COMPARING ITALIAN PRE-SERVICE AND IN-SERVICE TEACHERS’ BELIEFS ON COMPETENCE BASED LEARNING

ABSTRACT: This research highlights pre-service and in-service teachers’ beliefs on competence- based learning: Teachers who want to facilitate the acquisition, development and strengthening of competencies in their students. From an assessment perspective, such a competence-based approach implies providing students with authentic learning situations related to real life. At the same time evaluation needs to switch from quantitative and standardized tests to formative moments in which students become aware of their learning weaknesses and understand how to cooperate and use resources in order to make the most out of their learning process. The research is based on a 15-item questionnaire that was completed by 442 pre-service and in-service teachers attending a compulsory annual training course. The questionnaire’s main themes are related to competencies, learning objectives, study contents, teacher-student relation, and technologies. The questionnaire, administered online during the month of April 2015 in two different Italian universities, reports as main results a statistical difference between pre service and in service teachers about the perceived importance of competencies in their teaching practice.