Design Of A Development-Promoting Competence Assessment For Young People In Transition From General-Education Schools To Vocational Education

Author(s):

Matthias Gehrig(submitting)Nicole Kimmelmann(presenting)Gabriele Voigt(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

02. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

02 SES 04 C, VET Pathways and Partnerships

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-03

09:00-10:30

Room:

B025 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Vidmantas Tutlys

Contribution

Transition from general-education school to vocational education is becoming a problem for an increasing number of young people. Unemployment rates for young people in Europe have reached an alarming mark of 23.7 % (eurostat, 2013). The reasons for this can be found in the economic and financial crises of several European countries. But it is also necessary to take a closer look at the qualification of unemployed youth. Do they have the necessary competences to start and finish a vocational education? More and more employers complain about deficitary social and personal competences of their applicants and apprentices – and at the same time 38 % of the employers identify these competences as more important than school grades (DIHK, 2011).

Diagnostic processes and assessment tools are required in order to identify gaps between competence demands and competence profiles of students.

Although there is a huge variety of competence assessment tools in this context, only a few of them integrate social and personal competences. Even more of them do not promote competence development at the same time (Gillen, 2007). That often leads to either a gap between competence assessment and development or systematic development will not take place at all.

Finding solutions for this unsolved problem in many schools the key research question of our project is: How should a development-promoting competence assessment tool for social and personal competences of young people in transition from general-education schools to vocational education be designed, operated and positioned?

In order to answer the questions we created a development-promoting competence assessment tool called “Mission Possible” based on the following theoretical pillars:

- Controlled subjectivity: Erpenbeck & von Rosenstiel (2007) describe the two poles of competence assessment: competence measurement and competence description. While the proponents of competence measurement claim that competence can be measured quite objectively, proponents of competence description claim that competence is a subjective construct that can only be described, but not measured. Our competence assessment classifies itself intentionally between these two poles – as a competence assessment that is characterized by controlled subjectivity (Lippegaus-Grünau, 2009).

- Self-discovery: Young people shall become aware of their own social and personal competences. This is an important step within the process of professional orientation (Kremer, 2010).

- Strength orientation: Development shall be tied to the strengths of the young people in order to create motivation for the process of competence development (e.g. Lippegaus-Grünau, 2009).

- Idea of competence-promoting competence analysis: Competence assessment and development can and should be integrated (Gillen, 2007).

- Self-efficacy: Social self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997) can be used to develop social competence (Drössler, Jerusalem & Mittag, 2007). Processes to enhance self-efficacy are therefore integrated in the design and implementation of the assessment tool.

Following these principles the design of our development-promoting competence assessment is characterized by two phases:

- The first phase is a 2-day assessment center which serves as a starting point to diagnose the strengths of competences.

- The second phase is a systematic and permanent combination of assessment and development of social and personal competences in everyday lessons at school – using indicators and results of the first phase.

The two phases are tied together by confidential talks between every single pupil and the host of the initial diagnosis. In this talk the results of the initial diagnosis are discussed (comparison between self- and external assessment). Every pupil gets a detailed, qualitative and written profile of his individual strengths regarding his social and personal competences.

Method

In order to get a theoretically based functioning prototype which is applicable to the practice of teachers, we methodically followed the approach of Design-Based Research. According to Reinmann (2005) we understand Design-Based Research as a continuous cycle of design, execution, analysis and re-design. We want to use the interaction of the two environments – science and practice – to create a functioning prototype as well as to generate new scientific findings and theories (Sloane, 2005). The whole study follows the mixed-method approach. In order to collect qualitative data we use interviews, focus groups and monitoring following the approach of triangulation – referring to time, people and instruments. That means we collect data from different groups (teachers and pupils) at different points in time by using different instruments (interviews, focus groups and monitoring). Qualitative data is analyzed by using the qualitative content analysis (Mayring, 2000). Quantitative data is collected by using the scale for social self-efficacy (Jerusalem & Klein-Heßling, 2002). This standardized questionnaire is answered by pupils before and after the conduct of our development-promoting competence assessment tool. Thereby we want to find out if our tool is capable of increasing the pupils´ level of social self-efficacy. In designing and executing our development-promoting competence assessment we use combinations of established methods which are adapted to the target group in an innovative way. We combine such methods as self-reflection, self-presentation, biographical interview, role play, cooperative learning, critical incidents, exercises from adventure pedagogy and peer-feedback. In the second phase (competence assessment and development in everyday lessons) we use a reiterating combination of cooperative learning, goal-setting and peer-feedback. Sampling: Our partners for design, evaluation and research are a secondary school (German: Mittelschule), a junior high school (German: Realschule), and a full-time vocational school (German: Berufsfachschule). Using this sample allows us to get results from three relevant types of schools in the transition process between general education and vocational education.

Expected Outcomes

The prototype will well work. It will show that competence assessment can and should be used to promote competence development and that it is possible to integrate assessment and development of social and personal competences in everyday lessons at school by combining established methods in an innovative way. Regarding new scientific and theoretical findings and theories we expect - a confirmation of our chosen combination of theoretical foundations (controlled subjectivity, self- discovery, strength orientation, competence-promoting competence analyses and self-efficacy) as theoretical basis for a functioning development-promoting competence assessment tool. - a confirmation of our chosen combination of methods (especially the repeated combination of cooperative learning, goal-setting and peer-feedback) as adequate and workable instruments to assess and develop social and personal competences at the same time. - a confirmation that our development-promoting competence assessment tool is able to increase social self-efficacy of students. - findings about important attributes of a functioning development-promoting competence assessment tool – as an expansion of well-known scientific findings and theories. Regarding sustainability we want to make a permanent anchoring of our development-promoting competence assessment at schools possible by - enabling schools and teachers to integrate competence assessment and development into their didactical planning and school life. - instructing the people needed to keep our system running – teachers, qualified social education workers at schools and also students of education at universities. - creating a pool of experts and multiplicators to integrate the assessment and development tool into school curricula.

References

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-Efficacy. The Exercise of Control. New York: W.H. Freeman. DIHK (2011). Ergebnisse einer IHK-Online-Unternehmensbefragung. Berlin und Brüssel. Erpenbeck, J. & von Rosenstiel, L. (2007). Einführung. In J. Erpenbeck & L. von Rosenstiel (Hrsg.). Handbuch Kompetenzmessung. Erkennen, verstehen und bewerten von Kompetenzen in der betrieblichen, pädagogischen und psychologischen Praxis (S. XVII-XLVI). Stuttgart: Schäffer-Poeschel. Drössler, S., Jerusalem, M. & Mittag, W. (2007). Förderung sozialer Kompetenzen im Unterricht. Implementation eines Lehrerfortbildungsprojekts. Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie, 21 (2), 157-168. eurostat (2013). Pressemitteilung Euroindikatoren. Online unter: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/3-29112013-AP/DE/3-29112013-AP-DE.PDF (29.01.2014). Gillen, J. (2007). Von der Kompetenzanalyse zur Kompetenzentwicklung. Konzeptionelle Merkmale zur Kompetenzförderlichkeit. In P. Dehnbostel, U. Elsholz & J. Gillen (Hrsg.). Kompetenzerwerb in der Arbeit. Perspektiven arbeitnehmerorientierter Weiterbildung (S. 149-162). Berlin: edition sigma. Jerusalem, M. & Klein-Heßling, J. (2002). Soziale Kompetenz – Entwicklungstrends und Förderung in der Schule. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 113, 164-175. Kremer, H.-H. (2010). Berufsorientierung – Neue Profilierung als Chance und Herausforderung der Bildungsgänge im Übergangssystem. Grundlagentext zur Entwicklungsarbeit. InfoLab 2. Online unter: http://groups.uni-paderborn.de/cevet/cevetblog/ wp-content/uploads/2010/06/infolab2_onlineversion-final.pdf (04.09.2013). Lippegaus-Grünau, P. (2009). Kompetenzen erkennen und entwickeln. Sozialpädagogisch-orientierte Kompetenzfeststellung im Übergang Schule-Beruf dargestellt am Beispiel einer Diagnose- und Trainingseinheit für benachteiligte Jugendliche. Offenbach am Main: INBAS. Mayring, P. (2008). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Grundlagen und Techniken. Weinheim und Basel: Beltz. Reinmann, G. (2005). Innovation ohne Forschung? Unterrichtswissenschaft, 33 (1), 52-69. Sloane, P.F.E. (2005). Wissenschaftliche Begleitforschung. Zur wissenschaftlichen Arbeit in Modellversuchen. Zeitschrift für Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogik, 101 (3), 321-348.

Author Information

Matthias Gehrig (submitting)

University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

Junior professorship for vocational competence development

Nuremberg

Nicole Kimmelmann (presenting)

University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany

Gabriele Voigt (presenting)

Friedrich-Alexander-Universität of Erlangen-Nuernberg

Junior Professiorship of Vocational competence development

Nuernberg

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