Competences for the Future? A Critical Review of the New Swiss German Curriculum

Abstract

The new curriculum shared by the 21 Cantons of Switzerland which are German-speaking or multilingual («Lehrplan 21») claims to be competence oriented. However, the exact signification of this claim is open to interpretation. This contribution aims to clarify the Lehrplan 21’s understanding of competence by means of an immanent conceptual critique and by referring to various accompanying documents. It will be shown that the term competence is not only used in an incoherent and contradictory manner, but also incomprehensibly and partially incorrectly. Also the focus is placed on the understanding of competence as a combination of skills and knowledge assuming the applicability of the acquired knowledge.