Final Report Pilot Project - Relaciones Internacionales de la ...

Physics Subject Area Group
PART 1. The Academic’s Evaluation of the Specific Competences
1. General introduction
To our knowledge this paper is the first attempt, aimed at identifying
—at a EU level— the specific competences, which are appropriate for
the physics degree courses in a two cycle scheme (Ba and Ma cycles in
the current terminology of the Bologna Process). The present report deals
with competences rather than with skills 1 . Skill is the ability to carry out a
well-defined task. Competence is a broader concept, at a higher level than
skill: it is the ability to do a wider task, where knowledge is needed (e.g.
research competence, ability of fully organising a meeting,…). In this
context we remark that the Problem Solving skill, even though it is listed
by the questionnaires for the Tuning consultations among the generic
skills, it is for Physics a very important and specific competence. Problem
solving is here intrinsically linked to the ability of making reference to the
fundamentals of the physics experiments and theories and to the ability
of using mathematics in a way related to the real world.
The questionnaire listing the possible specific competences was
initially prepared by a restricted group of contact persons in the Tuning
1 Do notice, however, that in the actual questionnaire form, which was used in the
present consultation, the distinction among the two words was not perceived clearly
and therefore they are often equivalent. The involved concepts have been clarified later
in the Tuning Glossary (see the Closing Conference Brochure).
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