LÆRING OG KOMPETENCE

Abstract

What kind of relationship exists between the development of competence (learning) and the unfolding of competence? In the article, I take up a discussion about this issue. To begin with, I analyse a concrete sequence from a learning situation in physics. In the sequence I analyse some characteristic differences between the teacher's way of thinking and knowing and the pupil's ways of thinking and knowing. These differences lead me to a theoretical discussion about the concept of 'internalization' and problems related to this concept. I conclude that learning can be regarded as an
activity, where individuals 'externalize' what they learn. They, so to say, anchor their knowledge about some object in the object itself. Knowledge, therefore, is not seen as a decontextualized mental state but as an activity - a way of keeping in contact with the object. Parallel to this process, the individual becomes more competent, that is, becomes able to deal with complicated problems, which demands some kind of 'reference to the future'. The theoretical analysis serves the purpose to avoid a dualism between the subject and the object without loosing the subject as an important
unit of analysis.