Understanding Educational Competencies and Religious Literacy
1. Defining Competencies
Competencies are a set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for the development of a task or personal potential. They allow individuals to establish and maintain social relationships and face various life problems. The ability to mobilize these resources in a given environment defines their content.
2. Graduate Profile
The graduate profile represents the set of skills, knowledge, and attitudes acquired by an individual at the end of an educational stage.
3. Specific Religious Competencies
- Competencies on religious beliefs.
- Competencies on the sources of the Christian faith.
- Prayer and liturgy.
- The moral and ethical code of religion.
- Artistic expressions of religion.
- Cultural manifestations of origin.
- Media relating to the history of religion.
- Plurality of religion.
4. Objective of the Christian Moral Code
The goal is to guide conduct and behavior in the Christian life.
5. Competency Content
This includes the set of skills (procedures), knowledge, and attitudes necessary for effective learning and activity.
6. Religious Competence Dimensions
According to Hemel, religious competence is the ability to interpret the world through a religious lens. It consists of four dimensions:
- Religious sensitivity
- Choice of content
- Religious behavior
- Expressive communication
7. Interdisciplinary Religious Content
Two areas where religious content is integrated include:
- Astrology
- Natural science
8. Evaluation Criteria and Regulations
- Normative evaluation: Measures and values what a student knows through quantitative group comparison.
- Criterial assessment: Measures what a student knows qualitatively based on specific performance criteria.
9. Piaget’s Key Stage
The child performs mental operations only with concrete objects and actions, developing concepts of reversibility and conservation.
10. Disciplinary Content of Christian Morality
These are the elements students must acquire to achieve effective competencies:
- Significant: Those perceivable by the senses.
- Meaning: Beliefs that provide context to the significant.
- Mediators: Elements of religious beliefs that help discover the meaning behind the significant.