Assessment of competence development in higher education: The perspective of university teachers

Abstract

This article analyses the assessment of competence development among the first graduating classes trained under the framework of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The paper focuses on what teachers of seven Spanish universities in the following bachelor's degrees say: primary education, pharmacy, computer engineering and electrical engineering. Following a thorough bibliographic and documentary analysis, we conduct a mixed study using a qualitative methodology based on different data collection instruments: narratives, focus groups and interviews. The results of this article form part of the research project titled “The impact of educational assessment on the development of competencies in higher education. Perspectives of the first graduates” (project reference EDU2012-32766) and reflect the knowledge and implementation of competencies in the EHEA. The scientific and technical contributions of this study can serve to improve the quality of university teaching, particularly with regard to the assessment of the acquisition of competencies and learning assessment in terms of transversal and specific competencies.