Council of Europe Seminar: European Trends in teaching and Learning, 25 June 2010

Development of Teaching and Learning Methods in Europe

David Crosier,

Eurydice, EACEA

Presentation Overview

• Pressures driving changes in teaching and learning

• the impact of the Bologna process

• What can we expect for the future?

Pressures driving change in teaching and learning

• Societal and labour market change

• Globalisation

• Rise of « knowledge society »

• Demographic change: from élite to mass systems (25% increase in student participation across Europe during last decade)

Bologna process as a response to pressure

• Major changes throughout Europe• 3 cycle degree structure, Quality

Assurance systems, ECTS/Diploma Supplement/NQFs etc

• But outcomes are not all coherent• Process has often happened backwards:

structures first and goals second• Many other agendas have been mixed

with Bologna –> reform cocktail

What are now the main Bologna goals?

• 10 years after the Bologna Declaration, we are asking what we want the EHEA to be

• Structural issues & quality assurance have been the main concerns of the last decade, but student-centred learning may now have its place in the sun….

What does student-centred learning mean?

Simple concept: rather than organising education primarily around knowledge transmission from professor to student, we design programmes to meet the needs of students

Simple concept, but not so simple to put into practice

Implies radical re-thinking of some approaches to higher education

What is a student-centred curriculum?

• Learning Outcomes defined (not content input)

• Student choice: able to combine modules into an integrated whole

• Conscious development of a range of skills and competences: not only content driven

Bologna tools

• Main Bologna tools can be used to serve the goals of student-centred education:

• ECTS - credits based on student workload to achieve defined learning outcomes

• Diploma Supplement

• National Qualifications Frameworks

- But all these tools can also be misunderstood and misused

Key Questions for a student-centred learning approach

• Who decides what students need, and how?

• If there is a diversity of needs, how can a diversity of offers be provided?

• How can students who need (different forms of) support receive it?

Implications of Student Centred Learning for Teaching Methods

• Teaching methods need to be adapted to different aims and purposes….

• Important to understand students needs before deciding on specific methods

• New and old methods can be combined without any problem: not a question of either this or that..

Examples of teaching methods to meet different aims

• Aim = Disseminate knowledge

Method = lectures, books, internet etc• Aim = Develop capacity to use knowledge/ideas

Method = project-work, seminar groups, work placements etc

• Aim = Develop capacity to generate knowledge/ideas

Method = research projects, group working, problem solving tasks etc

Two potential dangers

• Mass higher education systems: how to ensure that students are respected as individual learners?

• Funding: a good system has to be well funded. By whom?

Tentative concluding remarks for the future

• Bologna reforms have provided opportunities to be more responsive to (rapidly) changing societal conditions and individual student needs

• But we’re only at the early stages of the process..

• In the wake of economic downturn, student-centred learning & adapted teaching methods could be a positive response

• But we now also run an increasing risk of focusing higher education on narrow labour market concerns…