Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Fatemeh Nazari Roodbali ¹
• Ahmad Banyasady ²
• Seyyed Jalal Hashemi ³

¹ PhD graduated student of philosophy of Education,, Educational sciences and psychology,, Shahid Chamran University of Ahwaz

² Assistant Professor,, Department of Educational Sciences,, Faculty of Humanities. , Malayer University, Malayer, Hamedan, Iran

³ Associate Professor,, Department of Philosophy of Education,, Faculty of Education and Psychology,, Shahid Chamran University of Ahwaz,, Ahwaz,, Iran.

Abstract

Competency-based curricula emerged partly in response to the limitations of memory-centred schooling by clarifying learning expectations, linking knowledge to action, advancing learners on the basis of mastery, and using continuous and authentic assessment. The problem arises, however, when competence moves beyond an instrument for organizing learning and becomes the ultimate criterion for determining educational aims, potentially subordinating the human, epistemic, ethical, and social dimensions of education to performance and measurability. This theoretical-philosophical study critically examines competency-based curriculum and develops a reconstruction model within the theoretical horizon of Bildung in school education. Using a conceptual-critical approach, the study selected foundational texts and documents on competence, Bildung, and general didactics, together with contemporary critical studies, through theoretical sampling until conceptual saturation was reached. These sources were then examined according to normative criteria concerning educational aims, knowledge, educational judgment, agency, and justice. The findings indicate that the fundamental problem is not competence itself but its elevation into the organizing end of curricular decisions. The central finding is that reconstruction requires a normative reordering of the hierarchy of educational ends: Bildung provides the horizon of meaning and purpose, while competence is repositioned from the final criterion of the educated person to a means serving human formation. This reordering redirects curriculum decisions across five interrelated domains without abandoning the legitimate practical capacities of competency-based approaches. The study concludes that overcoming the limitations of competency-based curriculum requires neither eliminating competence nor formally adding Bildung to a list of competencies, but normatively reconstructing curriculum so that the capacity to act is related to understanding, self-determination, judgment, and responsibility toward self, others, and the world.

Keywords

• Competency-Based Curriculum
• Bildung
• Curriculum Critique
• Aims of Education
• School Education
• Self-Determination

Main Subjects

• الگوهای برنامه درسی