Cheetham and Chivers

Cheetham & Chivers (2000) have reviewed a number of alternative approaches to competence which had been applied to professional occupations.

Alternative approaches to competence

These are:

  • The reflective practitioner approach, which focuses on tacit-knowledge and its application and advocates reflection as a key tool of both professional development and practice.
  • The technical-rational approach, which focuses on teaching underpinning professional knowledge and theory as a basis for application.
  • Functional competence, typically embedded within occupational standards, which focuses on tasks to be performed and functional skills, rather than personal attributes or behaviour.
  • Personal competence, which focuses on the personal attributes required for effective performance.
  • Meta-competence, which stresses the importance of competencies that enable individuals to monitor and develop other competencies, or that span other competencies, enhancing or mediating them.
Cheetham & Chivers (2000)

 

Many publications, however, do not adequately define the exact nature of the concept to which they are referring. Different terms are also used interchangeably and it is not always clear what different authors mean by the terms 'competence' and 'skill'.

For example, if the terms competence and skill are defined as synonyms, as well as information literacy and information skills, and information literacy is defined as 'a set of competencies' then it is not always easy to understand the meaning of phrases such as 'information competence skills' 'information literacy skills', 'skills of information literacy', 'information literacy and skills' or 'information literacy competence/competencies' used by the same authors (Virkus, 2003).

Savolainen (2002) points out that concepts such as 'competence' and 'skill' are taken as given and most researchers seem to assume that the meanings of these concepts are self-explanatory or sufficiently well-known from everyday contexts.

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Sirje Virkus, Tallinn University, 2009