1. Introduction
1.1. Cultivating students’ competence based on the curriculum reform trend
Competence is defined as “a physical or intellectual ability,” “a performance capacity,” or even “an underlying complex ability” (Shavelson, 2010, p. 44). It is also regarded as “a disposition that enables a person to perform successfully in content-related, complex, and demanding problem situations” (Kulgemeyer and Schecker, 2014, p. 258). The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), European Union (EU), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and other international organizations have emphasized the importance of “competence” (Rychen and Salganik, 2003). The OECD study, named “Definition and Selection of Competencies: Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations,” has sparked a wave of curriculum reform in various…
