ABSTRACT
The essence of a competence-based curriculum is that it is ‘assessment-led’. The main thrust of the documentation is to make ‘explicit’ the learning outcomes (the ‘standard’ of work) which candidates need to achieve, so that they can exercise a degree of autonomy in selecting and preparing evidence of their learning, confident that they know what criteria they will need to meet. However, ‘explicitness’ is always a relative term, especially when we are concerned with the complex phenomena of occupational practices. Not for us, alas, the straightforward task of calibrating a measuring instrument analogous in some way to a yardstick or a thermometer. Instead, we have the complex problem (already referred to) of developing a community which shares an understanding of the meaning in practical terms of the documented form of learning outcomes and assessment criteria. This community must include not just assessors but candidates as well (if they are to exercise autonomy as learners), and its shared agreements (concerning required and feasible standards) must be plausible to outsiders if its award-making decisions are to be accepted as having widespread currency. Hence the title of this chapter.
