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Everything is a Competence?

Europaeische Bildungsinitiative Miscellaneous

In Europe, learning outcomes are defined by competences. Competence consists of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. This is typical for School Education and practiced this way during the last decade(s).

But is it really always that easy? Are competencies always the result of a learning process?

Various Definitions

In the ESCO definition of the European Commission (European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations) you will find:

“The term competence is broader and refers typically to the ability of a person – facing new situations and unforeseen challenges – to use and apply knowledge and skills in an independent and self-directed way.”

The ESCO definition of competence looks like this:

“competence means the proven ability to use knowledge, skills, and personal, social and/or methodological abilities, in work or study situations and in professional and personal development.”
Source: Eurospace

If you have a look at the ECVET Toolkit (https://www.ecvet-toolkit.eu/) you will find:

“statements of what a learner knows, understands and can do on comple­tion of a learning process, and which are defined in terms of knowledge, skills and competence”.
Source: https://www.ecvet-toolkit.eu/introduction/ecvet-and-learning-outcomes

Reading all this, the question occurs: Is not competence always the same? And – are in Vocational Education and Training learning outcomes, defined as knowledge or skills, valid?

The answer is YES, and I’ll give you an example:

An Example

Type description of a tire

There is the company “Tire Fit” sells and fitting tires for cars. A customer is entering the selling room and asks for winter tires for his car. He is showing the car certification to the salesman. The salesman only must have the knowledge to classify the various parameters of the needed tire – nothing else.

During his specific education, he got the knowledge to decide which tire will fit which car and which parameters or regulations must be kept to ensure safe driving with these tires.

The customer has bought the tires and enters the workshop of the tire reseller to get the tires fixed on his rims. The worker there has learned how to take down the old tire and mount the new one. These are skills – nothing else. The worker must be able to handle the machine to disassemble the tires from the rim and after this mount the new ones and finally balance the wheel.

This is an example that in specific cases competencies are not versatile to be used as a description for learning outcomes, but in each case, it is necessary to analyze and evaluate how the learning outcomes can be described best. This can be simple knowledge as well as simple skills or complex competencies.

 

Key Areas for Quality definition in eLearning

PeterMaz Quality, Technology Enhanced Teaching
Key Areas for Quality definition in eLearning
To be successful in eLearning several key areas of quality should be fulfilled.

2002 the “Council for Higher Education” CHEA published the following seven key areas as criteria for measure eLearning quality:

  1. Institutional Mission
  2. Institutional Organization Structure
  3. Institutional resources
  4. Curriculum and instruction
  5. Faculty support
  6. Student support
  7. Student learning outcomes

In the same paper, three key areas are mentioned as challenges for quality assurance of distance education:

  • An alternative design of instructions (dealing with curriculum, student support etc.
  • Alternative providers of higher education (focus on all seven key areas mentioned before)
  • Expanded focus on training

You may download this interesting document from the CHEA-Website

http://www.chea.org/pdf/mono_1_accred_distance_02.pdf

The Importance of Technolog Enhanced Learning

PeterMaz Miscellaneous, Technology Enhanced Teaching
The Importance of Technolog Enhanced Learning
Techology is a fact in teaching and expected by learners.

eLearning, with all its characteristics defining its advantages and disadvantages was a major breakthrough in academic education and professional training. Various Universities worldwide have incorporated eLearning solution in their curriculum and commercial companies from different fields of business have also integrated this method in their staff training programs to further enhance and develop the skills and knowledge of their workforce which can significantly contribute in the company growth in terms of production and profit.

One of the advantages of eLearning is its flexibility which allows any people willing to study but with always a limited time can access education and training by using eLearning tools and modules related to the field he or she wants to study. For students, this is major advantage in trimming down tuition fee expenses and other miscellaneous fees related to their academic pursuit.

eLearning includes all forms of electronically supported learning and teaching. eLearning is the computer and network-enabled transfer of skills and knowledge. eLearning applications and processes include Web-based learning, computer-based learning, virtual education opportunities and digital collaboration. Content is delivered via the Internet, intranet/extranet, audio or video tape, satellite TV, and CD-ROM. It can be self-paced or instructor-led and includes media in the form of text, image, animation, streaming video and audio.

In eLearning environments learners interact with learning materials, their instructors and other learners from various locations and often at various times using network technologies. So by its nature, eLearning offers significant flexibility as to when and how learning occurs. eLearning can include independent, facilitated, or collaborative approaches to learning.

eLearning can be asynchronous (meaning learners are experiencing the learning at different times) or synchronous (meaning learners are experiencing the learning at the same time) or it can incorporate both drawing on the strengths of each. Independent learning is, by definition, asynchronous. Facilitated and collaborative can be either asynchronous or synchronous learning.

ICERI 2017

Europaeische Bildungsinitiative Presentation, Technology Enhanced Teaching
ICERI 2017

Peter Mazohl, head of the board of the EBI/EIE, was session chair at the ICERI 2017 (International Conference of Education, Research, and Innovation) for Gender Education.

Peter Mazohl, for the second time presenting a paper at the ICERI

At this conference, he presented two papers from the current research:

  1. Taking Notes – Technology enhanced Teaching (TET) vs Handwriting
    This paper presents a study comparing the note-taking in the Technology Enhanced Teaching environment with traditional note-taking using paper and pencil (with no specific additional methods except marking keywords with a highlighter)
  2. Teaching science Subjects to girls – the Analogous comparison and transfer Method (ACAT)
    This paper presents a kompletly new and innovative approach to teach physics to 16 – 18 years old female learners.

Peter Mazohl also had the pleasure, to meet Jon Bergmann, the developper of flipped learning, at thic conference and to talk with him in an interesting discussion.

Jon Bergmann, the developer of flipped learning, as a guest at the ICERI 2017