The competency problems in general education

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to establish the compatibility between general education and the educational approach of Competency Based Education, CBE, whose concept is very close to the one known as training. Competency Based Education today is, in part, the convergent result of two previous educational movements: a) the American attempt to deeply changing the way of training elementary school teachers in the 70s; and b) the world general reform of vocational education in the 90s. Even though from the beginning, CBE has been the object of serious criticism, nowadays it appears as an important topic in the educational literature and, very frequently, as an alternative in educational reforms There is not a concept of competency universally accepted. In this article, we present a definition of competency coherent with the function and role of education, generally identified with the preparation of the new generations to perform life roles in the context of a given culture. Consequently, to be competent implies the successful performance of roles in one aspect of life or in life in general. Finally, considering CBE as a transfer from Training Psychology to conventional education, the pertinence problem of this approach in the context of general education is formally brought up. After analysing the problems and difficulties of CBE in fulfilling the specific function of general education, that is, the generic preparation for life in general, it is put forward, as a starting point, the hypothesis of the possibility and the pertinence of a general competency. In theory, this highly abstract competency would apply to perform general roles in life with common aspects. The requirements of this general competency for life would be also very general: A rather large ensemble of wide knowledge and adequate use of intellectual abilities and cognitive strategies.