come from? What do they bring? What is their future? It then shows how several conceptions of competency have come to exist side by side. Two of them dominate in particular. On the one hand, we have the conception of “generic competencies”, which constitute a general stock of knowledge for the learner, notably including socio-affective competencies; on the other, there is the conception of “situational competencies”, which represent the learner’s potential ability to deal with certain complex situations referring to an exit profile. The article finally addresses the general problem of competencies assessment, both generic and situational competencies, by showing the methodologies specific to each type to be mobilised for assessment, and the difficulties facing stakeholders when it comes to assessing both categories. In conclusion, it marks out a few new paths to follow for assessing competencies.

Keywords: Competencies – curriculum – assessment – life skill – generic competency – exit profile – transfer – integration teaching

 

 

Read the article in English:
(PDF, 1.03MB)

  

 

Learn more about competencies assessment:

These three-minute videos aim to share the perspective of experts from different regions.


Alphonse2Dr Alphonse Sebaganwa, Rwanda
Teacher at the College of Education at the University of Rwanda. (…)

Xavier Roegiers, Belgium
Professor of Education Sciences at the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, and Chairman of Bureau d’Ingénierie en Education et Formation (BIEF). (…)

Lori Diane Rabinovitch, Montreal, Canada
Consultant for the Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports, and researcher at UNESCO Chair in Curriculum Development at the University of  Quebec. (…)

Hugo Alberto Labate, Argentina
 National Director of the Pedagogical Coordination of the Argentinian Ministry of Education and Sport. (…)

 

 

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3 Comments

  1. Jack

    Reply

    Way cool! Some extremely valid points! I appreciate you writing this write-up and the rest
    of the site is also very good.

  2. Farideh Mashayekh

    Reply

    Claiming Learning in Situation towards developing social and civic competencies,is very stimulating.But ,in our complex connected world,with increasing inequalities,do you know any other effective teaching-learning approach than the one practiced by Paolo Feirrer named “conscientisation” towards emancipation instead of alienation?If yes,please lets discuss it with concrete commune problem situation ,in our complex world,via this excellent interactive media.
    Regards,
    Farideh Mashayekh

  3. Dr. Jérémie DOVONOU

    Reply

    Ideally, CBA is a very good teaching approach for knowledge should be integrated and transferred accordingly on due occasion and for lifespan. On this ground, Dr. Rogiers is well known for having fought for ages for CBA. However, the reality is that like any approach, CBA has some major flaws as well. So no single approach is sufficient in teaching/learning situation. We therefore need to combine approaches or methods shifting from one to another. Being eclectic while teaching is the right thing to do to really meet every learner’s style of learning and needs. Benin (my country) has been on CBA for more than two decades now, yet no significant improvement has been noticed about the quality of learners’ outputs, quite the contrary. This is due to many factors both inner and alien to the country’s context and reality. One can say that CBA is not tranferrable to everywhere. CBA in some contexts remains a luxury though it is one of the active methods ever. Indeed, it requires some requisites to be conducted successfully.

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