Abstract:

The training of competencies represents one of the most important requirements of the current Educational Reform in Romania. There are some bias which teachers have to de-construct in order to understand the changes they are expected to do. Teachers have to change their way of understanding the finalities of the educational process from the model based on some general objectives to a new pedagogical paradigm, based on competencies training and integrated learning. The paper we are presenting begins by defining and comparing the key-terms of capacities and competencies, in order to establish the most important differences between the model of education based on general objectives and the new pedagogical paradigm focused on competencies. We define and characterise the concepts of integrated learning system and competencies and establish their most important advantages. The analyse of the general competencies included in the Romanian Curriculum for History and the derivation process of the specific competencies for different grades of the high-school level will be approached as case-studies in this paper. Integrated learning activities are the most adequate ways of organizing an integrated learning system. Therefore teachers have to know their characteristics and apply them when asking students to carry out activities like drafting tests, case-studies, research, projects or scientific papers. Some specific examples of integrative learning activities in History for high-school level will complete our paper. The assessment process for the competencies we have trained must be also integrative, focussed on declarative knowledge, as well as on procedural or contextual ones. In other words, when assessing these competencies we have to evaluate the information which students have achieved (what do they know about the theme they have studied), but also what they can do with the information they have assimilated and when, in what contexts they can use the strategies they were trained in.

Keywords:

Competencies, capacities, objectives, integrated learning activities, the assessment process.