Core Competencies
As New Zealand schools look towards future skills for our students and implementation of the Key Competencies there is the growing realisation that because each Competency is a complex composition of skills, attitudes, values, and understandings they are going to be difficult to assess.
The key Competencies have been identifed as:
Relating to others
Managing Self
Participating and contributing
Thinking
Using langauge symbols and text
A number of schools have settled on the following approach to implement meaningful and useful assessment developed from the competencies. Key skills, attitudes/values, and understandings are drawn from the Key Competencies as well as the eight curriculum areas. from this larger set they will then draw a group of skills that they see as being important for their students’ future and use those for assessment.
During each year teachers will:
- use curriculum contexts to expose students to a range of key understandings drawn from the competencies and curriculum areas
- work with and assess pupils against a range of skills drawn from the competencies and the curriculum areas.
- support students to reflect on their attitudes values and understandings.
This, on the surface, seems to be a workable approach.
The attached word file shows the competencies in detail and how they can be sorted into their component skills, understandings, and attitudes/values. Key Competencies
How is your school approaching the issue of complex competencies?
