An Upheaval in Higher Education: Education by Competences

Implementation of the competence approach at the university teaching level means enabling university teaching to equal the new needs and demands of the information society. The aim of this paper is to move in this innovative direction by proposing a new model of university teaching based on and tested in educational practice. An eco-systemic competence-based approach is described, and the approach's defining features are given. Educational aims are then formulated, starting with a map of their constituent elements. A proposal is made regarding the validity of selecting and organizing academic contents on the basis of discipline-specific or, even better, interdisciplinary modules structured into core problems and problem networks. Likewise, an innovative didactic methodology is presented, which promotes active, reflexive, true learning based on cooperative student research, on the basis of different sources of information: printed matter, audiovisuals, computerized sources and institutional sources. Lastly, a holistic focus is described for evaluating competence acquisition, in which three key points in time are distinguished: diagnostic evaluation, formative evaluation and additive evaluation. A series of techniques and instruments are outlined for performing this complex, rigorous evaluation of academic learning. These techniques and instruments make it possible to conduct a true evaluation, because they incorporate knowledge evidence and performance evidence at the same time. This new model is being implemented in a number of subjects at different schools at the University of Seville (inter alia, the School of Education, the School of Psychology, the School of Odontology and the School of Economics -undergraduate phase). Results show increases in the level and quality of academic learning as students master expected competences. The paper ends by pointing out the need for this brand-new pedagogical approach to be based on a deep change in three key elements of the conventional higher education system: institutional structure, academic culture and university curriculum.