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This paper presents a conceptual clarification of the term ‘competences‘, outlining the authors‘ personal stance and examining different theoretical currents which offer differing views of this construct. Its polysemy and ambiguity generate different conceptions and, consequently, encompass different educational practices within university education. An exhaustive characterisation of this concept helps to identify its significant features: its holistic, comprehensive, contextual, axiological, transferable and evolutionary nature. This paper shows the potential of competences to offer frameworks of reference for the new model of university teaching proposed in the European Higher Education Area. Hence, competences appear as broad ends in themselves which frame the purposes and formative and professional profile of university course programmes, whilst at the same time facilitating the selection of contents, understood as cultural media, which in turn facilitate the acquisition of relevant, in-depth, interdisciplinary, flexible and creative knowledge. Competences allow us to design learning situations and to choose methodological principles which emerge from involving students in research processes in order to acquire new knowledge. Similarly, evaluation is affected by the inclusion of competences in the curriculum, requiring the application of an approach to training which is materialised through the use of different instruments to evaluate the processes and not just academic results. Finally, the paper analyses certain circumstances which have hindered the real application of competences in scenarios of higher education, proposing the RIECU network as an example of good practices for the development of professional competences in prospective Pre-Primary school teachers.

Se presenta una clarificación conceptual del término competencias, explicitando nuestra posición personal e indagando en diferentes corrientes teóricas que aportan diferentes visiones de este constructo. Su polisemia y ambigüedad genera diferentes concepciones y, como consecuencia, ampara diversas prácticas educativas en el ámbito universitario. Una caracterización exhaustiva de este concepto permite identificar como rasgos relevantes su carácter holístico, integral, contextual, axiológico, transferible y evolutivo. Se muestra la potencialidad de las competencias para instaurarse como marcos de referencia del nuevo modelo docente universitario propuesto en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior. De este modo, las competencias aparecen como amplias finalidades que enmarcan los propósitos y el perfil formativo y profesional de las titulaciones, al tiempo que facilitan la selección de unos contenidos entendidos como soportes culturales que facilitan la adquisición de un conocimiento relevante, profundo, interdisciplinar, flexible y creativo. Las competencias permiten diseñar situaciones de aprendizaje y elegir principios metodológicos que surgen de la implicación del alumnado en procesos de investigación para adquirir nuevos saberes. Del mismo modo, la evaluación se ve afectada por la inclusión de las competencias en el currículum, necesitando aplicar una concepción formativa que se concreta en el uso de diversos instrumentos para valorar el proceso y no solo los resultados académicos. Finalmente analizamos algunas circunstancias que han dificultado la aplicación real de las competencias en los escenarios de educación superior, proponiendo la red RIECU como ejemplo de buena práctica para el desarrollo de competencias profesionales en los futuros docentes de Educación Infantil. ABSTRACTThe Controversial Application of Competences in Teacher Training at University.This paper presents a conceptual clarification of the term ‘competences‘, outlining the authors‘ personal stance and examining different theoretical currents which offer differing views of this construct. Its polysemy and ambiguity generate different conceptions and, consequently, encompass different educational practices within university education. An exhaustive characterisation of this concept helps to identify its significant features: its holistic, comprehensive, contextual, axiological, transferable and evolutionary nature. This paper shows the potential of competences to offer frameworks of reference for the new model of university teaching proposed in the European Higher Education Area. Hence, competences appear as broad ends in themselves which frame the purposes and formative and professional profile of university course programmes, whilst at the same time facilitating the selection of contents, understood as cultural media, which in turn facilitate the acquisition of relevant, in-depth, interdisciplinary, flexible and creative knowledge. Competences allow us to design learning situations and to choose methodological principles which emerge from involving students in research processes in order to acquire new knowledge. Similarly, evaluation is affected by the inclusion of competences in the curriculum, requiring the application of an approach to training which is materialised through the use of different instruments to evaluate the processes and not just academic results. Finally, the paper analyses certain circumstances which have hindered the real application of competences in scenarios of higher education, proposing the RIECU network as an example of good practices for the development of professional competences in prospective Pre-Primary school teachers.