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This paper brings into focus the discourse on competences and reviews critically the potential of large-scale assessments. The measurement of competences in adulthood is a step towards a deeper understanding of the development of competences during the life course, although only domain specific and not general competences are taken into consideration. Based on the current research, the debate on competences will be reflected and the central points in the field of modeling the constructs of skil…
The study Competencies in Later Life (CiLL) provides for the first time representative data regarding the competencies of older people between the age of 66 to 80 years in three different domains: literacy, numeracy, and problem solving in technology-rich environments. It is shown that there are significant differences between people with different qualification, but also between people of different birth cohorts. Despite major qualification differences between men and women, there are no signi…
The latest PIAAC-results confirm from an international perspective the alarming data of the leo. – Level One Study published in 2011 in which 14,5 percent of the German population capable of work could be identified as functionally illiterate. Both studies have an immense impact on political discussions concerning basis education. To point out the strength of both studies for the field of adult education, there will be a brief summary and tabular comparison concerning the research design of bot…
In PIAAC the assessed basic skill problem solving in technology-rich environments connects two different competences: problem solving and dealing with media. Based on a closer examination of this construct and related concepts the comparison of the terms shows overlaps as well as differences which also come into effect in their operationalization. A comparative analysis of the PIAAC instruments with instruments to assess media literacy, media competence or digital competence illustrates the dif…
The article provides an insight into the first results of the PIAAC study and links it with mixed-method and qualitative-empirical approaches as well as the development of competencies in life course. For this purpose, it shows two studies which focus an individual development approach in contrast to the quantitative assessment approach of PIAAC. The aim is to present advantages and disadvantages of different research perspectives.
It becomes apparent in the current critique on methods of competence diagnostics that the problem does not lie in empirical or methodical, but mainly in theoretical deficits. Psycho-dynamic explanations are missing. Moreover, competences are mainly constructed as individual traits while social dimensions are ignored. Both deficits are considerable blank spaces. This paper argues that competence cannot be the cause of performance, but only the conscious notion of how masterly ways of acting look…
In the context of lifelong learning, the validation of prior learning has become a contested topic. Views differ about whether procedures should be oriented to (work) requirements – verifying that people match a defined competence profile – or be designed to support people in their personal development. In the latter case, the procedures mainly involve self-evaluation while in the first case they are concerned with external evaluation. In this paper a validation procedure is analysed that inclu…
The article deals with the concept of self-competence, the importance of which has been growing in andragogy in the course of the individualization of professional life. Thereby the theoretical and empirical analysis focuses on the ´explanation´ of the term and its effects on the individuum. After the description of fundamental developments which cause the emergence of the topica theorectical and empirical modelling of (self-)competences follows. As a conclusion, consequences for the theory and…
