Suchergebnisse

In order to take account of current developments in society as a whole and in the education system, the educational military recruit examinations were subjected to a reform. One of the aims of this reform was to use this institution by setting up a systematic feedback structure in such a way that it can make a contribution to the effect-oriented optimisation of the Swiss education system. This study is part of the present project, which - as a module on "interdisciplinary competences" - is intended to complete the evaluation of the effects of the nationwide and cantonal education systems.
"Interdisciplinary competences", often referred to with (over-) great expectations as "key qualifications", are understood in this project as abilities, attitudes and values whose relevance results from their functional significance for the individual, his social field and society. The aim of the project was to develop standardised written tools for assessing selected "interdisciplinary competences". Two problems arose: On the one hand, desirable effects of education systems are inevitably normative. Even a functionalist perspective requires reference to criteria that are ultimately always value-based. Even if an elaborated scientific framework theory - which does not yet exist - could provide a convincing structural and functional model of "interdisciplinary competences", it cannot avoid the question of the desirability of these competences in education theory. The second problem was of a methodological nature, especially since there were still no sufficiently objective, valid and reliable (written) psychological test procedures in the areas of complex action-related competences with a social reference ("social competences").
These problems have been addressed in this project as follows: The target dimensions of the indicator system were derived from an analysis of the content of the objectives in the mission statements of the cantonal primary school curricula, the objectives formulated in the "Maturitätsanerkennungsreglement" (MAR) and the competences laid down in the federal vocational training regulations. The resulting catalogue of interdisciplinary goals was used as a basis for the selection of available topics and the development of new survey instruments (scales) within the framework of a second phase, taking into account the state of scientific knowledge in the focussed subject areas. At the methodological level - with few exceptions in the area of environmental and policy-related knowledge - there has been an explicit refusal to derive competence from the performance produced in concrete situations. Instead, on the basis of a transactional model of human development and making use of Epstein's self-theory, which goes beyond a pure theory of action, a set of instruments should be developed which is related to different dimensions of the prerequisites of capacity to act and willingness to assume responsibility and which covers the selected "interdisciplinary competences" (with the exception of the aforementioned knowledge tests) via self-descriptions. The indicators formed in this way allow statements to be made on competences that remain latent in principle, because as self-referential cognitions they are not only subjective estimators of the latent competences, but also influence attributes, motivations and strategies for action and thus help to determine future performance.
The indicators were checked and optimized for their statistical quality by means of two empirical preliminary studies. The revised set of instruments was used for the first time at national level during the first main run of the new Educational Military Recruit and Youth Surveys in 2000/2001.