Kompetente Bildung oder eingebildete Kompetenz? Kompetenzen als inhaltsdidaktische Leitgröße

Has competence acquisition become the objective of didactic action? And does the concept of competence therefore compete with education as a central criterion for content and didactics? This article proposes competence development as a major criterion for content and didactics. However, while education is clearly oriented towards maturity and self-determination, the concept of competence is suspected to be a market economy-oriented, narrow focusing of teaching and learning to meet the needs of the labour market. The present article explores the emancipatory potential of the concept of competence. The author argues that competences are always in a field of tension between their empirical/descriptive deduction from concrete demands and the orientation towards a normative idea of maturity and social participation. Consequently, it is argued that competence development and personality development are two sides of the same coin, i.e. education. The educational process, on the other hand, presents itself as the interplay between competence development and personality development that is in constant need of rebalancing.