What skills and competencies are needed in today's workplaces and other social environments, and how can they best be studied and promoted? The answers to these and other related questions lie in a variety of disciplines, and a multidisciplinary study under the auspices of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development), carried out by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office and the Education Statistics Services of the American Institutes of Research, has now provided a theoretical and conceptual basis for the mass of empirical findings that are currently being generated.

This volume brings together contributions from world-renowned authorities, providing a comprehensive overview of current advances and conceptions of life skills and key competencies from a variety of perspectives: historical, philosophical, psychological, sociological, economic, anthropological. Other chapters synthesize these views, looking at common ground with regard to functioning in groups, epistemology, and policy and practice in the real world. The final chapter presents a coherent framework which can be used in further work.

ISBN 2-7475-1523-0

Foreword - Heinz Gilomen, John P. Martin and Eugene Owen

Introduction - Dominique Simone Rychen

Competencies for Life. A Conceptual and Empirical Challenge - Laura H. Salganik

Defining and Selecting Competencies. Historical Reflections on the Case of IQ - John C. Carson

Concept of Competence. A Conceptual Clarification - Franz E. Weinert

Competencies for the Good Life and the Good Society - Monique Canto-Sperber and Jean-Pierre Dupuy

Ambiguity, Autonomy, and Agency. Psychological Challenges to New Competence - Helen Haste

The Key to Social Fields : Competencies of an Autonomous Actor - Philippe Perrenoud

Key Competencies Critical to Economic Success - Frank Levy and Richard J. Murnane

Competencies and Education. Contextual Diversity - Jack Goody

Scholarly Comments : Common Ground. Competencies as Working Epistemologies - Ways We Want Adults to Know - Robert Kegan

Joining and Functioning in Groups, Self Concept and Emotion Management - Cecilia Ridgeway

Key competencies from the viewpoint of practice and policy. From Unity of Purpose to Diversity of Expression and Needs - A Perspective from UNESCO - Jacques Delors and Alexandra Draxler

Are All Key Competencies Measurable? An Education Perspective - Bob Harris

The Knowledge Economy - A Business Perspective - Carlo Callieri

Competency Management as an Investment - A Business Perspective - Jean-Patrick Farrugia

Key Competencies for Whom? A Labor Perspective - Laurell Ritchie

Defining Educational Goals - A Window on the Future - Uri Peter Trier

Concluding Remarks - Heinz Gilomen, Dominique S. Rychen and Laura H. Salganik

LIFE

Coordinatrice : Monica Gather Thurler 

Site Internet : http://www.unige.ch/fapse/life

Courriel : life@pse.unige.ch