Organizing and Controlling Learning Processes Within Competence-Performance Structures

In Chapter 5, we developed the concepts of a diagnostic and a union-stable diagnostic. It was demonstrated how a union-stable diagnostic can be constructed, and in principle, validated by collecting data and checking the observed problem-solving patterns. In the present chapter, further considerations of a more theoretical nature are presented on how a union-stable diagnostic can be used for organizing and controlling learning processes. Two main problems will be dealt with: First, the fundamental problem is analyzed, whether and how goal-directed adaptive instruction can be planned under conditions of non-unique competence assessment. Second, returning to the basic idea of a learning path, which is conceived as a chain of states, theoretical results on the representability of a (maximal) competence learning path by a (maximal) performance learning path are derived.