COMPETENCES IN THE CONTEXT OF TEACHING PRACTICE: re-signifying the concept

Abstract

The subject of this text is the question of (re)signification of the concept of competence in the area of education. It seeks to understand the meaning of competencies in the context of teachers’ practice, not only as knowledge of how to do things, but also of how to think and act in a way which is more significant and more committed to learning. This discussion came out of a need to define a concept of competence for education, more specifically, for teachers’ practice, bearing in mind the disparities in meaning, including that presented by the MEC (Ministry of Education) in its Diretrizes Curriculares (Curricular Guidelines) which make understanding of the concept even more difficult. Discussion of the meaning and concept of competence in the area of education has been focused, for a long time, on professional education, from a purely technical perspective. Speaking of competence, in this area, we must go back to the nineteen seventies, in Brazil, to an education based on technical rationality, in which the main concern was “teaching for practice”. The intention is to go beyond these limits to understanding, beginning with the analysis of the concepts used in the area of education, investigating the logic of construction of knowledge for competence. It also presents a set of knowledge, skills and attitudes, as well as the three dimensions of teaching practice: theory, technique and interpersonal. It finishes by taking a pedagogical position on the term competence.