A Model for the Representation of Competences Applied to Student's Knowledge Modeling

A skill is a basic unit for cognitive processing that allows the use of concepts. A competence is the result of the application of a skill on a concept. Competences and their development play a central role in most educational and training programs. This paper presents a formal model for the representation of competences, called Competences Memory Map, an extension of the Memory Map [14], a model capable of representing knowledge in an integrated, simple and flexible way. The model is described using set theory through concept algebra and is computationally implementable. The formal description of algebraic and algorithmic operations over the model, as well as case studies, demonstrate that all the model properties hold as expected when dealing with complex real knowledge structures.