Since last decade, education has turned to a model oriented to competence development. As seen in numerous contributions (Delors, 1996; Eurydice, 2002; DeSeCo Project, 2005), this concept has become a conceptual benchmark for the design, development and organization of education.

Within this framework, the European Higher Education Area has incorporated this pedagogical orientation, noting the need to address the development of general and specific competences in all degrees.

These proposals are reflected in all curricula design of university degrees in Spain and the European Union. Specifically, at the University of Valencia, within the general competences of the degrees of the Faculty of Philosophy and Educational Sciences, it identifies the competence CG14: self-contained long life learning.

The overall objective of our research is to provide a theoretical definition of the construct "learning to learn" competence, operationalized for the design of tools for professional evaluation in education. The specific objectives are to analyze the theoretical development, research and evaluation of the competence, establishing an operational definition of the construct and its transfer to evaluation criteria, to finally provide an initial evidence of construct and content validation from interjudges assessment.

The questions that have guided our work are, among others: competence learning to learn is manifested equally throughout lifetime? Is it general or specific to each professional field? What elements or sub-competencies can be recognized in the competence "learning to learn?

Recognize this competence as a requirement for college students is a need with strong practical implications related to the quality of professional work of future graduates of our universities. It also has a general aspect, as it shares basis with all professionals, although in a given sector is specialized, making it dependent on the working area.

We have focused on the design of an instrument to assess the competence into education practitioners field. The phases of the research that has been carried out were as follows:

1. Defining the construct “Learning”.[g1] 

2. Operationalization of the construct definition.

3. Validation of the theoretical construct definition and representation from the selected criteria.

Our definition of competence "learning to learn" (Jornet, García-Bellido and Gonzalez, 2012), focused on education practitioners and includes three dimensions: understanding of scientific languages of the disciplinary field; knowledge and use of resources to improve professional work and attitudes towards their professional development.

We also identified sub-dimensions within each dimension evaluated, such as the identification, conceptualization, reasoning, problem solving, critical thinking and metacognition. The construct validation relied on the judgment of experts that assessed the fit to the definition, dimensions, and the evaluation criteria.

Delors, J. (1996). La Educación Encierra un Tesoro. Madrid. Santillana Ediciones. UNESCO Eurydice (2002). Key competencies: A developing concept in general compulsory education.Brussels: Eurydice/European Commission. Hersh Salganik, L.; Simone Rychen, D.; Moser, U; Konstant, J.W. (2005). Proyecto DeSeCo. Definición y selección de competencias. Proyectos sobre Competencias en el Contexto de la OCDE. Análisis de base teórica y conceptual. Ver en: http://www.deseco.admin.ch Jornet, J.M.; García-Bellido, R. y Gozález-Such, j. (2012). Evaluar la competencia aprender a aprender: una propuesta metodológica. Profesorado. Revista de currículum y formación del profesorado, 16(1), 103-123.