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

the process itself of preparing the students for the comprehensive
examination —a process which links insight and knowledge, in order
to think the solution of the given comprehensive problem in an original
way and not to reproduce standard solutions— may quite help the
students to develop their competences. In more general terms,
however, we still need to find common ways able to assess the process
of competence development.
A second interesting perspective regards the definition of contentrelated
specific competences, in order to provide a further characterisation
of the subject-related competences, as discussed in the present paper. As
possible examples of the content-related competences, for the sake of
clarity, we list here (in the case of Physics):
After going through the degree course, the graduate should:
—be able to use perturbation theory to solve problems in atomic
physics
—be able to approach the calculation of thermo-dynamical/statistical
properties of simple or even more complex systems
—be able to carry out both simple and complex measurements,
correctly evaluating the involved errors.
—…
In other words, so far, in this paper, we identified level descriptors
for the Physics subject in a general manner. The further possible step
may then be identifying coherent sets of content-related competences.
These latter content-related level descriptors might be useful in order
to establish and further monitor the degree/level, at which the broader
specific competences are developed, either within a course unit of the
degree course (as required by the Diploma Supplement approach) or
more generally within the degree course itself (as possibly required by
the implementation of the European Higher Education Area).
PART 2. Operational Definitions of the Core Contents
A. The «Essential Elements» of a degree course
In each country and/or university the structure of a degree course may
be characterised by some specific components, which we name «essential
components or elements» of that given degree course. These components
are often compulsory elements too. As possible examples we quote here
the core content (a very special essential element, see possible definitions
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