The capacity spiral: Four weddings and a funeral

Abstract

Over the last decade, we have witnessed an academic battle between two competing concepts: ‘competence’ and ‘capability’. Put simply, competence claims ‘I will continue to do things to a satisfactory standard in the future because I have done them to a satisfactory standard in the past’. Capability claims, ‘I could do things ably in the future because I have certain qualities that will enable me to do so’. This article argues that in the current educational turmoil, the competence-versus-capability debate is one battlefield too many, and that a strategic alliance between the two warring factions is necessary if either is to have any continuing practical effect in education and commerce. We provide a middle concept, ‘capacity’ in the role of matchmaker. We describe capacity as contextual intelligence and suggest that there is a spiral of capacity linking competence and capability in a practical symbiosis that grounds both in real world contexts. © 1999 Journal of Vocational Education and Training. All right reserved.