ABSTRACT
Competence is often regarded as the ability to perform to an acceptable standard in a given context. Performativity is its cardinal feature. Such a view is useful but narrow. It leads to highly detailed analysis and assessments of the here and now. If one is preparing students for their future careers one needs to go beyond this form of confidence to help students cope with unknown situations. As Bowden and Marton (1998:6) observe,‘…[we] are supposed to prepare students for handling situations in the future. These future situations are more or less unknown…We have to prepare the students for the unknown by means of the known…’ The issue here is, apparently, one of transferability. Transfer, in so far as it is achievable, is most likely to occur when a learner understands the key principles and the context in which the principles are to be applied. To achieve this goal we need to provide students with a rich variety of learning tasks derived from different contexts so they become adept at recognizing similarities and difference of context, they come to learn in which context which principles apply and do not apply. They need to consider holistically the ethical and psychological issues, costs and possible unintended consequences of their actions. Reflection and collaborative learning can aid this form of competence far better than a regime of transmission and imitation.
