Competence-Based Vocational Education and Training (VET): the Cases of England and France in a European Perspective

This paper examines the notion of ‘competence’ in the VET systems of France and England. While both countries have developed ‘competence-based’ approaches, underlying the similar terminology are distinct meanings, rooted in the countries’ institutional structures and labour processes. A key distinction is identified between a knowledge-based model in France and a skills-based model in England. Competence in the French sense is multi-dimensional and relies on the integration of practical and theoretical knowledge, as well as personal and social qualities within a broadly defined occupational field. By contrast, in England, competence refers to the performance of fragmented and narrowly defined tasks, with minimal underpinning knowledge. Thus, whereas ‘competence’ in the English VET system usually denotes functional employability for what may be relatively low-skilled employment, in France, it encapsulates the multi-dimensional development of the individual as a citizen as well as an employee.

Toward the Ideal Study Guide: an exploration of the functions and components of study guides

The study guide, as an important resource for student learning, is here conceptualized in an ideal general form. The process starts with an examination of its instructional context, then explores the learning functions it is meant to support. This in turn leads to a sketch of the practical components which can be employed in the design of a study guide, with a discussion of various practical decisions to be made along the way. The ideal study guide which is developed here is only meant as a prototype, a template of sorts for particular instructional design efforts in study guide development.     

L'inférence figurale: Un pas de raisonnement discursivo-graphique

This article aims at legitimating the use of the graphic registers in the written expression of mathematical reasoning. More than the defence of this legitimacy, the article shows also the risks of its use: the problems of communication which it causes as well as the difficulties, for the teachers, to evaluate the reasoning of the pupils when they integrate these registers into their solutions, and for the pupils, to understand the mathematical texts which use these registers in their discursive expansions differently than optional illustration. With the concept of graphic expansion and figural inference, the article claims to supplement the inferences in Raymond Duval's discursive plans whilst respecting the reasoning functional definition. Having considered the cognitive and semiotic aspects in the definition of figure, the article shows the use of drawings in the reasoning structure of a pupil at secondary level. Figural inference born from this study is examined then defined in terms of function, structure and quality. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.