Competence Assessment and Competence Reflection in Software Engineering Education

In the course of digitalization, software is becoming increasingly important and is characterized by growing complexity. Without software, the use of digital technologies would be impossible. The increasing complexity brings major challenges for teaching and learning of software engineering with it. The dynamic of change in software engineering leads to permanent learning requirements, which have to be fulfilled holistically. The fact that the development of software requires a high degree of interdisciplinary thinking and a systematic cooperation of different roles, results in the demand for the development of interdisciplinary competences and makes the continuous holistic competence development indispensable, since technical skills are absolutely necessary, but not sufficient. A central issue in the course of the holistic competence development is to be able to recognize existing competences in order to use them for the personal biography and competence development. In this context, the process of reflection plays a decisive role as it can make implicit areas of competences aware. This contribution outlines a qualitative research approach which focuses on the question of how the reflection process of students in software engineering can be stimulated and supported by the use of a learning process-oriented competence assessment system.