Introduction: Competency-Based Higher Education - A Pending Task. by

Chapter 1. Internationalization policies in higher education institutions

belen1992carrera — 2025-09-10 14:12:22 UTC

Analyzes how Colombian universities implement internationalization policies. It emphasizes that these policies must go beyond offering courses in other languages or attracting foreign students, truly seeking to develop intercultural competencies and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In this regard, UNESCO (2018) has advocated for HEIs to become active promoters of more peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, secure, and sustainable societies. This is the way to contribute to the three fundamental objectives of the United Nations Charter: peace, development, and the protection of human rights.

Chapter 2. Higher education in Colombia: A look at technical, professional, and competency-based programs

belen1992carrera — 2025-09-10 14:22:46 UTC

This paper reviews technical education in Colombia from a legal perspective (Laws 30/1992, 115/1994, 1064/2006, and Decree 4904/2009). It discusses the importance of education for work and human development (ETDH) and its connection with higher education, highlighting how both seek to strengthen work and social skills.
There are several aspects that can be interpreted within education. In formal settings, at least in primary, secondary, and high school, the emphasis is on curriculum design,5 so that knowledge associated with the disciplinary fields is the basis of the approach. At other times, the emphasis shifts toward the human aspect and distances itself from content to focus on one of the dimensions of education corresponding to "the full development of personality without limitations other than those imposed by the rights of others and the legal system" (General Education Law, 1994). However, it is common for both aspects to appear together in the visions conceived by education professionals.
What is striking about what has been presented so far are the different places to which education ultimately responds, which is why some productive entities, such as companies, 
in addition to the current economic model, culture, international relations, among others, define some curricular lines.

Chapter 3. Subverting from reading

belen1992carrera — 2025-09-10 14:29:01 UTC

It exposes the importance of critical reading as a tool for challenging discourses and transforming society. It is based on research on reading practices at the Industrial University of Santander and the Saber Pro tests. It concludes that critical reading fosters more conscious citizens, capable of resisting a "domesticating" education. 
However, it is also necessary to understand that, although reading and writing were understood from the beginning as separate objects of study, they simultaneously became instruments of power to reach the masses in a manner distinct from oral communication, which facilitated their establishment as privileged discourses that, for example, endorsed the intention of kings and rulers to maintain and strengthen their power (Villa, 2015).

Chapter 4. Teamwork as a subject to be taught in the curricula of Kinesiology and Physical Therapy programs in Argentina: the training challenge of generic competencies

belen1992carrera — 2025-09-10 14:36:09 UTC

She studies three bachelor's programs in Kinesiology and Physical Therapy in Argentina. She emphasizes that teamwork is an essential generic skill for professional practice in healthcare. She poses the challenge of better incorporating it into the curriculum so that graduates can adequately navigate the world of work.
What role does teamwork play in the three designs analyzed? 
For curriculum analysis, a "locus" is a segment of curricular text that addresses teamwork or some similar professional capacity.

Chapter 5. Competencies: theoretical and didactic proposal

belen1992carrera — 2025-09-10 14:43:43 UTC

This paper reflects on how to design a teaching system that fosters competency development, based on the experience of a master's degree course at the University of Antioquia. It proposes integrating activities, assessment, and content for comprehensive and meaningful training.
To promote holistic learning, teachers must plan systemic teaching processes that strategically energize their classrooms to guide students' learning and physical, cognitive, and emotional development. This holistic learning is understood, pedagogically speaking and according to Díaz and Quiroz (2005), from the following pedagogical dimensions: instructional, developmental, and educational; that is, formative, with a dialectical dynamic.

Chapter 6. Teaching proposal for communicative citizenship skills.

belen1992carrera — 2025-09-10 14:53:33 UTC

This paper presents an experience with 10th-grade students at Chaparral Educational Institution (Antioquia), focusing on active listening, assertiveness, and argumentation. Qualitative research showed how these competencies strengthen critical and ethical citizenship through language teaching. This educational model proposes the innovation of educational spaces, primarily schools, with a view to achieving the independence of individuals, the construction of minimum conditions that guarantee civic coexistence, and the constitution of a public language that embraces, according to Giroux (2006), the elimination of those ideological and material conditions that foster various forms of subjugation, segregation, brutality, and marginalization, manifested in social forms that embody racial, classist, and sexist interests.

Chapter 7. Pedagogical projects and citizenship

belen1992carrera — 2025-09-10 15:00:31 UTC

Analyzes how school pedagogical projects can be alternatives for developing citizenship. It emphasizes that not only the Social Sciences, but also several disciplines, can contribute to these processes. It proposes cross-curricular projects that integrate different areas of knowledge in the construction of citizenship. Accordingly, teaching citizenship education 
invites young people to counteract public and political apathy, 
to exercise their right to free organization, to make decisions 
about their own lives, and to access equal opportunities 
that have been denied to some for so long; as well as 
to make full use of their citizenship, that is, to participate 
in the decisions made in their society.

Chapter 8. Competencies for sustainable development in educators

belen1992carrera — 2025-09-10 15:15:39 UTC

It presents the European project A Rounder Sense of Purpose as a model for training university teachers in education for sustainable development (ESD). It emphasizes that educators need specific skills to teach and apply sustainability in their contexts.
We conceive the constitution of citizens as an unfinished process, organized through the experiences of individuals, context, and culture. From this perspective, "citizenship" is not assumed to be something defined; its permanent reconfiguration is recognized. In this context, the education we refer to is also relevant in the constitution of the citizen. 
It arises from some reflections addressed by Uribe (1998).

Chapter 9. Competency-based education at the Technical University of the North (Ecuador).

belen1992carrera — 2025-09-10 15:30:40 UTC

It presents research on the skills a forestry engineer must possess to be efficient and, at the same time, contribute to resource conservation. It highlights the value of values and sustainability skills as core training pillars.
Interviewees unanimously agree on the importance of creating and maintaining good relations between universities and companies, both in the public and private sectors. For example, they mention the importance of higher education institutions signing interinstitutional agreements for student placements and pre-professional internships, but they emphasize that these agreements are part of the formal training that professionals must receive, not simply a requirement. In many cases, students seek placements solely to fulfill a requirement to complete their undergraduate studies.

Chapter 10. Education for sustainable development in Colombia

belen1992carrera — 2025-09-10 15:35:50 UTC

Analyzes how environmental and sustainable education has been implemented in Colombian universities. It recognizes progress but points out shortcomings in its curricular integration. It emphasizes the urgent need to strengthen HEIs as key players between national policy and society.Currently, the country's priorities remain in education, health, employment, honest and responsive government, nutritious and affordable food, protection against crime and violence, access to water, better transportation and roads, and gender equality.