3.4 A model of student competences in EDC/HRE

We assess a student’s competence development through our perception of the student’s performance. Competences are invisible, and we can only gain access to them by designing models that support us in defining learning objectives and guiding our assessment of learning achievements.

In this EDC/HRE edition, we have adopted the following model of competences. It corresponds to the key principles of EDC/HRE – teaching through, about and for democracy and human rights.

In EDC/HRE, student competences include the following:

• political analysis and judgment;
• skills (See Part 3 of this volume);
• taking action and political participation;
• personal and social competences.

3.4.1 Competences of political analysis and judgment

Democratic citizenship requires citizens to understand the issues under discussion, which requires citizens to be informed and capable of analysing problems and lines of argument and conflict. This is the cognitive dimension of competence development (learning “about” political issues).

Without this level of understanding a citizen is easy prey for demagogues, lobbyists and populists, and will not be able to identify and negotiate his or her individual or group interests. We depend on media as sources of information, and we must be able to use them critically.

Taking action in politics, as elsewhere in life, is only possible if we know what we want to achieve. We must be able to define our interests and objectives, balancing wants and needs, values and responsibilities. Politics is a process of decision making to solve problems and settle conflicts; there is no option not to make a decision, and decisions are not possible without judgment.

Increasing complexity in our modernising societies tends to overstrain the “normal citizen’s” competences of analysis and judgment. Personalising – trust or distrust towards political leaders – is one way of reducing complexity. Education, not only in EDC/HRE, is the key to enable citizens to keep abreast of the decisions that affect them.

3.4.2   Skills

Students need a set of mental tools – skills or techniques – to acquire and use information and to form their opinions independently and systematically. These tools enable students:

• to acquire information both through media and first-hand experience and research – techniques of using print and electronic media, interviews, research, reflection, etc.;
• to select and study information (constructivist learning) – techniques of planning, time manage­ment, reading, thinking, recording;
• to determine, present, share, and argue their views – techniques of creating handouts, posters, papers, PowerPoint presentations, lecturing, discussing, debating, etc. (joint constructivist learning and deconstruction);
• to reflect the outcomes and processes of learning and application.

To a considerable extent, these skills are necessary not only in EDC/HRE, but in school as a whole. They prepare students for more advanced academic studies and for qualified jobs. Cross-curricular training of these formal, content-unspecific skills is therefore both necessary and possible.

3.4.3   Taking action

In EDC/HRE, formal skills training supports learning for democracy and human rights, but is not sufficient. EDC/HRE conceives school as a micro-community in which the students learn how to take part in society and politics by practical experience. The competences they train in school include the following:

• reflecting their wants and needs, clarifying and promoting their interests;
• voting, taking part in elections as voters and candidates (class representatives);
• negotiating and decision making;
• influencing decision-making processes through awareness raising, lobbying and collective action;
• understanding and appreciating the need for a framework of rules and sanctions.

EDC/HRE, and school as a whole, play a decisive part in providing the learning opportunities for students to contribute to their communities. However, in assessing their performance and competence development, school has its limits. The decisive area of transfer lies beyond school, in society as a whole, and extends into adult life. It then becomes difficult, if not impossible, to link learning outcomes to inputs in school.

3.4.4   Personal and social competences

Perhaps the concept of competences is somewhat overstrained when it is extended to the dimension of values and attitudes. On the other hand, it is the performance, the way students behave, that counts, and the disposition to behave can be conceived as competence. This dimension of competence develop­ment corresponds to learning “through” democracy and human rights. It includes the following:

• self-awareness and self-esteem;
• empathy;
• mutual respect;
• appreciation of the need to compromise;
• responsibility;
• appreciation of human rights as a collectively shared set of values to support peace, justice and social cohesion.