Learning to learn
  is defined as the ability to pursue and persist in learning, to organise one's own learning, including through effective management of time and information, both individually and in groups. This competence includes awareness of one's learning process and needs, and the ability to overcome obstacles in order to learn successfully. Learning to learn engages learners to build on prior learning and life experiences in order to use and apply knowledge and skills at home, at work, in education and training.
   8 key principles for teaching key competences effectively 

 Key Points on Assessing Key Competences 

 Competence-based education in Europe today
Several European countries, including Austria, Bulgaria, the Flemish Community of Belgium, Finland, France, Norway, Spain, Portugal and Poland, have introduced new legislation or amended existing legislation to set out goals and frameworks for integrating key competences into school education. Most European countries have also introduced key competences and related learning outcomes into their national curricula for compulsory education, during the last decade.
 Irish case study: Key Skills in the Irish Curriculum & Project Maths

Learning Activity

Module 1 Library

2.2. How to Design Project-Based Learning Activities(PBL)
=  uses methods such as inquiry-based learning and problem-based learning
 
A.  Inquiry-based learning method =  starts with questioning, continues with exploration and investigation and ends with finding a solution, drawing a reasonable conclusion, making a substantive decision or applying new knowledge or skills.
 "non-Googleable Driving Questions" In other words questions that cannot be easily answered by just looking up Google, Bing, Wikipedia etc.
The purpose of PBL is to encourage pupils to research and to find answers and solutions, to help them develop higher-order thinking skills: analyse the information they find, interpret it and compare their findings, synthesis the ideas, evaluate its strengths and weaknesses, peer and self-assess it, find solutions and create a new product.
B.  Problem-based learning method = Students are given a real life problem to investigate, which can be described as an authentic problem and have to come up with possible solutions

 Implementing the PBL approach in your teaching 

7 STEPS
 Step 1. Involve your students from the very beginning. Start with a guided exploration of some topics you have in mind as a whole class; but also be prepared to change if better ideas are emerging from the class. It is important to establish certain ground rules regarding behavior with them in advance.
Step 2. Having defined the topic, in discussion with the class break it down into different tasks. Discuss which technologies to use and how they will be integrated
Step 3. Plan well, set goals, define outcomes. Above all be concrete, students need goals to work towards and responsibility of tasks in order to achieve them
Step 4. Proceed to put pupils into small groups with responsibilities for a particular task. Encourage pupils to ask personally relevant and socially significant questions regarding the topics chosen. Work to the strengths of each pupil.
Step 5. Create a tangible artifact that addresses the issue, answers questions, and makes learning visible and accountable.
Step 6. Arrive at a conclusion...take a stand...take action.
Step 7. Document, justify, and share conclusion with larger audience. (parents, school etc)

2.3.  How to Develop Learners’ Collaborative Problem-Solving Skills
 Patrick Griffin & Esther Care Assessment Research Centre, Melbourne Graduate School of Education
 The KSAVE Framework for ATC21S 

  Delors’ Report (1996) : 4 pillars

 OECD's 

http://www.p21.org/about-us/p21-framework
Collaborative problem solving
= is a complex skill requiring both social and cognitive competencies
Steps ( ATC21S). Collaborative problem solving is therefore defined as a joint activity where two or more people work together to contribute knowledge, skills, materials and procedures and move through a series of cognitive states that involve collection and analysis of information and the formulation of hypotheses that they jointly set out to test. 

 Using a skills-based approach and project-based learning in the maths class, four tips to teachers would be the following

3. student self-assessment ( focuses on the student’s personal development)
Assessment   needs to be valid, reliable and fair 

Assessments of key competences, whether formative, summative or selfassessments, need to capture the student’s:
- Reasoning processes
- Understanding of interconnections
- Ability to perform complex tasks
- Attitudes, such as curiosity, perseverance and motivation to learn.
Traditional assessments that measure discrete bits of knowledge are not effective for measuring how students are able to make connections between ideas, to solve problems, or their attitudes toward learning.
Newer approaches to summative assessment, such as portfolios, ICT-based assessments that can measure the quality open-ended performances, or simulations showing how students carry out a complex process, are more appropriate.
Questions:

3.3 Good Practice in Assessing Key Competences
A. summative assessment
portfolio assessments, ICT-based assessments and simulations, ICT-based platforms for peer assessment and learning
B. formative assessment
extended dialogues and series of questions, observation, review of written work products and portfolios, student presentations, activities and projects, interviews, tests and quizzes, Feedback from teachers – as well as from other students, classroom polling devices, educational video games, or interactive white boards. Internet social networks
C. students’ self-assessment
action research
3.4 Assessing Collaborative Problem-Solving
 Participation skills :  action, interaction, and task completion
 Perspective-taking skills:  Responsiveness, Audience awareness skills
  Social regulation skills: Metamemory indicative behaviours,  Transactive memory indicative behaviours, Negotiation skills, Responsibility
   Cognitive domain of collaborative problem-solving: 1. task regulation:  Problem analysis -  Goal-setting -  Resource management - Flexibility skills -  Collecting data –  Systematicity
2. knowledge building:   Relationships within the data,   Contingencies,   Hypotheses
Collaborative Problem Solving - One dimension
Assumes joint responsibility, synthesises and incorporates feedback, evaluates performance of self and others, tailors communication, resolves differences.
Participates in tasks irrespective of familiarity or scaffolding, initiates and promotes interactions, responds to perspectives of others, comments on performance of others, asks for feedback on own performance, attempts to resolve differences
Shares resources and information, modifies communication for mutual understanding; acknowledges performances of others, comments on own performance.
Interacts to solve the problem; discusses task with others; contributes to
understanding of others; reports own activities.
Works with others when the task is familiar or scaffolded; communicates with others about significant events and/or resources.
Works independently; acknowledges communication from others.
3.5 The Irish Experience of Assessing Mathematics Using a Competence-Based Approach
 Changes to assessment
We had two major aims in mind when it came to assessment:
1. That formative assessment would be more of a feature of the day to day practice in the classroom and it would support the development of mathematical proficiencies.
2. That the final examinations would be less predictable than they were in the past and they would include a section on problem-solving and applying knowledge to unfamiliar situations

 Challenges
Adopting the changed approach to teaching maths brought with it a number of challenges. These can be summarised as:
• Teaching to develop skills as well as procedural fluency
• A change in the role of the teacher and the student
• Continued impact of the exam
• Heavy reliance on tests in the classroom.
 Four successes of the initiative around assessing key competences.
1.  alignment of the syllabus with the assessment 
2.  investment in CPD 
3.  Improved teacher competence 
4.  change to assessment