Approaches to Competence Measurement in Higher Education

Abstract

In a globalized knowledge-based society with increaseddemands for highlevelsofworkforce competence, informa-tionabout highereducation’scapacitytodevelopcompeten-cies is highly necessary. However, before obtaining suchinformation, competencies need to be assessed. Researchof this type is only just beginning. The objective of this top-ical issue on the ‘‘Assessment of competencies in highereducation’’ is to point out high-quality studies that integratetheory and methods to provide readers with an overview ofthe current state of research on competence measurement.A major challenge of this type of research is to assesscompetencies – as the latent cognitive and affective-motivational traits underpinning domain-specific perfor-mance in varying (job) situations – reliably and validly,given the heterogeneous and changing nature of labor mar-kets, competencies needed, and the inter- and intra-nationaldiversity of higher education systems, institutions, pro-grams, and processes. The research presented in this topicalissue combines subject specialists with methodologicalexperts to overcome these challenges.Two papers cover the field of economics: Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia et al. (2015) examine measurement invari-ance of a US economic knowledge test in Germany andJapan, andSchnick-Vollmer et al. (2015) developan assess-ment to examine professional knowledge in economics andbusiness education. Three papers cover the fields of math-ematics and science, including assessments of both cogni-tion and affect: Jensen, Dunekacke, Eid, and Blomeke(2015) apply a latent-state trait model to test the stabilityof mathematics anxiety and mathematics content knowl-edge across different measurements; Hartmann, Upmeierzu Belzen, Kruger, and Pant (2015) develop an assessmentto examine student science teachers’ inquiry skills; andRott, Leuders, and Stahl (2015) shape our understandingof mathematics teachers’ cognition by assessing knowledgeand epistemic beliefs. The final paper by Sturmer andSeidel (2015) is on teachers’ professional vision assessedwith a video-based tool.To frame these papers, Blomeke, Gustafsson, andShavelson (2015) review the current state of research onthe assessment of competencies in higher education. Theyclarify fundamental conceptual and methodological issuesshowing that ‘‘controversies’’ are built on dichotomies thatare not useful: for example, competence as an underlyingtrait versus competence as real-world performance or clas-sical test theory versus item response theory. An opinionpaper (Schober et al., 2015) concludes the topical issue;the authors were invited to contribute with an innovativeview on self-regulated learning in university students.