Competence Considered

Discusses the perception of competence as it affects an individual's development, explains how people come to consider themselves competent or incompetent, and looks at cultural stereotypes

In the disciplines of applied linguistics and second language acquisition (SLA), the study of pragmatic competence has been driven by several fundamental questions such as: What does it mean to become pragmatically competent in a second language (L2)? This book explores these key issues in Japanese as a second/foreign language.

Almost everything that matters to humans is derived from and through communication. Just because people communicate every day, however, does not mean that they are communicating competently. In fact, evidence indicates that there is a substantial need for better interpersonal skills among a significant proportion of the populace. Furthermore, "dark side" experiences in everyday life abound, and features of modern society pose new challenges that make the concept of communication competence increasingly complex. The Handbook of Communication Competence brings together scholars from across the globe to examine these various facets of communication competence, including its history, its essential components, and its applications in interpersonal, group, institutional, and societal contexts. The book provides a state-of-the-art review for scholars and graduate students, as well as practitioners in counseling, developmental, health care, educational, intercultural, and human resource management contexts, illustrating that communication competence is vital to health, relationships, and all collective human endeavors.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of extant literature on competence-based vocational and professional education since the introduction of the competence concept in the 1950s. To structure the fi eld, the book distinguishes between three approaches to defi ning competence, based on 1.functional behaviourism, 2. integrated occupationalism, and 3. situated professionalism. It also distinguishes between two ways of operationalizing competence: 1. behaviour-oriented generic, and 2. task-oriented specifi c competence. Lastly, it identifi es three kinds of competencies, related to: 1. specific activities, 2. known jobs, and 3. the unknown future. Competence for the unknown future must receive more attention, as our world is rapidly evolving and there are many ‘glocal’ challenges which call for innovation and a profound transformation of policies and practices. Th e book presents a range of diff erent approaches to competence-based education, and demonstrates that competencebased education is a worldwide innovation, which is institutionalized in various ways. It presents the major theories and policies, specifi c components of educational systems, such as recognition, accreditation, modelling and assessment, and developments in discipline-oriented and transversal competence domains. Th e book concludes by synthesizing the diff erent perspectives with the intention to contribute to further improving vocational and professional education policy and practice. Joao Santos, Deputy Head of Unit C5, Vocational Training and Adult Education, Directorate General for Employment, Social Aff airs and Inclusion, European Commission: “This comprehensive work on competence-based education led by Martin Mulder, provides an excellent and timely contribution to the current debate on a New Skills Agenda for Europe, and the challenge of bridging the employment and education and training worlds closer together. Th is book will infl uence our work aimed at improving the relevance of vocational education to support initial and continuing vocational education and training policy and practice aimed at strengthening the key competencies for the 21st century.” Prof. Dr. Reinhold Weiss, Deputy President and Head of the Research, Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), Bonn, Germany: “This book illustrates that the idea and concept of competence is not only a buzzword in educational debates but key to innovative pedagogical thinking as well as educational practice.” Prof. Dr. Johanna Lasonen, College of Education, University of South Florida, Tampa, USA: "Competence-based Vocational and Professional Education is one of the most important multi-disciplinary book in education and training. Th is path-breaking book off ers a timely, rich and global perspective on the fi eld. Th e book is a good resource for practitioners, policymakers and researchers."

Free and informed consent is one of the most widespread and morally important practices of modern health care; competence to consent is its cornerstone. In this book, Becky Cox White provides a concise introduction to the key practical, philosophical, and moral issues involved in competence to consent. The goals of informed consent, respect for patient autonomy and provision of beneficent care, cannot be met without a competent patient. Thus determining a patient's competence is the critical first step to informed consent. Determining competence depends on defining it, yet surprisingly, no widely accepted definition of competence exists. White identifies nine capacities that patients must exhibit to be competent. She approaches the problem from the task-oriented nature of decision making and focuses on the problems of defining competence within clinical practice. Her proposed definition is based on understanding competence as occurring in a special rather than a general context; as occurring in degrees rather than at a precise threshold; as independent of consequential appeals; and as incorporating affective as well as cognitive capacities. Combining both an ethical overview and practical guidelines, this book will be of value to health care professionals, bioethicists, and lawyers.

The allocation of powers between the European Union and its Member States is a classic theme in European studies. The question of to how to limit the expansion of Union's competences whilst safeguarding the dynamics of the process of European integration is now being raised. This book is a theoretical and practical inquiry into this question

This book offers a systematic and comprehensive account of translation competence (TC), reflecting on its different models and conceptualisations throughout its development and outlining future directions for both theory and practice. The volume charts the evolution of TC in line with related findings in empirical product- and process-oriented research. In critically examining the different models of translation competence, Quinci explores a wide range of connected issues of ongoing debate within Translation Studies, including translation quality, the revision process, and translator self-assessment. The second section of the book investigates these themes at work in the design, conduct, and results of an award-winning longitudinal research project which analysed the acquisition and development of TC in a sample group of translation trainees and professional translators. The volume builds on the outcomes of this project to offer practical activities for translator education, informed by theory and empirical research, toward encouraging continued reflection and new directions for translation competence research and practice. This book will be of interest to scholars in Translation Studies, as well as translation trainees and active translation professionals.

Workplace training and education have increasingly been seen as pivotal factors in improving the abilities, skills and competitiveness of industry, and the aim of the Management Charter Initiative (MCI), was to improve managers' practical competency in line with this. Under the MCI, qualification was gained by proving managerial competence in work related tasks, rather than by studying for a theoretical, educational qualification such as an MBA or degree. This book provides a welcome and comprehensive analysis of the MCI within the context of modern management development. It emphasizes the benefits of linking management development with organizational strategy, and includes: * up-to-date analysis of how management development can be measured * the first comprehensive assessment of the impact of using Management Standards * practical illustrations with sixteen in-depth case studies of contemporary organizations. This revealing book is endorsed by the MCI and includes a foreword by Professor Tom Cannon, whose leadership spearheaded and developed the MCI itself.