Non-formal education and the development of social competence

• Grant number: 08/07961-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2009
• End date: February 28, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Specific topics in Education
• Principal Investigator: Roberto da Silva
• Grantee: Carla Juliana Pissinatti Borges
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Educação (FE). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

One of the biggest challenges that education faces at the beginning of this century is to find basis to promote education of quality to everyone. Nonetheless, define quality and the main ways to reach it has neither been a simple nor a consensual task. Amongst the various proposals, rises the idea of education to build up competences and skills, which has found echo among theorists all over the world and more recently, also among national authorities. Such is Brazil's case, which puts the conception of competences and skills to the base of its recent educational remodeling in all levels. However, the majority of the discussion about competence has focused on the formal sphere, which means to say that scientific efforts, national and international, to understand the development of competence are centered almost entirely on school strategies, neglecting the immense universe of educational practices conceived in less formal contexts that can, however, turn out to be privileged encouragement of certain competences. Amongst them, there would be what we call social competence, understood here as the convergence and application of various personal and interpersonal factors working for the social well being. The current proposal has the intention of filling this gap and explore the educational possibilities offered by the non-formal education from the competence perspective. More precisely, we want to comprehend if non-formal spheres could assemble helpful elements to the development of social competence and its practical consequences. Hence, we intend to contribute with the spread of the debate beyond the boundaries of school education, suggesting therefore, a revision of the own conception of education. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

BORGES, Carla Juliana Pissinatti. The international debate on competencies: exploring new educational possibilities. 2010. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Educação (FE/SBD) São Paulo.