Competencies in mathematics education – potentials and challenges What’s the point? What’s new? What do we gain? What are the pitfalls?

The present paper focuses on characterising what it means for an individual to be mathematically competent in terms that go across – are independent of – mathematical content and educational levels. Based on the Danish KOM project, eight mathematical competencies, which together are meant to constitute mathematical competence, and three forms of overview and judgment concerning mathematics as a discipline are presented. The normative and descriptive uses of this system of competencies are outlined and discussed as are the challenges encountered when putting the competencies to use in different contexts of research and practice