Beyond Dichotomies

In this paper, the state of research on the assessment of competencies in higher education is reviewed. Fundamental conceptual and methodological issues are clarified by showing that current controversies are built on misleading dichotomies. By systematically sketching conceptual controversies, competing competence definitions are unpacked (analytic/trait vs. holistic/real-world performance) and commonplaces are identified. Disagreements are also highlighted. Similarly, competing statistical approaches to assessing competencies, namely item-response theory (latent trait) versus generalizability theory (sampling error variance), are unpacked. The resulting framework moves beyond dichotomies and shows how the…