The OECD is developing internationally comparable indicators of skills and competencies, and of their roles in promoting individual, social, and economic wellbeing. Member countries are jointly developing a range of instruments for delivering relevant measures of learning outcomes and the distribution of skills among the population. However, there remains a need to develop the theoretical underpinning of the selection and definition of skills and competencies. To this end, the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (SFSO) has launched, within the framework of the OECD indicators project, a three-yea
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The OECD is developing internationally comparable indicators of skills and competencies, and of their roles in promoting individual, social, and economic wellbeing. Member countries are jointly developing a range of instruments for delivering relevant measures of learning outcomes and the distribution of skills among the population. However, there remains a need to develop the theoretical underpinning of the selection and definition of skills and competencies. To this end, the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (SFSO) has launched, within the framework of the OECD indicators project, a three-year program entitled Definition and Selection of Competencies: Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations (DeSeCo). The goals of DeSeCo are to strengthen the theoretical foundations for defining and selecting key competencies and to provide guidelines for future development work for the assessment of key competencies in an international context. This publication represents the scholarly work conducted during the first phase of the project. It contains a number of articles that explore the issue of key competencies from a range of perspectives and commentaries from representatives of policy and practice. The introduction details the main features, relevance and rationale for the project and discusses some of the issues associated with identifying key competencies in light of the contributions in the publication. The articles are: Competencies for life: a conceptual and empirical challenge / Laura Hersh Salganik (p. 17-32); Defining and selecting competencies: historical reflections on the case of IQ / John Carson (p. 33-44); Concept of competence: a conceptual clarification / Franz E. Weinert (p. 45-65); Competencies for the good life and the good society / Monique Canto-Sperber, Jean-Pierre Dupuy (p. 67-92); Ambiguity, autonomy, and agency: psychological challenges to new competence / Helen Haste (p. 93-120); The key to social fields: competencies of an autonomous actor or how to avoid being abused, alienated, dominated or exploited when one is neither rich or powerful / Philippe Perrenoud (p. 121-149); Key competencies critical to economic success / Frank Levy, Richard J. Murnane (p. 151-173); Competencies and education: contextual diversity / Jack Goody (p. 175-189); Competencies as working epistemologies: ways we want adults to know / Robert Kegan (p. 192-204); Joining and functioning in groups, self-concept and emotion management / Cecilia Ridgeway (p. 205-211); From unity of purpose to diversity of expression and needs: a perspective from UNESCO / Jacques Delors, Alexandra Draxler (p. 214-221); Are all key competencies measurable?: an education perspective / Bob Harris (p. 222-227); The knowledge economy: a business perspective / Carlo Callieri (p. 228-231); Competency management as an investment: a business perspective / Jean-Patrick Farrugia (p. 232-235); Key competencies for whom?: a labor perspective / Laurell Ritchie (p. 236-240); Defining educational goals: a window on the future / Uri Peter Trier (p. 241-246); Concluding remarks / Heinz Gilomen, Dominique Simone Rychen, Laura Hersh Salganik (p. 247-251).
A report exploring and clarifying what DeSeCo can learn from previous projects related to competencies is indexed at TD/TNC 66.10.
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