Projects on Competencies in the OECD Context - Analysis - DeSeCo

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Definition and Selection of CompetenciesCCC ContextOne crucial question for selecting and defining competencies iswhether the relevant domain is restricted to formal education or encompassesboth formal education and everyday life. It is widely recognizedthat the skills and competencies of young people are a result ofschooling and a result of everyday life – a result of formal educationand a result of informal education. Thus, not every outcome has beentaught by the school; it might be a product of everyday life, even if it isa product of everyday life within the school. Some of the outcomes relatedto CCC are neither a part of the official curriculum nor formallytaught, but relevant aspects for the individual learning process and thesocial capital of a society. Within the discussion of competencies, thisbroader understanding of education has an influence on selecting anddefining competencies.The inclusion of the whole learning context (not only the school butalso everyday life situations) is a normative decision which influencesthe conceptualization of competencies: it leads to curricular boundedcompetencies as well as competencies not bound by the school curriculum.The main interest in the CCC project is, therefore, not school outcomes,but education outcomes.Survival KitThe underlying hypothesis in the CCC project was that it was possibleto isolate a set of competencies common to all educational systems,and accepted as a common goal of compulsory school, becausethey were considered necessary for surviving. In the original conception,the indicator to be developed was supposed to measure not anoptimal, but a minimal level of competence judged necessary for individualsto live an individually worthy and socially valuable life. The conceptbecame known as the survival kit, including basic skills and fundamentalknowledge: life skills. The term itself turned out to be ambiguous.For some members it was thought to pertain to the survival ofindividuals while others referred to a kit necessary for the survival ofdemocratic societies, for the continuation of community in the sense ofDurkheim. Depending on the interpretation, the conception of the survivalkit varied.18 ESSI OECD SFSO
Definition and Selection of CompetenciesThe definition of the concept “survival kit” also depends on the borderbetween school and other life spheres, on the border between cognitiveand non-cognitive knowledge and skills, and finally, it depends ifit is the outcome of formal school education or informal education.Representative concepts are, for instance, numeracy and literacy on theone hand, and democratic values, tolerance, and the capacity to cooperateon the other hand. These issues were not resolved within the CCCproject group.CCC as a Preparation for LifeThe notion of preparing for life has become somewhat of a leadingthread in the definition process of cross-curricular competence. To prepareyounger generations for future demands is seen as the centralchallenge for society. It reflects the idea that schools or education systemsare not ends in themselves, but means for making students competentfor life, not just for school. In the CCC approach more generalaspects of capabilities are emphasized, such as coping with life situations.Preparing for life is just as much acquiring the capabilities forreading novels and listening to music as it is acquiring the abilities todeal with the economic or professional world, to solve social problems,to build up social relations, etc. There is also a reference to the socializationprocess linking the micro to the macro level. The psychological dispositionis seen as a product of history shaped partly through the family,partly through school, and partly through the conflict or cooperationbetween schools and other institutions.Originally, the objective was to come to a definition in an inductiveway by starting from factual, real life situations of young adults and byanalyzing what they need to be able to cope with life. This inductiveway was judged later as very interesting, but not successful at leadingto a broad conceptual framework for life skills.Learning ApproachMost of the already mentioned competencies are related to learning.It is well known that everything that the younger generation hasto be prepared for in the future cannot be anticipated. Every generationhas to handle unforeseen situations and life circumstances.SFSO OECD ESSI 19
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Projects on Competencies in the OECD Context - Analysis - DeSeCo

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