Competences for 21st Century Schools
KeyCoNet

Welcome to the Competences for 21st Century Schools MOOC
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This course is intended for teachers and other educational professionals interested in competence-based education. The course aims to provide you with a thorough introduction to the topic, as well as make you aware of the issues and challenges related to making competence-based education a reality in the classroom. Furthermore, teachers will be given concrete tips on how to implement project-based learning, a particularly suitable method for delivering competence-based education, as well as on how to assess this type of collaborative learning
This course has been designed to improve your competences, so that you can in turn develop those of the young people you teach, work with or on behalf of.
Learning objectives
- Module 1 will provide you with an introduction to the topic, looking at the importance and definition of competences as well as international frameworks; how competences are understood, expressed and implemented in various countries across Europe; and the main teaching and assessment methods associated to this approach.
- Module 2 will look at practical ways in which teachers can use project-based learning techniques in the classroom and beyond to develop their pupils’ competences across a variety of subjects and skills. Inspiring examples from across Europe will be provided, and possible solutions to challenges explored. There will be a special focus on how to best develop students' collaborative problem-solving skills within project-based learning.
- Module 3 will help you understand the assessment methods which are most suitable to competence-based approaches to learning, and will provide you with concrete advice on how to implement these various methods and in which contexts. An Irish case study will provide participants with an inspiring example of how Ireland introduced competence-based assessment in Mathematics. This module will also give participants the opportunity to learn more about assessing an important transversal skill explored in module 2 - collaborative problem solving.
You can download the course content here.
Prerequisites
Anybody is welcome to join the course but it is targeted at teachers and other educational professionals interested in competence-based education
Modules
- Module 1: Introducing Competences for 21st Century Schools
- Module 2: Teaching Key Competences through Project Based Learning
- Module 3: Assessing Key Competences
Certification
In order to earn a course certificate, course participants need to complete all modules, including completing the final peer review activity.
Note to teachers from Portugal: You can get your successful participation in a European Schoolnet Academy course formally recognised as a valid continuous professional development, and thereby acquire the relevant number of training hours, by sending your certificate to the Conselho Científico e Pedagógico de Formação Contínua (CCPFC) at Rua do Forno, nº 30, 1º andar - apartado 2168, 4700 - 429 Braga, Portugal. For more information, please contact the CCPFC.
Course Staff
Disclaimer and Copyright
The work presented on this website is supported by the European Union’s Lifelong Learning Programme – project KeyCoNet: European Policy Network on Key Competences in School Education (Framework Agreement EAC/13/2011). The content of this website is the sole responsibility of the Consortium Members and it does not represent the opinion of the European Union and the European Union is not responsible or liable for any use that might be made of information contained herein.
All content on this course unless specified otherwise is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License