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Because learning and instruction are increasingly competence-based, the call for assessment methods to adequately determine competences is growing. Using just one single assessment method is not sufficient to determine competence acquisition. This article argues for Competences Assessment Programmes (CAPs), consisting of a combination of different assessment methods, including both traditional and new forms of assessment. To develop and evaluate CAPs, criteria to determine their quality are needed. Just as CAPs are combinations of old and new forms of assessment, criteria used to evaluate CAP quality should be derived from both psychometrics and edumetrics. A framework of ten quality criteria for CAPs is presented, which is then compared to Messick's framework of construct validity. Results show that the 10-criterion framework partly overlaps with Messick's, but adds some important new criteria, which get a more prominent place in quality control issues in competence-based education.Keywords: evaluation criteria; quality control; assessment programmes; competence-based Modern societies have dramatically changed due to technological changes such as the development of information technology systems. Service industries have become knowledge oriented, production economies have become knowledge economies and production workers have become knowledge workers. Learners need to be flexible and adaptive if they are to function well in today's complex and global societies. To support the needs of these new learners, education is changing its focus from one of transmitting isolated knowledge and skills to one of acquiring complex competences, guiding learners in developing skills for learning and getting information from the diverse range of sources available in modern society. In short, education is increasingly becoming learner-centred and competence-based.As part of the larger drive to change the curriculum, assessment needs to be reformed as well. Biggs ' (1996) idea of constructive alignment between instruction, learning and assessment implies that these three elements should be based on the same underlying principles, in this case competence-based education. Birenbaum et al. state in their EARLI position paper (2006) that current assessment practices in European countries fail to address learners' needs because they tend to focus on assessment of learning instead of on assessment for learning, are limited in scope, drive teaching for assessment instead of teaching for learning, and ignore individual differences. Although part of this might be true, new assessment methods are not without problems either and some feel that the evidence against classical tests is not as strong as has been claimed (Hambleton & Murphy, 1992), and that the claim that newer forms of assessment are better suitable to address learners' needs still needs empirical confirmation (Stokking, Van der Schaaf, Jaspers, & Erkens, 2004). Still, as a consequence of the changes towards competencebased education, a call is growing for the development of a...

Students with high intrinsic motivation often outperform students with low intrinsic motivation. However, little is known about the processes that lead to these differences. In education based on simulations or authentic electronic learning environments, this lack of insight is even more clear. The present study investigated what students actually did in an electronic learning environment that was designed as a game-like realistic simulation in which students had to play the role of a junior consultant. The results show that students with high intrinsic motivation did not do more, rather they tended to do different things. Analysis of log files showed that the increased curiosity that students with high intrinsic motivation have, resulted in proportionally more explorative study behaviour. However, the learning outcomes of students with high intrinsic motivation were not better.

Although competence is an important concept in human resource development and education, there is no theoretical framework for competence. This article focuses on the development of such a theoretical framework. It proposes the boundary approach of competence, an aid to support human resource managers and educationalists in thinking about the concept of competence and in defining it properly. Here, the concept of competence is being explored by focusing on its dimensions and by identifying differences with related terms. The boundary approach of competence heavily depends on a constructivist point of view. This holds that the quest for one absolute meaning of competence is being abandoned and that instead competence definitions are being valued against their degree of viability. This article proposes three variables for enhancing viability: people, goal and context.