This book addresses challenges in the theoretically and empirically adequate assessment of competencies in educational settings. It presents the scientific projects of the priority program "Competence Models for Assessing Individual Learning Outcomes and Evaluating Educational Processes," which focused on competence assessment across disciplines in Germany. The six-year program coordinated 30 research projects involving experts from the fields of psychology, educational science, and subject-specific didactics. The main reference point for all projects is the concept of "competencies," which are defined as "context-specific cognitive dispositions that are acquired and needed to successfully cope with certain situations or tasks in specific domains" (Koeppen et al., 2008, p. 62). The projects investigate different aspects of competence assessment: The primary focus lies on the development of cognitive models of competencies, complemented by the construction of psychometric models based on these theoretical models. In turn, the psychometric models constitute the basis for the construction of instruments for effectively measuring competencies. The assessment of competencies plays a key role in optimizing educational processes and improving the effectiveness of educational systems. This book contributes to this challenging endeavor by meeting the need for more integrative, interdisciplinary research on the structure, levels, and development of competencies.

This book addresses challenges in the theoretically and empirically adequate assessment of competencies in educational settings. It presents the scientific projects of the priority program "Competence Models for Assessing Individual Learning Outcomes and Evaluating Educational Processes," which focused on competence assessment across disciplines in Germany. The six-year program coordinated 30 research projects involving experts from the fields of psychology, educational science, and subject-specific didactics. The main reference point for all projects is the concept of "competencies," which are defined as "context-specific cognitive dispositions that are acquired and needed to successfully cope with certain situations or tasks in specific domains" (Koeppen et al., 2008, p. 62). The projects investigate different aspects of competence assessment: The primary focus lies on the development of cognitive models of competencies, complemented by the construction of psychometric models based on these theoretical models. In turn, the psychometric models constitute the basis for the construction of instruments for effectively measuring competencies. The assessment of competencies plays a key role in optimizing educational processes and improving the effectiveness of educational systems. This book contributes to this challenging endeavor by meeting the need for more integrative, interdisciplinary research on the structure, levels, and development of competencies.

Vor dem Hintergrund DFG-geforderter Grundlagenforschung reflektiert das Sonderheft den aktuellen Stand der Diskussion um Kompetenzen und Kompetenzmodelle in Deutschland. Die Autoren der Beitrage sind fuhrende Vertreter der Bildungsforschung, die sich aus erziehungswissenschaftlicher, psychologischer und fachdidaktischer Perspektive mit Fragen der Erfassung individueller Lernergebnisse und der Bilanzierung von Bildungsprozessen befassen."

The concepts of genre and ritual are central for the overall occupation with the relationship between the history of the arts and the history of Christianity in Western Culture. This special issue of the journal TRANSfiguration sheds light on the complex relationship between the two broad and difficult terms, genre and ritual, within the cultural history of Europe. This volumea collection of 15 essayswas planned on the basis of the first annual international conference at the Centre for the Study of the Cultural Heritage of Medieval Rituals, University of Copenhagen.