Modernisation of teaching and learning in center of new directions for European Higher Education Area

January 5, 2015

Researchers interested in European higher education have gathered in Bucharest from 24 to 26 November 2014 to discuss the developments in scholarship and offer recommendations to policy-makers for the upcoming Yerevan Ministerial Summit in May 2015 of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). One area clearly stood out: modernisation of teaching and learning, which was has so far been in the periphery of the policy agenda of the Bologna Process. 

The final conference report prepared by Livu Matei (Central European University), includes among others, the following recommendations:

"One of the main shortcomings of the Bologna Process has been the exaggerated emphasis on structures and bureaucratic ways of implementation, at the detriment of content and substance of higher education. To correct this situation, we recommend that the Ministers designate teaching and learning, including lifelong learning, as a priority area for the immediately following period. Moreover, we recommend to the Ministers to mandate a working group to identify ways in which to promote the advancement of teaching and learning within the context of the Bologna Process, even before an overall re-thinking eventually takes place."

and

"We recommend to the ministers to affirm the importance of various strands of research in higher education for higher education policy making. We recommend that the ministers mandate a working group to identify models (including building on already existing projects in this area) and ways in which a more effective relationship could be promoted between research and policy making in countries of the European Higher Education Area. We suggest that existing EU funding could be considered in this context."

Manja Klemencic and Paul Ashwin have offered to the report the following summary from the thematic section on teaching, learning, and student engagement: 

Findings:
- Demography of student population and high participation of non-traditional students in mass higher education, growing global interconnectedness, development of educational technology and proliferation of digital media, and increasing competition in higher education have profound implications on teaching and learning.
- The changes in the higher education environment are outpacing advances in scholarship, policy reforms and institutional practice. Much of teaching and learning in European classrooms happens without taking into account the latest scholarship in this area or changes in the student body and in the higher education environment.
- Teaching and learning is a broad field and comprises a number of areas with fast evolving research agendas. Some basic questions as to who are today’s students, how do they learn, what motivates them, how do we know what they learn, etc. have not yet been satisfactorily resolved.
- There is unevenness in policy initiatives and structural support for advancement of teaching and learning in higher education in Europe. Some countries have no policies and instruments to support teaching and learning.
- The differences between individual institutions are significant in terms of their structures and processes for excellence in teaching and learning. It is not uncommon that higher education teachers are left fully to their own devices to improve their teaching (or not).
- The European cooperation to modernise teaching and learning in higher education has so far been fragmented and in absence of an overarching strategy.

Recommendations:
- Concerted effort is needed among European governments and higher education stakeholders, including higher education researchers, to advance excellence in teaching and learning in European higher education.
- Cross-country exchange of knowledge and collaborative projects for advancement of scholarship in teaching and learning is called for especially in the following areas:
o Instructional methods, tools and technologies and learning environments (active and effective learning; reflective learning and teaching; educational technology; digital learning environments and online education)
o Authentic assessment of student learning and student experience (consequences of different grading and assessment practices on student learning; standardised versus individualised practices of assessment; student surveys and qualitative methods to investigate student learning and experience)
o Student motivation, self-regulation and student engagement (self-regulated learning; sense of belonging and ownership; student learning outside academic tasks; student engagement in extracurricular activities; student social networks; challenges for non-traditional students)
- Joint initiatives within the EHEA are needed to help translate scholarship into policy and practice through joint policy development, policy learning, and support for capacity-building for research, education and training in the area of teaching and learning at European, national and institutional levels (teaching and learning institutes/agencies/research groups, and institutional units for excellence in teaching and learning).

The full report will be available at : http://fohe-bprc.forhe.ro/