The SSRE Congress on the theme 'Transversal competences in education and training: from discourses to practices' will, in addition to the main sessions of the programme, offer parallel sessions dedicated to the presentation and discussion of contributions. 

The event is jointly directed and organised by the Department of Education and Learning / University of Teacher Education (DFA/ASP) of SUPSI, the Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training (SFUVET) and the Swiss Society for Teacher Education (SGL).
 

Conference Topic

Transversal competencies in education and training: from discourses to practices
In contemporary Western societies, transversal competencies (or soft skills) are often regarded as essential resources that should enable greater flexibility and faculty to adapt to the rapid changes in society.

In the world of education, the topic of soft skills is recurring, not to say fashionable. Such skills would enable people to be prepared for the adult world and particularly for the world of work.

Moreover, such skills are the subject of increasing categorization and formalization and find their way into various programs and curricula as objectifiable, identifiable and consequently learnable competencies. In particular, the scientific (and non-scientific) literature abounds with definitions and lists with respect to such transversal competencies: what they should be, what their nature would be, how they should be promoted and/or developed. Despite this centrality, transversal competencies remain a polysemous universe, a theoretical and discursive construct that is not easy to understand. They are often brandished as a miraculous solution to address complex problems and tend to represent an educational and training injunction full of promise and potential that in stages of application, however, often results in approaches still tied to more traditional disciplinary goals and content.

If indeed such competencies are useful skills to be developed and applied both in school and in daily life, it is also important to go beyond rhetorical definitions and applications of immediate use and give oneself the time and means to analyze and understand those obstacles, critical aspects and more generally those areas of tension that the many discourses on transversal skills tend to hide.

In this sense, the Conference of the Swiss Society for Research in Education 2024 aims to provide a privileged opportunity to discuss transversal competencies in depth and critically, to understand their real and concrete role in the world of education and training, to thematize their best practices and ways of development, and to identify and grasp the real benefits they could bring in education and training.
 

Programme in brief

Wednesday 26 June

12.00-17.00 - Reception

14.00-17.00 - Pre-Conference

15.00-16.30 - Start of Congress and Parallel Sessions 

17.00-17.30 - Official greetings 

17.30-18.30 - Round table: Transversal competences: but what the hell are they?

18.30-20.00 - Welcome aperitif
 

Thursday 27 June

08.30-12.00 - Reception

08.30-09.00 - Greetings

09.00-10.00 - Plenary: Förderung Transversaler Kompetenzen und Implikationen für die Lehrer*innenbildung am Beispiel des transversalen Unterrichtens
Christine Künzli David and Federica Valsangiacomo, Pädagogische Hochschule der Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz (PH FHNW)

10.30-12.00 - Parallel sessions and symposiums

12.00-12.30 - Poster session

13.45-14.45 - Plenary: Negotiating Opportunities: The Barriers to Equality in Soft Skills
Jessica McCrory Calarco, University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW)

15.15-16.45 - Parallel sessions and symposiums

15.15-16.45 - World Café

16.45-18.45 - SSRE General Assembly

19.15-22.00 - Aperitif and social dinner
 

Friday 28 June

09.00-10.00 - Plenary: Argument-based teaching and learning: What it is, why we should care, and how we can make the most out of it
Chrysi Rapanta, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA)

10.30-12.00 - Parallel sessions and symposiums

12.30-14.00 - SSRE Working Groups

14.00-15.00 - Plenary: Competenze trasversali e sviluppo personale: una prospettiva psicologica
Chiara Ghislieri, Università di Torino

15.00-16.30 - Parallel sessions and symposiums

16.30-17.00 - Final greetings and end of Congress
 

Saturday 29 June

08.30-13.00 - Excursion to Lake Maggiore
 

Organization

The Swiss Society for Research in Education (SSRE) 2024 conference is directed and organized by the Department of Education and Learning/University of Teacher Education (DFA/ASP) of The University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), the Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training (SFUVET) and the Swiss Society for Teacher Education (SGL)

Organizing Committee
Masiar Babazadeh SUPSI-DFA/ASP
Elena Boldrini SUFFP
Luca Botturi SUPSI-DFA/ASP
Alberto Cattaneo SUFFP
Alberto Crescentini SUPSI-DFA/ASP
Francesco Galetta SUFFP
Stefano Losa SUPSI-DFA/ASP e SSRE, Conference Chair
Fabio Merlini SUFFP
Viviana Sappa SUFFP
Katja Vanini De Carlo SUPSI-DFA/ASP
Monika Wicki SSFI