Identification of Requirements and Generic Competences in Fields of Educational Activity

Author(s):

Juliane Pfeiffer(presenting / submitting)Doren Prinz

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Poster

Session Information

22 SES 05.5 PS, General Poster Session

General Poster Session

Time:

2013-09-11

12:30-14:00

Room:

FUAYE

Chair:

Contribution

Objectives and theoretical framework

Generally, higher education focuses on scientific, researchoriented education. However, it is also the universities’ responsibility to teach skills that are required in non-research fields of occupation, promoting the employability of their graduates. This can be achieved especially by strategic acquirement of generic interdisciplinary key competences (Weinert, 2001a; 2001b). The project focuses on such generic competences essential for the professional activities of university graduates and the identification of these fields of competences. The study’s sample consists of university graduates of educational science studies.

Research shows that apart from genuine educational activities such as educating, mentoring and attending, the occupational activities of educational scientists primarily include organizing, planning and coordinating (Fuchs, 2003). Fuchs systematizes educational activities, interdisciplinary activities and non-educational activities as occupational activities of educational scientists. In addition, she distinguishes educational fields of work from non-educational fields of work leading to a systematization of four occupational fields. The activities described by Fuchs will be measured by instruments based on the Job Requirements Approach (JRA) which is also the fundament of a number of international surveys on work activities such as the PIAAC Questionnaire (OECD, 2009). The JRA allows to measure indirect generic competences required in professional practices.

Research Questions

Can interdisciplinary non-technical occupational activities for graduate professions of educational scientists be identified? (1. period “professional field survey”)
From these non-technical occupational activities, can competence requirements und models as wells as instruments for their measurement be developed? (2. period “graduates survey”)

The presentation will focus on the first period which is addressed in one subproject.

Method

Our research questions will be examined in a two-stage study. In the first period “professional field survey” (University of Hamburg), potential employers of educational science graduates will be interviewed on duties and tasks employees have to be up to. This explorative interview study aims to derive heterogeneous types of requirements. The second period “graduates survey” (HIS Institute for Research on Higher Education) will examine the professional activities of highly skilled personnel using data of graduates from different phases of their occupational biography. Additionally, a survey instrument for analyzing task skills/competence fields will be developed, based on existing instruments as well as on results of the qualitative period. In some of the working steps these two periods are closely linked. The methodological approach will consist of a content analysis to identify fields of competences. According to the preliminary results of this analysis a special kind of content analytical method, the valence analysis, will be used. In the process of a valence analysis, components of a text are scaled according to a two-stage or multistage scale (Mayring, 2010). In a following work step heterogeneous types of occupational requirements for educational scientists’ graduates will be generated in dependence of the Grounded Theory.

Expected Outcomes

It is expected to identify different job requirements in the four different occupational fields as stated above. The results will also include structures of competences. The expected fields of competences are on a meta-level expertise, methodological competence, social competence, personal competence and, if possible, additional new categories from the explorative inter-views. These fields of competences are more differentiated on a lower level and will be gen-eralized for the meta-level.

References

Fuchs, K. (2003). Wissen und Tun. Tätigkeitsprofile und berufsrelevante Kenntnisse [Knowledge and doing. Job profiles and professional knowledge]. In: Krüger, H.-H. et al. (eds). Diplom-Pädagogen in Deutschland. Survey 2001 [Graduate pedagogues in Germany. Survey 2001]. Weinheim: Juventa, 185-204 Mayring, P. (2010). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Grundlagen und Techniken. [Qualitative content analysis. Basics and techniques]. Weinheim: Beltz OECD. (2009). PIAAC BQ JRA V5.0 – Conceptual Framework. Paris: OECD. Weinert, F. E . (2001a). Competencies and Key Competencies: Educational Perspective. In N. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Hrsg..). International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behav-ioral Sciences, Vol. 4. (S. 2433-2436). Amsterdam: Elsevier. Weinert, F. E. (2001b). Concept of Competence: A Conceptual Clarification. In D. S: Rychen & L. H. Salganik (Hrsg..). Defining and Selecting Key Competencies (S. 45,65). Seat-tle: Hogrefe & Huber.

Author Information

Juliane Pfeiffer (presenting / submitting)

University of Hamburg

Evaluation of educational systems

Hamburg

Doren Prinz

University of Hamburg, Germany

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