La enseñanza por competencias

La enseñanza por competencias, de manera semejante con el conjunto de actividades académicas que realizan los centros de educación superior, poseen una compleja estructura de atributos, tales como: conocimientos, actitudes, valores y habilidades. Bajo estas consideraciones, entendemos que los docentes de las universidades deberían de orientar entre otras, sus preocupaciones académicas, para impulsar el cambio de enfoque educativo que viabilice la construcción de puentes, para modificar favorablemente el desfase existente entre lo que demanda el sector productivo y la práctica cotidiana en los salones de clase de las universidades. Las universidades como entes responsables de la formación profesional de los(as) ciudadanos(as) de la sociedad, deben velar por coadyuvar a insertar al mercado laboral a sus graduados con una mentalidad flexible, dinámica, creativos, y con visión de futuros conocedores de las realidades de mercado, con una formación integral, plurifuncionales y versados en las herramientas tecnológicas de punta, con el propósito que sean competentes en sus labores específicas. Abstract Teaching through competencies as well as the academic activities carried out in universities, has complex structures as attributes such as: knowledge, values, and abilities. Based on this consideration, we understand that university professors should guide their academic interest towards a change on the teaching approach, allowing the building of bridges that can positively modify the existing gap between the demands of the productive sector on the current practice in the university classroom. The Universities are responsible for the professional education of the members of society and should watch over to help introduce graduates in the labor market. These graduates should characterized by a flexible, dynamic, and creative mind, capable of future projections, as acquainted with the characteristics of the real market, with a well rounded formation, multifunctional and versed in the leading technological tools; so they can be competent on their specific tasks.

Professional Autonomy. Key Competence for Teachers in Commercial Education

The way in which the teaching autonomy is materialized, considered as part of the path traveled by the teaching community on their way to become owners of the disciplinary knowledge and the required pedagogical competencies to practice their role has motivated this paper.  For success, Commercial Education requires the urgent transformation of the teaching role and the development of key competences to promote interdisciplinary integration, academic and administrative leadership and the use of contemporary pedagogies.  The level of awareness reached by the teaching group about the impact of the learning that is promoted within the educational context will allow the empowerment of the knowledge that comes from the relationship between theory and practice-key element for professional autonomy.

Building the Commercial Education Professional Competency Profile

This paper provides a complete description of the Commercial Education Professional Competency Profile that resulted from the curricular diagnosis of the Licenciatura en Educación Comercial , at the Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica.  The methodological strategy used relies on the principles of research on education. Upon expert validation, written questionnaires were applied to first-year students, students of the licenciatura, practicing professionals and employers. The objective was to describe a particular education situation. Data was analyzed according to two categories: intentions/principles and scope/development. The findings resulted in the characteristics of the Commercial Education professionals, i.e. characteristics related to the discipline, characteristics related to the administrative management of teaching, specific and general characteristics of education and pedagogy, and characteristics associated to human development. Based on those criteria, on the curricular requirements of the information sources and on the curricular perspectives of the Academic Unit, ideas were put into practice to build the competency profile. The ideas proposed comprise the curricular fundamentals of the educational project on which the profile is set out, which include the subject of the study program, the global competency or training goal, the generic competencies as cross-cutting approaches, as well as the –pedagogical and disciplinary− specific competencies. The specific competencies of the discipline are focused on four competency areas: document production, organizational support, technological resources and information management.(1) Translator’s Note: One-year post-Bachelor study program in Commercial Education.