Developing Competence

Competence = Knowledge + Ability + Experience

Knowledge is gained by acquiring information, which is an educational concern. Ability involves skill development. This requires training. Experience comes from practice. To learn from our experience requires us to reflect. To help our students develop competence in a field, we need to provide them with more than a sound knowledge base. We need to support them in developing the skills needed to put their new knowledge into action and to provide opportunities for students to practice those skills. We are to then help them reflect upon their experiences and provide them with feedback on their performance. After all, we do not learn by having experiences but by reflecting upon those experiences. If we limit the college experience to only the educational portion of competence development, we will graduate intelligent incompetents.