DISCOURSE AND THE PRACTICE OF COMPETENCY-BASED EDUCATION: A STUDY OF UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION COURSES

Considering the importance given to the notion of competencies in guiding the educational reforms implemented in various countries, we propose a study that aims to map the aspects that characterize the teaching of competencies in two undergraduate Business Administration courses. This proposal is based on our understanding that the education of an undergraduate student based on competency acquisition should include pedagogical elements allowing for the effective incorporation of the competencies. This means that the educational models on which these courses are based need to be submitted to a critical review, with the premise that they should incorporate, in addition to the acquisition of conceptual knowledge, the associated knowledge relating to doing and being. Thus, a qualitative-descriptive study is carried out using a semi-structured interview methodology for collecting data from three Educational Coordinators from two Higher Education institutions. The outcomes show that the teaching of competencies does not guide their courses. Although some of its elements are detected, this does not mean that there is a global, systematic and articulated orientation involving all the elements constituting the teaching-learning process.