All universities in the world are rapidly adapting their educational programs to Competence-Based Education (CBE) oriented schemes, since they have understood that teaching cannot be based on the sole instruction of knowledge oriented to a specific subject, but it is also necessary to develop in the participants aspects related to Knowing How to Do, Knowing How to Be, Wanting to Do and Being Able to Do and in this way be able to give students the necessary techniques to relate to their environment in an integral way. These significant changes in the educational processes and that touch all areas of medicine, must be implemented and adapted to the new educational paradigms, so it is important to establish the relationship and the strategies that must be used for their teaching, of each of these with Forensic Sciences, which is the fundamental objective of this work. The work was based on the theories of positivism, following a qualitative approach and based on the parameters established by an evaluative documentary type research. The research establishes what type of factors, capacities, potentialities, abilities and skills should be developed according to each competency in the programs oriented to Forensic Sciences, with which the teaching of each of these can be guaranteed. Finally, the basic recommendations that a program oriented under the concept of EBC in Forensic Sciences should have are indicated.

Keywords: Education, competencies, definitions, factors

The concept of Competency-Based Education (CBE) has been, fundamentally throughout the first quarter of the 21^st century, gaining momentum and becoming the main pillar of all contemporary education programs¹ throughout the world, which means that modern and cutting-edge educational institutions must adopt this methodology of teaching knowledge and develop content, design classes, implement workshops, promote exhibitions, establish practical and field work, stimulate collaborative and participatory learning and carry out evaluations, always within the framework² of this methodology, always framed within this framework, must adopt this methodology of teaching knowledge and develop contents, design classes, implement workshops, promote expositions, establish practical and field work, stimulate collaborative and participative learning and carry out evaluations, always framed² within this way of disseminating the educational fact.

In this order of ideas, educational centers oriented within the learning techniques based on CBE, should motivate teachers and students to meaningful, dynamic, autonomous learning, in which everyone becomes the protagonists of a teaching-learning process where they are involved,³ making it enriching and motivating, establishing, therefore, that the process can stimulate discrepancy, reflective criticism, meaningful research, the search for knowledge, the application of techno-humanistic aspects and the search for solutions to the problems of individuals or communities, all of which are fundamental elements in democratic and enriching thinking, which in turn help students to develop qualities that transcend knowledge and help them to develop in their environment.

There is an abundant bibliography that refers to the concept of Competency Based Education or as others define Competency Based Learning (CBL),⁴ the interesting thing about this is that this system involves the integration of knowledge and skills, which is done through the development of various educational techniques, which involve going beyond the mere transmission of the agenda or knowledge of a particular curriculum, transforming this into a process that leads to the training of participants, with an accumulation of behaviors that must be taught in a transversal manner.

The present research seeks that the reader can have a clear idea of how the concepts related to CBE should be understood, what is its relationship with Forensic Sciences, the importance of professionals in this area to develop skills to interact with an environment full of complex and dissimilar situations, which merit a superior behavior and performance, which is usually required every time the participants, already professionals, are faced with cases, which are in most cases absolutely different and with unique characteristics, which come with unique characteristics, which come to be understood in a complex and dissimilar environment, which merit a superior behavior and performance, which is usually required every time the already professional participants face cases, which are most of the times, absolutely different and with unique characteristics, which come to represent a permanent challenge, when it comes to give answers in conditions with a high level of demand and excellence.

Positivism is the philosophical current based on empirical observation,⁵ so it can be commented that the research presented here was based on this precept and followed a qualitative approach based on a bibliographic review. Going deeper into the qualitative aspects,⁶ the qualitative approach makes predictions based on the observed facts, therefore, its prediction is predictable, being a path that goes from the general to the specific.

Another aspect that follows the present research is that it is framed within the aspects established by evaluative research, which seeks to evaluate programs, policies or interventions to determine the effectiveness of these and their possible applications,⁷ in this case the concept of CBE applied in the Forensic Sciences, since conclusions will be established on the most relevant aspects that should be developed in the programs of the area under study.

Finally, documentary research seeks, obtains and examines previously published bibliographic references, gathering them according to a defined sequence, so that they are useful to the study and thus collaborate in the explanation of the phenomenon under study,⁸ an aspect that was widely used in the research carried out.

Theoretical aspects

Forensic Sciences are an extraordinary field of scientific research as it is of the common knowledge of people, since the image of their contributions is shown in several famous TV series, which indicate how they serve as support for the justice administration system, since they can demonstrate the characteristics of a crime by relying on Biology, Chemistry, Anthropology, Toxicology and Documentary Review, thus denoting the immense breadth in the fields in which it is sustained.⁹

But the Forensic Sciences, go far beyond those shown on TV Shows, a very notable case that represented a huge leap in the treatment of waterborne diseases, was that using techniques associated with this branch of knowledge, the English physician John Snow mapped an outbreak of cholera that occurred in the city of London,¹⁰ where he studied the way in which people were contaminated and died, with which he was able to identify patterns and create, through his work, new methodologies that led to the development of another area of science which is Epidemiology and broadened the use of Statistics as a fundamental working tool in Modern Medicine and Forensic Sciences.

But forensic sciences also play a fundamental role in accident reconstruction, injury assessment, applications in forensic engineering and toxicology, which in many cases are unknown to people,¹¹ but which save millions of lives every year, due to the contributions they make to safety and engineering. An almost forgotten case, but it is appropriate to point out its complexity and the way in which the forensic investigation was carried out, was the case of the De Havilland Comet airplanes in the 50's. This airplane meant a technological leap in aviation at the time, involving much more comfortable and faster transfers (about 45% less travel time). This aircraft meant a technological leap in aviation at the time, involving much more comfortable and faster transfers (about 45% less travel time), since they used for the first time, jet engines in passenger planes. But after only 2 years of operation, the planes began to disintegrate in the air, causing the death of all the occupants of the three crashed planes and leaving everyone perplexed and without any clue as to what had happened.¹²

This chain of accidents gave rise to a very complex Technical-Forensic investigation, with which it was possible to verify the cause of the failure (unknown at that time), basically due to the phenomenon of material fatigue, today widely studied in Metallurgical Engineering, setting then the basis of Forensic Studies as a key element in the investigation of air accidents worldwide.

As previously indicated, forensic studies not only include evaluations of a police or criminal nature, but are also used in fields as diverse as medicine or engineering, so that the teaching of all aspects related to the investigative, evaluative, informative, comprehensive analysis of information and the subsequent dissemination of results and decision making, requires that the professionals involved in these events have a set of very important skills to carry out such delicate tasks.¹³ In order to understand in a clear way, the implications that revolve around the concept of Competencies and its relationships in the educational and labor field, it is necessary first to make history on how this topic arises, and by recognizing it, it will be possible to visualize this statement without a doubt, which is what is intended to develop in the research work that is shown in such a way that the reader sees it in a really simple and even enjoyable way, which is the Competency Based Education (CBE).

In the early 70's, an American industrial psychologist named David McClelland, was able to notice through his studies, that on many occasions, when large corporations hired graduates with the highest averages from the most prestigious universities in the United States and started their work activity, it turned out, that almost from the beginning, they turned out to be a great failure, because these individuals lacked the ability to correlate with their environment, treat their co-workers, follow instructions, commit to what they did, identify with the institution, make decisions in accordance with the rules or be environmentally responsible, despite possessing extensive theoretical knowledge in their area of study and having achieved the highest grades.¹⁴ On the other hand, McClelland also realized that on many occasions, professionals graduated from little known universities and even with average or not so good grades, were the best in their jobs, excelled over their peers, quickly integrating into the business activity, so they were highly valued by all and became a factor of success in the organization, reflecting these aspects collected in McClelland's work along with other notable scientists in the works developed in this regard.

In this order of ideas, the cases of great entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Michael Dell or Walt Disney, among others, who never completed or started university studies or even high school, are well known, but nevertheless, they demonstrated to possess a set of skills well above the average of the common people, beyond the formal knowledge given by the education system, by following a curriculum or certified study plan.

As previously indicated, this kind of outstanding people in their field, was the one that called the attention of McClelland and his team, to evaluate these aspects and deepen on this situation and consider the factors that make a worker to be successful in their field, to excel over others and that motivates them to remain in time as an excellent student or worker: Consequently, we start from the premise that not only knowledge should be the basis of an education quality and leading to professional success, education, that there are many things beyond knowledge and that it is necessary to establish, as a next step, what are the competencies that successful professionals should possess, in any field and including Forensic Sciences⁹ and which aspects should be included in educational plans or in training and knowledge updating programs in all areas of people's professional life.

Then it is time to deepen on the concept of competencies, explaining in detail what implications it has on any space in the educational and work environment, so first of all it should be taken into consideration that all these educational theories and professional development orbit on a key factor which is motivation, wonderful quality that many people possess and that ultimately make a difference between those who excel and those who are generally more unfortunate and that is related to the momentum that people have to achieve the goals set. Motivational factors are definitely fundamental when developing competencies and in order to strengthen it among students or employees, it is also important to address many teachings focused on multiple activities in a cross-cutting manner, or in other words, aspects that should be worked on, and that go beyond the agenda of an educational program or a professional training plan, where the desired aspects are developed among participants and that we want them to have in their behavior and way of acting in the multiple demands to which they will be subjected.¹⁵

Then, once the fundamental aspects on which CBE is based have been well related, it is time to define what competencies are, which can be summarized as follows:

Set of knowledge, skills, attitudes, aptitudes and abilities that lead a professional to have a successful work performance.¹⁶

All of the above leads to an in-depth understanding of what this definition entails and, based on this, to establish what the Competency-Based Teaching Methodology implies and the foundations that successful professionals are expected to possess once they graduate from the university or the aspects that permanent training or professional performance improvement plans should have. That is why, based on what was previously mentioned, on the questions McClelland asked about the factors that implied the variability in the labor results of workers, the answer is that the educational programs previously focused mainly on teaching knowledge established in a group of training programs, so that the evaluation and plans were focused only on providing specific content on various topics, and did not consider the other factors that people must possess to relate effectively with their environment.

The importance of this definition is that, according to a good number of studies,¹⁶ five competencies are well defined and should be developed in the study or training plans, as indicated in Table 1 and shown below.¹⁷

As can be seen in the table above, each of the competencies shown is related to an aspect of the person's future work activity, which can never go unobserved, hence the importance of keeping them in mind at all times.

Nowadays, the concept of CBE is well known in the educational field, but it is often not fully mastered in the professional field or by employers in important institutions, which in this particular case are focused on the health area, despite the fact that these aspects are highly required by the people in charge of hiring personnel. Therefore, in the past, performance measurement was limited to quantitative and/or performance objectives and little evaluation of the rest of the competencies previously described. This means that it is not only a question of evaluating whether during the management of a manager or supervisor or staff, for example, a certain number of patients were correctly attended, the causes of a certain incident or accident were efficiently detected, or how a certain event affected an environment, but goes beyond that and the person must have the additional capacity to know if the decisions taken during the development of the case were assumed in an assertive manner, if he/she had the ability to overcome problems, if the behavior was that of a leader, if he/she worked as a team and in harmony, if he/she shared knowledge, if he/she motivated his/her personnel or if he/she was able to perform the activities entrusted autonomously and without requiring permanent support or assistance.

These aspects must be incorporated into the classroom for instruction or updating and tied to the study of Forensic Sciences, since it is not only a matter of teaching exclusively a specific and necessary knowledge in a given subject or course program, but also of developing aspects related to the other four competencies, which are the Know-How associated with the ability to apply the knowledge acquired with mastery and professionalism in various situations. It also implies fostering the Knowing How to Be, which is given by the behavior of a person before the diverse situations that arise in daily life. It is also important to develop contents that stimulate the Willingness to Do, which implies the motivation of the person to work in an environment and manage within a social environment and last but not least is the Ability to Do, which is related to the ability of the participants to perform the assigned tasks, taking into account that these go well within the established deadlines and complying with the given standards.

That is why this process of teaching competencies is a continuous task, it must be permanently worked with the participants of a given educational program or work environment, by which is an extensive, broad and above all permanent process, which begins at home, where parents, will have a significant influence in stimulating their children's need to learn (Knowing), to perform basic trades and tasks (Knowing How to Do), to maintain respect and appropriate behavior before society (Knowing How to Be), to motivate them to continue and progress (Wanting to Do) and to do things within well-defined timeframes from the first time (Being Able to Do). This continues in universities and organizations, where these five competencies must be permanently developed and that in each professional training plan, there is a harmonious integral formation.

Then, related to the previously mentioned, CBE cannot be limited to the time students attend educational institutes (from preschool to post-doctorate), it is a permanent task that teachers, supervisors, managers and any type of personnel in charge of workers, carry out accompaniment tasks and can stimulate and enhance competencies, using the appropriate didactics that can be used for these purposes, adapted to each of these specific competencies and evaluated individually and in groups, trying above all, to carefully explain to the individual their failures or weaknesses in each of the sessions and looking for ways to increase them little by little throughout their career in the educational and labor system.

Therefore, this implies a higher responsibility for the educator or personnel in charge of personnel, because under the CBE scheme, it is not only about transmitting knowledge or explaining how to perform an activity, but it is necessary to introduce and evaluate, with its corresponding percentage weight, each of the established competencies required by the person in the study or training plan, designing innovative instruments, with dynamics or methods, which serve not only to disseminate knowledge or know-how, but also to ingrain the other four competencies, so that the behavior of the student or worker carries all these characteristics throughout his work performance.

As previously indicated, the field of Forensic Sciences is extremely broad, studies and evaluations may involve multiple specialties such as medicine, engineering, administration, accounting, law and basic sciences, among other areas of knowledge. This multidisciplinary nature merits the training of highly qualified professionals, who master a series of complex techniques, which must be observed with thoroughness and rigor, in order to obtain the expected results in peremptory times. Therefore, beyond the theoretical and practical knowledge that a professional in Forensic Sciences must have, he/she must also possess all the other competencies, previously related, in order to be able to perform at a high level in each of the cases in which he/she will be involved. It is for this reason that in the following tables, some of the factors to be developed in the different stages of learning and that must be strengthened permanently are offered.

It was previously indicated that knowledge is simply associated with the development and teaching of the specific contents that the course or program wishes to transmit. These are generally defined by the governmental bodies in charge of defining the guidelines for educational programs, in the case of university programs, or by a group of experts in the case of professional improvement or refresher courses. As previously indicated, knowledge is simply associated with the development and teaching of the specific content that the course or program seeks to convey. These are generally defined by the government agencies responsible for defining the guidelines for educational programs, in the case of university programs, or by a group of experts in the case of professional development or refresher courses, as shown in Table 2.

Consequently, the work presented seeks to present and deepen the other four remaining competencies and complement what has already been previously established, using the following tables, which offer a guide on how to develop the competencies required by professionals in the Forensic Sciences and that should be included in the programs of the different subjects or courses offered, which should be transmitted to the participants, starting with the Knowledge to Do, which is developed below (Table 3).

In relation to know-how, this competence is associated with the set of skills and abilities that a person develops when applying his or her knowledge in an appropriate manner,¹⁸ with mastery and professionalism when solving problems, in this case, associated with Forensic Sciences.

For this reason, a combination of the following are required:

1. Technical Skills, which seek the individual too efficiently, effectively and appropriately apply the related theoretical knowledge.
2. Social Skills, which establish the implications of the actions taken and how they may affect people, in order to take corrective actions in the future, when necessary.
3. Cognitive Skills, these seek to create bridges between the knowledge acquired and the experiences that are achieved through the learning process and experiences, in order to make assertive decisions.

Following the established order, it is time to explain the aspects related to Knowing How to be and what are the implications that must be addressed when it comes to transmitting knowledge associated with this competence (Table 4).

This competency is related to people's own behavior in different circumstances,¹⁹ which may be favorable or adverse, and to the attitudes they adopt fundamentally with all actions related to the people around them, which may be supervisors, colleagues, classmates, teachers or bosses. This competence can be established as a "generic competence ",²⁰ since it is necessary for all professionals acting in any field to possess it. In the case of Forensic Sciences, as people are under constant pressure or stress to solve complex cases, the application of multiple knowledge and the strict following of regulations, it becomes evident how important it is to develop tolerance, patience and empathy in workers, in order to resolve The company is committed to providing the right solutions to problems and thus ensuring the success, not only of the employee, but also of the tasks he or she performs.

In reference to the Willingness to do, with the development of this competence, the person will be able to acquire or improve the set of skills and abilities required by his/her position, in order to obtain the expected results at the time and under the established quality premises.²¹ A determining factor to achieve this is that the person is permanently motivated, so that with courage, proactivity and enthusiasm, as a predominant internal factor, he/she can perform the tasks related to Forensic Sciences, which, as previously mentioned, require a high degree of efficiency, since mistakes can cause serious consequences in the investigations entrusted to him/her (Table 5).

Lastly, and as has been indicated throughout this work, no less important than all the previously established competencies, it is necessary to mention the Power to Do, which implies the cognitive, affective and psychomotor abilities required at the time of performing a task and therefore are necessary when developing a certain task²² and particularly in the Forensic Sciences, where the conclusions obtained influence many decisions of a political, legal, social and personal nature. Consequently, it is necessary to develop in any person who develops a career in Forensic Sciences, the personal ability to perform the entrusted tasks with autonomy and in the best possible way from the first time, observing and following the guidelines established by the laws, norms, commonly accepted procedures, organizations or assigned entities, promoting the necessary changes, based on the new advances and scientific findings determined and that mean a better professional performance (Table 6).

All the theoretical framework previously shown, serve to establish the fundamental parameters that the instruction programs associated to the Forensic Sciences must have and that must be adopted to any of the previously established fields. Every academic program associated with an academic curriculum requires the incorporation of these aspects and, as an example of this, even the military requires it, since the military, as an orderly, hierarchical, obedient institution that fulfills roles of defense and order, must train its personnel based on these guidelines.²³

It is for this reason that the five competencies explained should be covered and therefore, educational strategies should be used to support, reference and methodology, so that participants can understand their importance and then in their professional performance in the Forensic Sciences, perform working each of them, finally obtaining a successful professional performance, outstanding and that people in their environment, feel motivated to work and team up with those who are trained under the premises of the CBE.

CBE has become the most relevant way to impart knowledge and train people to develop their work activities in a successful and efficient way, since it provides participants in educational programs not only with the knowledge required in a specific area, but also trains them in a comprehensive manner to perform their duties, which in Forensic Sciences are of special care and attention.

The study clearly specifies the five competencies that should be taught during the training process of students or professionals that should be duly referenced in the study programs, as well as the aspects that should be included when they are evaluated. Undoubtedly, knowledge is fundamental, but it is also important that each person understands the importance of having great ability and skills in what he/she does, having an always positive attitude, keeping knowledge updated, always being ready to collaborate and do things right from the beginning, which is highly required by people who exercise any type of activity in Forensic Sciences.

For this reason, when working under a CBE approach, evaluation cannot be limited to a review of knowledge (exams or essays) only; it is necessary to use formulas that stimulate all competencies, which requires the use of debates, forums, presentations, chats, modeling, case studies, role plays, etc.²⁴ These will be used according to the competency to be developed and with a percentage of weighting appropriate to each of the instruments. Today, an educational approach based exclusively on the teaching of knowledge has already passed to the background, so it is necessary to teach under the scheme of the EBC, which stimulates the formation of highly trained professionals ready to face the challenges imposed in the XXI Century.

None.

The author declares there is no conflict of interest.

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