Abstract:

When we talk about learning assessment, we refer to something extremely complex, then we usually reduce it to two main polarities: the result and the process of learning, the former referring to the learner’s achievements, the latter to the process by which the achievements have been attained.
Without going into the merits of learning theories, relating to educational psychology, whose analysis are not within the sphere of this contribution, we will restrict our work to the analysis of the relation among the new learning paradigm, the concept of competence, developed in accordance with this paradigm and the process concerning the assessment. The formulation of competence distinguishes itself from other conceptions that the scholastic culture has traditionally identified as learning targets, that is knowledges and abilities; we have tried, therefore, to synthetize the main implications of this concept, by indicating the results of teaching-learning processes.

In this work, we take up the concept of competence to analyse the relation among the new learning paradigm of socio-constructivism, the concept of competence, developed in accordance with this paradigm and the process concerning the assessment.

As regards the debate on competences assessment it is emerging the necessity to introduce a new and articulate approach which takes into account the polymorphous nature of competence. The tendency in progress is that of aiming to an authentic evaluation based on complex tests directed to learnings assessment in terms of competence. In this regard, an interesting perspective is the trifocal view, proposed by Pellerey, through which to observe the learners' competence development. In detail, the three angles of observation are the objective dimension, the subjective dimension, the intersubjective dimension.

In order to be able to distinguish all the shadows of competence concept's meaning, the co-presence of an observable part and a hidden one whithin it, it is necessary the adoption of a multi-level evaluation pattern, to guarantee a multiplicity of points of view.

Keywords:

evaluation, skills, assessment, competence, learning.