ACQUIRING KEY COMPETENCES THROUGH HERITAGE EDUCATION
NEWSLETTER 3
June 2011
not only focus on input of knowledge, but on
Why key competence driven education? developing people’s talents and resources to the
highest possible degree. Education has to
Changes in schools contribute to personal development and fulfilment
For hundreds of years schools used to be input- as well as the empowerment of the individual. The
oriented. Pupils went to school to learn something policy for this is laid down in the Lisbon goals
from the teacher. The teachers delivered their (knowledge society, resource orientation), and
input and expected pupils to learn this at home. key competence driven education in the
The output was that pupils were able to reproduce framework of Lifelong Learning is the strategy.
what the teacher said. In this model little or no How can schools enforce this? For one thing by
attention is put on the learning process and turning attention to the learning process. We
learning output is a body of knowledge, mainly know from neurobiology that effective learning is
based on reproduction. always connected to feelings. If people are
This situation has changed in many ways. For supposed to be lifelong learners we need to make
one thing, input is unclear. Nobody can say what sure learning is connected to positive feelings.
people need to know or be able to do in 15 years. Another, even more powerful implication is that
Moreover, knowledge is available on the internet we need to make people aware of their learning
and this provides new challenges. This means processes, we need to enable them to plan and
schools have to prepare pupils to become lifelong implement their own learning processes- they
learners. But also the output of the old model is need to acquire – among others – the key
no longer sufficient. School graduates today are competence learning to learn.
expected not only to have a body of knowledge,
but also the ability to do research, to work in Why not?
teams, to live in multi-cultural societies, to So the question is rather: why not key
manage their own emotional skills, to be open for competence driven education? Why not change
new things – all this in a mixture of knowledge, our teaching approach when the entire world
around us is changing? And the question is, what
attitudes and skills, in other words competences.
can we gain as teachers when we risk stepping
out of well-known territory? It is a learning
Meeting the challenge of Globalisation process for ourselves and by entering we,
Economies in western societies have seen major teachers, become lifelong learners like our pupils!
changes by the impact of globalisation. Globally The Aqueduct project is trying to promote the
acting companies are shifting work places to Lisbon strategy by opening up different paths for
where they can find best resources and cheapest, key competence acquisition within a heritage
most efficient labour. This means unemployment context. People need to be grounded, to know
for a large number of people who will not find this their roots to be open for new things. Heritage is
kind of work any longer. They need to acquire everywhere, so these teaching processes can
new skills and expertise – they need to become easily be adapted to different surroundings. In this
lifelong learners. And if Europe wants to keep its newsletter and the following ones you will find
position as an economic power that is able to examples and background articles. Can we
guarantee welfare and change our teaching? – Yes, we can!
stability for the masses, it needs to make sure of Christa Bauer, PHSt, Austria
a high standard of education. Education that does
Knowledgeable or Competent?
That is the question.
Competences, as defined by European bodies, as well as by educational experts throughout and beyond
Europe, consist of three interrelated ingredients:
a. a knowledge component (the understanding part),
b. a behavioral components (the overt behavioral repertoire) and
c. a value component (including values, beliefs and attitudes).
Competences consist of a combination of skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors required for
effective performance of a real-world task or activity. A competence is defined as the holistic synthesis of
these components. At another level a competence again may be divided in three components or aspects. It
is the ability of a person to show:
1. a particular behavior in
2. a particular context and with
3. a particular quality.
This is the formal way of describing competences. In ordinary language this implies that what matters is
not only what we know about things, but more important is what we are able to do with this knowledge,
and whether we are able to go on developing our abilities. Does education make learners knowledgeable,
or does it make them competent, that is the question.
The ellipse in the middle of the scheme includes the actual performance that shows the level of control
over a particular competence. The components in the left triangle allow a person to show the intended
behaviour in the right triangle. There the pupil/ student demonstrates his/her acquired competence.
Knowledge Context
Skills Behavior
Values, beliefs,
affects, attitudes
Quality
Jaap Van Lakerveld, PLATO (NL)
www.the-aqueduct.eu
Storyline
The Storyline approach is one of the methods of learning that, we feel, addresses all the essential
elements learners need to acquire competences. It is a method for active learning, which was
developed by Steve Bell, Sallie Harkness and Fred Rendell at Jordan hill College of Education in Glasgow,
Scotland.
The storyline approach is based on the assumption that learning is guided by the prior knowledge and
experience of individual learners and that learners construct their own meaning through action and
experience. The method creates a context for learning with the active involvement of the child. It
provides tasks which arise from the context which the child sees as significant and meaningful within it
and gives the child opportunities to develop understanding and competences with the support of the
context. Pupils learn with and from each other and adults. The role of the teacher is educational
designer and coach.
Storyline approach applied
Training seminar in St-Jean d’Angély (FR) Pilot project: Lucas van Leyden (NL)
During the training seminar teachers and heritage Aqueduct partner PLATO from Leiden University (NL)
providers who were going to set up a pilot project, has developed a pilot project together with the Lucas
experienced the storyline approach as learners. van Leydenschool and the Archeologic Centre of
‘The problem of the day’ in the exercise, was the fact Leiden.
that the beautiful town of St-Jean d’Angély attracts Lucas van Leyden (1498-1533) is one of Leiden’s most
less and less young inhabitants, because of lack of jobs famous painters. Every two years the school organizes
and leisure activities. Therefore the mayor had the a street theatre project. This year the project will have
idea to present his town as a candidate European the theme ‘Lucas van Leyden’.
Capital of Culture, with the aim to assure sustainable During two weeks of the project three classes worked
economic growth in his town and to give a new boost on challenging competence based assignments in
to its socio-cultural life. The task for the learners was which the children developed competences like
to advise the mayor on this issue from the perspective learning to learn, social competences and cultural
of a particular role, e.g. historians, entrepreneurs, awareness and expression and they learned about the
inhabitants, architects, marketing experts, … Once the time Lucas van Leyden lived.
participants had chosen their role and defined their The project started with a story about Lucas van
aims, they started their research in small groups. The Leyden and a fragment of medieval music. After this
objective was to gather background information on introduction the children worked in mixed age groups
the town, its heritage and its potential, to be able to and with different roles (chairman, secretary etc.) on
present a convincing advise to the mayor. themes like crafts, religion, market, music, sickness
This approach didn’t only allow the participants to and health care, food and of course Lucas van
actively explore the town of St-Jean d’Angély, they Leyden’s art work.
also had a concrete task: presenting a documented During their research the children were able to
advise in a convincing way to the mayor. After this consult different sources including experts from
whole process the learners discussed some reflection Leiden’s and other museums and the local
questions on their learning process and outcomes. archeological centre. In the end the children
demonstrated what they had learned to other classes
and to visitors on the school’s medieval market.
Renilde Knevels, Alden Biesen (BE) Ingrid Gussen, PLATO (NL)
Aqueduct is a Comenius Multilateral project aiming to improve the acquisition of key competences through
heritage education and to build teacher capacity for competence oriented education in a heritage context.
Aqueduct targets teachers, teacher trainers, teacher training students, educational programmers in heritage
organizations willing to invest in competence driven teaching and learning and in heritage education.
Aqueduct Agenda
National Training Day France: September 2011 For more information, please contact
Gishly Didon ccegishly@gmail.com
Final Conference Bologna, Italy, 26-29 October 2011 For more information, please contact
Valentina Galloni VGalloni@Regione.Emilia-Romagna.it
For grant application, check at your National Agency. More
information at www.the-aqueduct.eu
Aqueduct Partners
Landcommanderij Alden Biesen – project coordinator (Belgium)
Katholieke Hogeschool Leuven (Belgium)
PLATO, Leiden University (the Netherlands)
Transylvania Trust Foundation (Romania)
Babeş-Bolyai University (Romania)
Istituto per i Beni Artistici, Culturali e Naturali, Emilia-Romagna (Italy)
Malopolska Institute of Culture www.mik.krakow.pl (Poland)
Centre de Culture Européenne – Abbaye Royale Saint-Jean d’ Angély (France)
Pädagogische Hochschule Steiermark (Austria)
502572-LLP-1-2009-1-BE-COMENIUS-CMP
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the
views only of the network consortium. The Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may
be made of the information contained therein.