Disciplinary competence descriptions for external use

The article addresses the need for competence descriptions of disciplines as a means for fostering more productive communication between different disciplines and between the disciplines and their surroundings. It is argued that the usual competence descriptions devised for use within a discipline itself, e.g. in relation to teaching and learning of the discipline – so-called competence descriptions for internal use – are not the best means to achieve this. The same is true for the general, non-disciplinary competence descriptions. Instead, specially devised disciplinary competence descriptions for external use are called for. Our main illustration is a competence description of mathematics for external use devised so that it can support the dialogue about justi cation of mathematics education between the discipline’s practitioners and its recipients. This description for external use is counterposed with one for internal use i.e. that of the Danish KOM project. It is also counterposed with a competence description for external use for physics, taking into account the different justification problem of physics education. Together these two descriptions showcase how competence descriptions of disciplines for external use may support interdisciplinary collaboration and division of labor in the educational system.