Measuring Professional Competence

The measurement of vocational competence is based on open complex test tasks for authentic, characteristic fields of action of a profession. The greatest challenge for competence diagnostics in vocational education and training is to achieve a high degree of agreement in the evaluation of the task solutions. The pretest with a test group includes a rater training following the performance of the test. In the further course of the chapter, the evaluation and presentation of the test results is described: the determination of the scores for the achieved competence dimensions; the expression of the eight subcompetences; and the competence levels and knowledge levels. For each respondent or test group, the competence level distributions are presented graphically in the form of diagrams. The individual expressions of the partial competences, the competence profiles, are represented by network diagrams. The results of the competence levels can be differentiated according to “low,” “medium,” and “high.” This differentiation corresponds to the three levels of professional work process knowledge: action-guiding knowledge (know-that), action-explanatory knowledge (know-how), and action-reflective knowledge (know-why). An analysis of the test results together with the teachers/trainers or lecturers involved in the project is an essential element of quality development. Above all, the expanded subject understanding that the teachers acquire in the COMET projects contributes to this. COMET projects have also investigated how the competence levels of teachers and learners differ. Here, the transfer phenomenon was identified: The two test groups matched almost 1:1 in their problem-solving patterns and subject understanding.