FOURTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE
University of Groningen, The Netherlands
13 - 15 May 2009
Approaches to learning in EHEA first year students:
Has Bologna a Pedagogic Agenda?
José Luis González Geraldo
John Fazey
Chris Trevitt
Benito del Rincón Igea
E-mails to: [email protected]
GENEALOGY OF THE BOLOGNA PROCESS
“FATHER”
“MOTHER”
POLITIC
ECONOMIST
R. SCHUMAN HEIRS
(50s of the XX Century)
EURO POWER
EHEA
¿COULD BE PEDAGOGIST?
SOCIETIES OF KNOWLEDGE
IT SHOULD BE!, BECAUSE…
"There is an increasing awareness that a significant
outcome of the process will be to move towards
student-centered higher education and away from
teacher driven provision"
(London Report, 2007)
BUT, WHAT DOES IT MEANS?
BETTER TEACHING?
BETTER LEARNING?
NONE/BOTH?
WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
TWO FRIENDS TALKING…
F1: YOU KNOW WHAT, I HAVE TAUGHT
MY DOG TO WHISTLE.
F2: REALLY?, I HAVE NEVER HEARD HIM.
F1: WELL, I SAY I HAVE TAUGHT HIM,
NOT THAT HE HAVE LEARNED…
ONE PROCESS:
TWO RELATED, BUT DIFFERENT, PARTS
“It is what he [the student] does that he
learns, not what the teacher does”
(Tyler, 1949: 63)
“Perhaps learning is something students do
rather than something that is done to them”
(Kugel, 1993: 322)
What students do is more important than
what teachers do
(Shuell, 1986)
LOOK OUT!!
ALL QUOTATIONS ARE PRE-BOLOGNA
THEN, DOES THE EHEA IMPROVE
THEIR LEARNING?
NOT NECESSARILY, IS ONLY A CHANGE
COULD BE GOOD AND/OR COULD BE BAD…
YES, IS A UNIQUE AND UNREPEATABLE
OPPORTUNITY. BUT NOT THE ONLY ONE.
IS A “TRIGGER”, THAT WE SHOULD USE “WISELY”
WHAT DOES “WISELY” MEANS?
IMPROVE THE WAY OUR STUDENTS LEARN
NOT ONLY THE OUTCOME (MARKS)
BUT ALSO WITHIN THE PROCESS (APPROACHES)
SAL THEORY (MARTON AND SÄLJÖ, 1976)
STUDENT APPROACHES TO LEARNING
DEEP/SURFACE APPROACHES
DEEP APPROACH
MORE COMPLEX
MORE DESIRABLE (NORMALLY)
Vs
SURFACE APPROACH
OR
NOT AN AIM OF OUR TEACHING
LESS EFFORT
FOCUS ON THE CONTENT
FOCUS ON THE FORM/TASK
RELATED WITH FORMER
LEARNING
ROTE LEARNING, MEMORIZING,
JUST PASS THE EXAM
RESULTS SHOW THEY ARE ORTHOGONAL FACTORS, NEGATIVE CORRELATION (Vs)
BUT WE CAN NOT SAY DEEP IS GOOD AND SURFACE IS BAD
WHAT IS FOR SURE IS THEY ARE NOT CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INDIVIDUAL.
APPROACHES ARE CONTEXT DEPENDENT
SOME RESEARCHERS SHOW A POSITIVE CORRELATION BETWEEN A DEEP
APPROACH AND A BETTER OUTCOME
THEN, IF THE BOLOGNA PROCESS WOULD
IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF HIGHER EDUCATION…
…IT WOULD ALSO INCREASE A DEEP APPROACH IN
OUR STUDENTS
… AND/OR A DECREASE OF THE SUPERFICIAL
AND, MORE SPECIFICALLY, OF THOSE STUDENTS
WHO ARE IN THE FIRST COURSE
IS THIS HAPPENING?
SOME KEYSTONES OF OUR RESEARCH
SAMPLE: FIRST YEAR STUDENTS FROM 9 DIFFERENT
SPANISH UNIVERSITIES (N=538)
DESIGN: EX POST FACTO
INSTRUMENTS: R-SPQ-2F (BIGGS, KEMBER AND LEUNG, 2001)
VARIABLES: APPROACHES TO LEARNING (DEPENDENT)
HAVING STUDIED UNDER “ECTS” OR NOT (INDEPENDENT)
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
THE RESULTS ARE JUST THE OPPOSITTE WE EXPECTED
IT SEEMS THAT “ECTS” FOSTER AN INCREASE IN SURFACE AND A
DECREASE IN DEEP APPROACHES
SO, DEALING WITH “ECTS” DOESN´T GUARANTEE A BETTER HIGHER
EDUCATION SYSTEM
BUT, THERE ARE OTHER VARIABLES: FORMATION OF THE TEACHERS,
KIND OF CAREERS, GROUP CLASSES…
NEVERTHELESS, WE SHOULD TAKE IT AS A WARNING
AND THINK IF WE…
…ARE DEALING WITH THE EHEA
“WISELY”?
MAYBE NOT AS WELL AS WE SHOULD/COULD
2010 = END OF A PROCESS = EHEA
BUT IS ONLY AN “AREA”, A STRUCTURE
THE REAL QUESTION IS:
¿WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO INSIDE THAT AREA?
DANGER: ACHIEVING THE FORM
BUT NOT THE ESSENCE (VEIGA AND AMARAL, 2009)
THE BOLOGNA PROCESS AGENDA
15 May, Friday. 2009
Almost accomplished, if not:
- Political
- Economic
- Cultural
(Tomusk, 2008)
If you have any question:
E-mails to: [email protected]
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION!!