Year: 2015
Type: book
Abstract: In previous research at attempt has been made to create some structure in the jungle of publications on competence and competence development (Mulder, 2011;2014).Three approaches of competence were distinguished, which signify the theoretical development regarding the construct of competence, and the application of it in practice.These three approaches were: 1. Competence and behaviouristic functionalism; 2. Competence as integrated occupationalism; 3. Competence as situated professionalism.The latter approach is the most current in the advancement of competence theory and research, and points at the importance of the context of use of the concept.This conceptual-contextual connection is visible both in theoretical underpinnings of competence and in professional contexts.A major constituent of the meaning attributed to competence in theory is the discipline, specialisation and epistemology of scientists who are using or developing competence theory.For example, we see that this differs for 1. motivation psychology (White, 1959), in which the academic construct of competence emerged as performance motivation; 2. intelligence testing theory which showed that the predictive validity of testing for competence was higher than for testing intelligence McClelland (1973); 3. performance management theory, which indicated that competence and performance were strongly related, and that competence enables performance without necessitating an excessive amount of effort and costs (Gilbert, 1978); 4. educational science in which competence-based education was conceptualized as a system which is aimed at producing competent graduates who are certified based on demonstrated performance (Grant et al, 1979).As said, the situated professionalism approach is the most current approach of conceptualizing competence.A major constituent of this approach is the appreciation that a certain competence representation can mean something totally different for a one job holder or job situation than for another.Furthermore, important notions are that the agency of a person and the affordances of a job context (Gibson, 1979) enable the development of competence or effectivities (Shaw, Turvey, and Mace, 1982), that this approach is based on notions of situated cognition (Brown, Collins and Duguid, 1989), the idea that the work context takes shape as a community of practice in which players interact and share and negotiate meaning (Lave and Wenger, 1991;Wenger, 1998;Wenger, McDermott and Snyder, 2002) and that personal epistemologies (Hofer and Pintrich, 2002) have a stronger influence on professional development than mere skills training.Finally, it also acknowledges that desired competence is defined by what key stakeholders in a professional context expect in terms of professional action.
Author: Martin Mulder
Institution: Wageningen University & Research
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2588228269