Abstract:

Evaluation is an ongoing process of information and reflection, which consists of selecting information regarding people, processes, events and other things, including their interactions and peculiarities, in order to make value judgements for decision making about an outcome. It is a permanent source of information about the process of production of abilities, skills, and attitudes, i.e. competences.

From this perspective, the competence assessment system is located within a new paradigm based on student-focused learning, knowing that present evaluation techniques show shortcomings and limitations (the students are evaluated through only one exam).

The new assessment systems are often seen as an innovation. Although they are flexible and let the student show their abilities through several evaluations –and not only one- , they do not capture the spirit of the new paradigm.

Thus, the "new advances" such as ongoing assessment still use the same ways to grade the students’ progress and achievement (assessment throughout the course). This means that evaluation is still considered as a goal and not as a means to achieve other goals related to the different dimensions of competence-based learning.

Each competence-based assessment system must be contextualized so that it matches the various features and educational needs of educational agents and their environment. Evaluation criteria will be the benchmarks used to assess and interpret students learning performance. Thus, the origin of the evaluation criteria is in the processes characterized by the acquisition of skills, abilities and attitudes by students within a knowledge area.

From this point of view, competence is associated with the proper performance of an activity or at a certain situation, in relation to one or more other competences, such as analytical and strategic thinking, negotiation skills, impact and influence, creative thinking, among others. However, the student does not need to master all the competences. That will depend on the academic level (course). Thus, proficiency levels should be predefined, as a function of the scope of activities and requirements set at each level. And this grading system should take into account the progress made and the constraints encountered in the process of competences acquisition.

Competence, as a theoretical concept, is not directly measurable. It may become evident through tangible and intangible aspects. Thus, there are no direct references to measure the acquisition of competences. It is possible only via indirect references (results, evidence or observable behaviours) related to the ideal performance, which is the premise of validity of the concept.

While there is extensive literature related to the development of quantitative competence-based indicators, there is still a deep debate about the definition of competence, and there has been little progress on this.

Although competences are a qualitative and latent variable, our goal is to generate a set of quantitative indicators which can be measured in quantitative terms, using different options as observable behaviours or aspects related to specific or individual results or psychometric tests, among others.

Keywords:

Numeric Indicators, Competence-Based Evaluation, Statistical Learning.