“Adapting Higher Education to Changing Times”
Carlos Fernandes
Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo
[email protected]
IPVC International Week - 29th May to 2nd June, 2017
What vision for higher education?
The higher education model of lecturing, cramming and examination has barely changed
for centuries.
Students gather at an appointed time and place to listen to the wisdom of scholars.
Now, three disruptive waves are threatening to upend established ways of teaching and
learning:
1. Rapidly changing technology
2. Changing labour markets / Change in work skills (outdated employment system)
3. Costs are rising / intense pressures of (global) competition
Do higher education institutions need to reinvent themselves to survive?
2
“To live a modern life anywhere in the world today, subject to pertetual
social and technological transformations, is to experience the pyschological
equivalent of permanent revolution”
New York Times, 7th November 2016
3
Employers are broadening their views
“A degree alone means very little to me today. What matters is that the applicant
can prove to my satisfaction that he or she is, in fact, educated, responsible, and
able to make my company more profitable, and my life easier”
J. Smith in The New York Times, May 23, 2010
“47% of occupations are at risk of being automated in the next few decades.
Innovation wipes out some jobs and changes others, people will need to top up
their human capital throughout their lives”
(Oxford university, 2014)
21st Century Skills
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•
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Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
Creativity & Innovation
Collaboration, Teamwork & Leadership
Cross-cultural Understanding
Communication & Media Literacy
Computing and ITC Technology
Career & Learning Self-direction
Source: WVDE
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A deep transformation in higher education?
A fundamental re-tool and re-design is necessary; not incremental change
but change in the nature of what is taught and how it is taught. Skills and
knowledge sets must be redefined, structures and assumptions need to
be questioned, and old ways of doing things must be transcended.
Source: Tourism Education Futures Initiative (TEFI, 2009).
“For those who do attend college, there
should be more flexibility…..so they can
do it without constantly being on the
premises….[It is] expected an increase in
“a la carte, hybrid, technology-based
education, in which students take courses
in person, online and at times of their own
choosing. Consumers are demanding it”.
Conrad de Aenlle in The Global Edition of The New York Times, September 14, 2010
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“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
-Albert Einstein
Dealing with future insecurity and uncertainty requires “thinking
outside the box”, looking at existing domains and problems from a new
angle and having the confidence in venturing off the beaten path.
Promoting such a culture of creativity that acknowledges and seeks to
learn from failure encourages students to move from hypothesis and
conventional knowledge towards possibilities and originality.
Source: Tourism Education Futures Initiative (TEFI, 2009).
Project based learning (PBL)
A systematic teaching method that engages learners in acquiring knowledge and
skills through an extended inquiry process structured around complex, relevant
questions, carefully designed products, and authentic tasks.
From Introduction to Project Based Learning Handbook, Buck Institute for Education.
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What is Problem-Based Learning?
As distinguished from Project-Based Learning:
Project-Based
ProblemBased
Product
emphasis
Process
emphasis
Source: Howard, 2003
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Higher education institutions are changing
• New funding models
• Focus on employability, entrepreneurship
and the student as consumer
• Internationalisation /globalisation
• New modes of engagement with
stakeholders and local/regional
environments
• Pressure of measuring impact
Being or becoming an
entrepreneurial / innovative
higher education institution is
a response to these
challenges
• Contributions to economic growth
• Pressure on academic careers
Source: EU and OECD
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HEInnovate
A self-assessment tool for higher education institutions (HEIs)
wishing to explore their entrepreneurial and innovative potential
Source: EU and OECD
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What is an entrepreneurial and innovative HEI?
The entrepreneurial HEI is (A. Gibb 2013):
•Designed to empower students and staff to demonstrate enterprise,
innovation and creativity in teaching, research and the third mission
•Its activities are directed to enhance learning, knowledge production
and exchange in a highly complex and changing societal environment
•As an organisation, it is dedicated to create public value via
processes of open engagement
Source: EU and OECD
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Entrepreneurial and conventional education approaches
Conventional
Entrepreneurial
Focus on content
Focus on process
Led and dominate by trainer
Ownership by learning by participant
Training expert hands down knowledge
Trainer as fellow learner/facilitator
Emphasis upon 'know that'
Emphasis upon 'know how' and 'know who'
Participant passively receiving knowledge
Participant generating knowledge
Session heavily programmed
Session flexible and responsive to needs
Learning objectives imposed
Learning objectives negotiating
Mistake looked down upon
Mistake to be learn from
Emphasis upon theory
Emphasis upon practice
Subject functions focus
Problem/multi-disciplinary focus
Source: Ateljevic, 2011
The student as consumer in a highly complex and changing societal environment
“In a generation, we have shifted from parents trying to stop teenagers slumping
in front of the TV to young people losing all interest in the box. US teens are so
occupied with social networks and mobile vídeo that they watch only about 21
minutes of broadcast TV a week.”
John Gapper, Financial Times, June 19, 2014, p. 9
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Who We Know…Generation Y
Characteristics of students
“We are moving away from the values,
attitudes and lifestyles of the once
influential Baby Boomers (born 1943 to
1960) toward the values, attitudes and
lifestyles of the younger generations”.
(Hira, 2007)
Who We Know…Generation Y
Optimistic,
follow your
passion!
Born
1982 - 1994
– Technologically competent. Electronic devices are
‘extra limbs’ . Technology actually considered part of
lifestyle.
– Impatient and requiring immediate gratification
– Shorter attention spans
– Need constant feedback
– Like a lot of options (multi-tasking and “pushed to the limit”
– Need to share (selfie culture!)
Source: Adapted from Cheung, Harker, & Harker (2008).
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Meet Generation Z…True Digital Natives
Cautious,
pragmatic,
inspired to
change the world!
60% prefer
using digital
products for
coursework
Unprecedented abilities to collect and
process information
Google for instant
answers
Texting over e-mail
T h e s p e e d o f yo u n g p e o p l e ’s we b s e a r c h i n g
m e a n s t h at l i tt l e t i m e i s s p e n t i n e va l u at i n g
i n fo r m at i o n
Social
Born 1995 to
2010
Need for Speed
Self-Directed, multi-generational upbringing
• Don’t need to be “hand held”
Would rather give
up allowance than
Internet
Privacy not
much of a
concern
40% prefer
talking online
to friends
Yo u n g p e o p l e h ave a p o o r u n d e rsta n d i n g o f t h e i r i n fo r m at i o n n e e d s a n d
t h u s f i n d i t d i ff i c u l t to d e ve l o p e ffe c t i ve s e a r c h st rate g i e s
2015 Cengage Learning Computing Conference
90% use
Facebook
64% Instagram
52% use
YouTube and
other sites
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2015 Cengage Learning Computing Conference
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Higher Education Plans
1 in 4
Gen X
1 in 3
Gen Y
1 in 2
Gen Z
2015 Cengage Learning Computing Conference
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Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (A.D.H.D.) is now the
most prevalent psychiatric illness of young people…
People with ADHD are actually hard-wired for novelty seeking.
Much of everyday life seems routine and understimulating
To compensate, they are drawn to new and exciting experiences and get impatient
and restless with regimented structure
The world that they live in essentially feels not very interesting.
Sitting in lectures as unendurable and lose their concentration within minutes
(impatience and short attention span)
Focus attention on one task is nearly impossible
The brain receives a message: “pay attention, this is an important experience that is
worth remembering” (NEED STIMULATION)
Source: Adapted from Friedman (2014)
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So, how innovative in your higher education institution?
“Regardless of whether the knowledge, skills and
compentences are acquired through formal, non-formal
or informal learning paths” (Lisbon Recognition Convention)
E-learning; On-line degrees; Blending learning – More
appealing than traditional degree courses?
Are institutions ready for a more personalised student
support to use an online course?
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Final reflection
The game has changed and we should not be playing by the same rules
(classic model of education).
A paradigm shift in higher education needs to take place. Which path to
take?
In 1858, John Henry Newman, an English Catholic Cardinal, warned that
“without the personal touch, higher education could become an icebound,
petrified, cast-iron university” .
That is what the new wave of high-tech online courses should not become.
But as an alternative to an overstretched, expensive model of higher
education, they are more likely to prosper than fade. (The Economist, 2014)
Q
A
nswers
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Thank you!