Transversal competencies
Introduction
When approaches by competencies are referred to in the curricula, the impression is given that there is only one approach by competencies. In fact, there are several. Two different concepts may be presented which are not in contradiction with each other, but which call for different priorities. It is proposed to describe them, and to study them through use of the two questions: “For which teachers?”, “For which students?”
first approach
The first is based on the development at school of transversal competencies. This approach is addressed to students who do not have problems with basic competencies.
They consist:
Re-orienting learning by making it more active: instead of being submitted to learning lectures, the students are invited to resolve problems situations. Learning is based on active methods.
Taking into account life competencies in learning and in classroom life.
Promoting an inter-disciplined approach.
This approach is very rich, very ambitious. It can only be put into effect validly and in a durable way by teachers who are very well trained. Furthermore, it requires favorable conditions:
Reduced groups of students
Appropriate rooms
Indispensable materials
second approach
The second approach is based on the development of basic competencies. It is still called “integration pedagogy”. It seeks primarily to give the students the competencies which, concretely, will permit them to fit into the socioeconomic milieu. The competencies of life are also taken into account, but they are a part of the basic competencies rather than being added (who knows where) to program content.
For example:
“Produce a written document consisting of three sentences in a significant communication situation” or even “Solve a problem situation which uses the four basic operations on the numbers 0 to 1000”. These competencies are called “basic” because each student must master them before passing to a higher class. Integration pedagogy is based on the fact of teaching the child very early to manage complexity.
This complexity is made up:
Of school experience: knowledge, know- how, how to be;
Of situations in everyday life, contexts that the student will have to deal with;
Of life (Transversal) competencies which he will have to call up to resolve situations.
Learning leads according to alternating two types of learning:
Punctual learning
Integration learning
For example:
For 5 weeks, the teacher develops resources required for competencies: the rules of grammar, conjugation, handwriting, calculation techniques…. This is punctual learning which is done as in habitual teaching.
During the sixth week, the teacher stops completely teaching new things to the students. During the whole week, and in all fields, he/she proposes that the students resolve complex situations in which the student must mobilize all that he has learned during the five last weeks (resources).
The students are invited to work alone or in small groups to resolve these situations. Several situations at the same level will be proposed to them: one for practice, another to evaluate their experience and eventually still another to remedy their difficulties or to progress. After this first integration module, there is a return to 5 weeks of punctual learning, and thus the alternation continues four or five times during the school year.
The teacher is thus invited to change his practices in two stages.
In a first stage, he/she introduces resources following his/her traditional methods. Active learning methods are not required. What is required is, for all six weeks, that each teacher proposes to the students’ complex situations in which they use what they have learned: not only the knowledge, the know-how, but also life competencies. These are the integration weeks.
When the integration modules are in place, the teacher is led to change his/her class procedures: instead of teaching in a lecture format, he/she learns to progressively lead the learning processes in an active way.
Evaluation takes place in a logical way during these integration modules and, at the end of the year, the students are given other complex situations to resolve individually.
Conclusion
This approach, supported by several international organizations (UNICEF, UNESCO, AIF) has been developed in several European and African countries. The research results carried out in this regard show that:
They encounter support from all the actors, in particular the parents and the students.
They obtain a gain in efficiency of the educational systems.
They make all students advance: the strong students advance, but the weak students also advance, sometimes more than the strong students.
The teachers feel safe; they quickly observe changes in their classes, but they can also introduce innovation at their rhythm.
A difficulty in this method has to do with the material required. If it is to be effective, each student should have supports to resolve complex situations. In a good number of countries where it is being used, the question has been resolved by furnishing the students with a “complex situation notebook”, in addition to existing school manuals.
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