The European Community's vocational training policy of the 1980s influenced the competency-based National Vocational Qualifications in England and Wales. This historical perspective is needed if closer cooperation with European partners is anticipated. (SK)

Competence is defined as a symbolic field composed of ideas, projects, and emotions attributed to organizations. The process of competence development is viewed as symbolic transformation, with four phases: interpretation, restructuring, legitimation, and institutionalization. Competence is described as not an objective term but a relational…

As its title suggests, this is an account of "the Second E-Forum on Competency-based Approaches" and summarises the opinions and experiences expressed by the participants. The forum was based on a discussion paper prepared by the Canadian Observatory of Educational Reforms and a series of questions raised by Philippe Jonnaert were used to…

Analyzes "competence" as it pertains to teaching to clarify the term. Four normative conceptions of the meaning of competence that result from the analysis are identified. Implications for teaching and educational settings are explored. (DF)

Higher education is facing world-wide a number of problems such as: adjusting to larger and more homogeneous student populations, increasing the number of graduating students, and preparing them for lifelong learning. Enhancing students' learning proficiency can make a substantial contribution to solving each of these major concerns. Taking the…

Discusses educating for the professions where teachers seek to enable students to engage in professional practice as competent practitioners, questions the adequacy of traditional approaches for promoting competence practice, and suggests that competence development focus on enriching experience of practice and change in the structure of the…

The narrowly behavioristic model used by the competence movement is part of a New Right process of culture change aimed at displacing the prevailing professional ethic and culture. The competency method oversimplifies the nature of organizations and work as well as social relations. (SK)

Based on reader feedback and practitioner interviews, a model of reflective/competent practice was revised to include meta-competencies, four components of professional competence (knowledge/cognitive, functional, personal/behavioral, values/ethical), and reflection itself as a super-meta-competence. (SK)

Presents three areas of skilled performance as examples of an interpretive approach to the identification of nursing competencies. Also examines competency measurement strategies, definitions of competency-based education and examination, limits of competency-based education, and alternative approaches. (CT)

Competency-based education (CBE) has moved from observing task performance to the cognitive structures underlying performance. This appropriation of cognitive psychology has not reconciled differences in definitions of competence. Instead, it is used to explain the purposes of CBE in meeting the needs of industry, supplanting any other values that…

The movement in British nursing education from nursing schools to higher education has been criticized for deficiencies in skills-based training. Adding a competency-based approach using National Vocational Qualifications is a way to ensure that nurses have practical competence as well as knowledge and understanding. (Contains 24 references.) (SK)

Examines philosophical and epistemological perspectives on definitions of competence and its measurement in workplace contexts. Concludes that consensus on parameters and definitions of competence are needed to ensure the clarity, consistency, and reliability of measurement. (Contains 115 references.) (SK)

Investigates whether formalized gatekeeping procedures and program-level characteristics influence the rates at which deficient trainees are graduated from counseling programs. Findings support the implementation of both broad, program-wide training standards and specific, formalized procedures to more effectively screen deficient trainees.…

The competency movement, or "the cult of competency," is critiqued in this paper, which argues that the movement is less concerned with the complex facets of competence than it is with a technology of specific knowledge and application. Educational institutions have several message systems through which objectives can be achieved:…

This critique of competency-based education discusses competencies in relation to excessive reductionism, behavioral psychology, determinism, bureaucratization, serial thinking, and the industrial-commercial nexus. The author shows that competency-based systems assume the existence of a social reality that is, however, an artificial extrapolation…