Objective:

This article is the second paper in a series about competency-based education2. Now the authors examined prior definition of the term competence, reveled many of those features driving the notion out of its real significance for university education and proposed a new definition.

Methods:

The authors rely on theoretical methods to assess prior definitions, its components and limitations in the context of higher education.

Results:

The study reveals prior definitions limitations together with its negative effect for professional training and devises a new definition by means a dialectical synthesis leading to a full comprehension of the pedagogical nature of the term competence.

Conclusions:

Most of prior definitions identify competence with other pedagogical categories such as skills, abilities or capacity and neglect the axiological component of education and the role of social mediation in learning. The proposed definition focuses learning results on the basis of students’ performance and achievements, the procedures they internalized, and the individual values and the configured personality features permitting continuous autonomous and responsible learning.

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