2003: Questions about the Competency Project

1. Why do a competency development project?

The IFF became involved in doing a competency project out of two sets of wishes, needs and interests in the Feldenkrais community. One was a continuing concern among practitioners about whether they had the skills and knowledge they needed: Were they practicing effectively? What should they be able to do? The second was increased demands on practitioners and guilds from governments, insurance companies and institutions, like hospitals and universities, for documentation of our roles and capabilities as practitioners. The 1999 IFF Assembly in Baltimore asked the IFF Board to proceed to "…start now, in collaboration with all the guilds, to complete a competence development process"

Developing a competency profile can provide practitioners with a reference for reflection on our practice and directions for our continuing learning. It can also provide useful documentation for those in the larger society who want to know what we do.

There are different levels of the practice of the Feldenkrais Method. Practitioners develop their abilities with experience and further study, therefore the competencies that basic trainings aim to teach will be different to those of a more experienced practitioner. The IFF competency project aims to develop a competency profile that reflects the abilities of a practitioner after they have been practicing for a while.

We see the competency profile project as an essential part of the IFF Academy idea. Initially the competency profile will be used for reflecting on our practice of the Method — a central role of the IFF Academy. The outcomes of the other Academy activities, for example ‘quality’ workshops, can feed into our thinking about competencies. And the tools developed in the competency project can feed back into processes for quality workshops and local Academy activities. We want to approach this project in a Feldenkrais way. We want this, and all the IFF Academy’s projects, to reflect principles of the Feldenkrais Method. The IFF has developed a set of ‘Feldenkais specifics’ to guide the development of these projects.

We believe this project is grounded the ideas of Moshe Feldenkrais — that learning is a continuous process and that people, including practitioners, come to be able to take responsibility for their own learning and development.

2. What is a competency profile? What is your definition of competency?

A competency profile is a set of statements that encompass the activities of a Feldenkrais practitioner acting in our professional field. These statements summarise and articulate the abilities (knowledge, skills and values) of a practitioner who has been working for some time in the field. That means, that our definition of competency is related to experience. We therefore define competence as: "Competency is the ability to mobilise, in a professional situation, the resources needed to perform."

A competency profile is not a definition or even a description of the Feldenkrais Method as such — it is one description of what a practitioner does. Any description in words, of course, can only be an approximation. Like notes for an ATM lesson, a competency profile is a framework we can refer to help inform what we teach and do in practice. Researching and describing what practitioners do has the potential to enrich our understanding and practice of the Method.

4. Will I be tested? Will there be competency-based certification?

At this stage there are no plans to introduce competency-based assessment of certification. This is an idea that will require extensive discussion within our community — within our guilds and associations and between guilds in the IFF — in the coming years. Any plans to introduce competency-based assessment or certification would include questions of ways to do this that are consistent with the Method and reflect real practice, take into account the situation of people who are already practitioners, and deal with questions of fairness and transparency.

There could be a number of potential benefits of competency-based accreditation. These include to:

• enhance the quality of the profession or service for clients/consumers
• establish credibility with government authorities, institutions and the public
• give direction to professional training and continuing education
• establish a basis for entry into the profession and certification
• establish a basis for assessing continuing competence and re-certification
• assess people with non-typical experience or training
• identify career paths
• enhance morale, professionalism and encourage excellence.

The implementation of competency-based accreditation would be the responsibility of each Guild for its own members. The IFF could provide guidelines and processes so that there can be consistency on an international basis. Again, these things will need to be discussed thoroughly in your own guild and in the IFF.

5. Aren’t the TABs doing a competency development project?

The Training Accreditation Boards are doing a competency project. The content, aims, timeline and methodology differ from the IFF project in important ways.

The TAB competency profile will describe the beginner competencies - needed by a Feldenkrais teacher at the time of graduation from basis training and beginning practice. The aim for the TAB profile is to guide the design of a training curriculum and a way of reflecting on different designs for training programs. The first approximation of the profile was written, with the help of a consultant, using a literature review of existing documents (like the Standards of Practice, the Berufsbild, guild Codes of Professional Conduct, etc.) The current stage involves groups of trainers and assistants discussing and improving the draft profile. The aim is to have the next draft done this year.

The IFF project will describe the competencies of a practitioner who has been practicing for some time. We are using research tools to ask practicing Feldenkrais teachers what they do in their practice. We believe this is a necessary step to establish the validity of a practitioner competency profile. Internally in our community practitioners need to know that a profile reflects their actual practice. Externally, many governments have rules for the accepting competency documents that require research has been carried out with a sample of people actually doing the work. The IFF is proceeding a little more slowly than the TABs, giving us some more time to develop our research process. We have engaged a consultant in the area of professional vocational assessment and competence to assist us. The TAB profile will become one of the important references that will inform the final IFF competency profile. Because it is set more at graduation level competencies it will provide a valuable point of comparison. As Feldenkrais practitioners we know that knowledge is enriched by comparisons (left/right, now/before) and discovering more than one way of doing things.

6. How are you developing the competency profile? What is happening with the project?

So far we have researched how other professions have developed competency profiles. We have also experimented with possible research tools at IFF Assemblies. With the help of a consultant, we have developed a research tool that asks practitioners to describe a ‘critical incident’ in their teaching. We believe it is an exciting, phenomenological tool that draws on the real experience of practitioners. It can be used in a survey or workshop format. It is being tried out with a number of German-speaking practitioners in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. As with any research project, we will use the results of this pilot to reflect on our next steps. How can this tool be improved? Do we need other research tools? We hope to bring results of the pilot project to the next IFF Assembly in May 2003 to get input from our member organisations.

7. Who is involved so far?

Currently the IFF Board’s Competency Project Team is Rob Black, Rineke Brinkhof, Markus Riesen and Cliff Smyth. There is a Reflective Group for the project composed of: Victoria Swann (AusTAB), Kathryn Goldman-Schulyer (FGNA) Bonnie Humiston (FGNA), Andrea Wiener (FGNA/NATAB), Ilan Jacobson (Israeli Guild), Marianne Lacina (Swiss Guild) and Nadine Yasikov (Swiss Guild). There were also a great number of people who gave their input during the IFF Assemblies since 1999, especially in competency related working groups. We also would like to acknowledge the input of many IFF members (especially the TABs at the Kassel 2001 Assembly), the involvement of the guilds of Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the pilot questionnaire and all those who filled in our questionnaires.

8. How will IFF Member organisations be involved in this project?

At the last three Assemblies representatives of your Guild/Association have received reports on ideas and plans for the competency project and have had a chance to experience some of the proposed research tools and discuss the overall project. At the last Assembly a Reflective Group was sent up to provide feedback to the competency team. At the coming (2003) Assembly proposals will be discussed to establish a Steering Committee for the project, and also discussion of other ways that member organisations will be involved into the future. Member organisations will be kept informed via the IFF Academy website and e-mailed IFF Updates, as well as reports to the IFF Assembly.

9. How can I find out more or contribute to this project?

If you have ideas, or would like to become involved in this project, you may contact the Guild/Association you are a member of, or contact the IFF directly. We are always interested in knowing what you think, and learning about members of our community who may have expertise in an area that can contribute to this process. Although we may not always be able to respond to individual correspondence, your questions, feedback and ideas will help us in our further communication with you, and will contribute to the project as a whole. 

IFF Competency Project Team, Rob Black, Rineke Brinkhof, Markus Riesen and Cliff Smyth, April 2003.