Content uploaded by Florian Kragulj
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Florian Kragulj on Jul 29, 2020
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
Designing a Tool to Assess Professional Competences: Theoretical Foundations and Potential Applications
Abstract
This conceptual paper outlines the descriptive theoretical foundations or kernel theories for designing an information and communication technology (ICT) tool to assess professional competences in the Austrian trade and craft sector. Upon completion, the ICT-tool serves as a boundary object in which applicants and assessors can interact. While this paper consists of a literature review and conceptual discussion, the overall project is methodologically placed within a multidisciplinary design-science paradigm. Design science scaffolds and structures the development of a theoretical model, the generation of assessment-items and the ICT-tool itself. This paper discusses the necessary descriptive knowledge or kernel theories on which the design of the ICT-tool rests. First, we describe the validation of prior learning-a process advocated by the European Union to make professional competences visible. Second, we describe the process how professional competences come about: through formal, non-formal and informal learning. Subsequently, we outline a knowledge-driven discourse on professional competences and discuss how different definitions of professional competence afford different approaches for its assessment. By presenting a use-case, we outline how the ICT-tool may guide applicants and assessors through this process.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
This handbook brings together and promotes research on the area of vocational education and training (VET). It analyzes current and future economic and labor market trends and relates these to likely implications for vocational education and training. It questions how VET engages with the growing power of human development approaches and with the sustainable development agenda. Equity and inclusion are discussed in a range of ways by the authors and the consideration of the construction of these terms is an important element of the handbook. It further addresses both the overall notion of system reform, at different scales, and what is known about particular technologies of systems reform across a variety of settings. Vocational learning and VET teacher/trainer education are discussed from a comparative perspective. National and comparative experiences are also shared on questions of equity and efficiency in funding in terms of those that fund and are funded, and for a range of funding methodologies. As well as reviewing existing gaps, this handbook is looking forward in identifying promising new directions in research and environment.
The paper motivates, presents, demonstrates in use, and evaluates a methodology for conducting design science (DS) research in information systems (IS). DS is of importance in a discipline oriented to the creation of successful artifacts. Several researchers have pioneered DS research in IS, yet over the past 15 years, little DS research has been done within the discipline. The lack of a methodology to serve as a commonly accepted framework for DS research and of a template for its presentation may have contributed to its slow adoption. The design science research methodology (DSRM) presented here incorporates principles, practices, and procedures required to carry out such research and meets three objectives: it is consistent with prior literature, it provides a nominal process model for doing DS research, and it provides a mental model for presenting and evaluating DS research in IS. The DS process includes six steps: problem identification and motivation, definition of the objectives for a solution, design and development, demonstration, evaluation, and communication. We demonstrate and evaluate the methodology by presenting four case studies in terms of the DSRM, including cases that present the design of a database to support health assessment methods, a software reuse measure, an Internet video telephony application, and an IS planning method. The designed methodology effectively satisfies the three objectives and has the potential to help aid the acceptance of DS research in the IS discipline.
In this chapter the theme of competence is addressed in relation to a processual approach to discursive practices. The object " competence " is constructed differently within three main discourses: entity-based, rela-tional, and practice-based. We shall problematize how language constructs competence as a research object. In other words, what happens when we no longer believe in the language/reality binary relation? We pose the question of how a non-representational (better, a more-than-representational) approach changes our way of talking about competence. We do not argue " against " language; rather, we invite exploration " beyond " language and beyond language in a written text, since there is always a " something " that exceeds the speaking subject. We propose an experimental written/visual text: we use a traditional written text, based on the illustration of competence in two episodes, and a visual language based on three photographic interludes. The aim of the three interludes is to interrupt the smooth discourse that talks of competence in different practices. In this chapter, we invite empathy in reading; we challenge the rhythm of reading with an invitation to feel the poetry of a visual language. In so doing, we want to produce the effect of troubling the static, rational, and written representation of competence.
Understanding Practice brings together the many different perspectives that have been applied to examining social context. From Ole Dreier's work on the therapeutic relationship, to Hugh Mehan's work on learning by disabled students, to Charles and Janet Keller's work on blacksmithing, the chapters form a diverse and fascinating look at situated learning. A distinctive feature of the book is the wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches to the problem of understanding cognition in everyday settings.
In the prevalent rationalistic approaches, human competence at work is seen as constituted by a specific set of attributes, such as the knowledge and skills used in performing particular work. As an alternative to the rationalistic approaches, an interpretative approach, "phenomenography," is proposed and explored here. Findings suggest that the meaning work takes on for workers in their experience of it, rather than a specific set of attributes, constitutes competence. More specifically, the results demonstrate that the particular way of conceiving of work delimits certain attributes as essential and organizes them into a distinctive structure of competence at work.