Student assessment methodologies related to the EHEA

This paper concerns university instructors ratings of their pupils competencies ( erudition and att personalments ) and discusses student-centred and competency-based high focussing in the European Higher tuition Area ( EHEA ) . The statement is that a dramatic displacement of focal pose has taken topographic point in European higher(prenominal) commandment, from teacher-centred to student-centred instruction, and instructors in this system need to familiarise themselves with this displacement and the related compels. For illustration, the billet of take up and estimate methodological analysiss in today s universities emphasize competencies and contr turn on what pupils fundament execute and how these competencies can be related to conk out. In post to get a comprehensive apprehension, cognition about the historical root behind student-centred instruction and competence discipline may be required, and this paper attempts to supply some of this training. With these sassy penetrations, a pick will necessitate to be made should these tendencies be resisted and the old methods of supplying classs be adhered to, or should the air currents of alteration be accepted and versions be made or possibly the outperform pick lies someplace in betwixt these two options? Regardless of one s emotions, such a personal pick should be based upon and actuate by the best information avail sufficient.The bologna Process and the EHEAThe European Higher Education Area, EHEA, is an global parturiency in Europe and beyond, in which higher instruction systems ar made much crystalline and in sync with one another. Founded in 2010 as a consequence of the bologna Declaration ( 1999 ) , it presently comprises 47 national provinces and a figure of advisory organisational members. The historical root of the bologna Process can be traced fend for to a figure of earlier understandings it is of importeeing to pay attending to these in order to to the full understand the bits and the EHEA of today.The 1997 Lisbon Recognition Convention and the 1998 Sorbonne DeclarationThe Lisbon Recognition Convention is an understanding amid a figure of member provinces of the Council of Europe and a figure of of import provinces in the field of higher instruction, including, for illustration, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA. The Convention stipulates that grades and periods of perspective must be recognised unless a significant difference can be shown ( Lisbon Recognition Convention, 1997, p. 7 ) by the establishment that is charged with acknowledgment. The Sorbonne Declaration, signed in 1998 by four European states ( France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom ) , was an understanding sing higher instruction with the intent of coming to a common apprehension and working unneurotic to promote survey periods abroad, to better excellence in survey and research, to develop a common apprehension of instruction and accomplishment and to promote cooperation. In order to enable comparing, the Sorbonne Declaration put frontward a system of rhythms and a system of credits ( the European Credit Transfer System, ECTS ) . The Declaration ends with a blazon out to other provinces to fall in us in this aim and a to all European Universities to consolidate Europe s standing in the human beings by dint of continuously improved and updated instruction for its citizens ( Sorbonne Declaration, 1998, p. 3 ) .The 1999 Bologna Declaration and the ECTS systemThe 29 states that signed the Bologna Declaration in 1999 agreed to back up the thoughts expressed in the Sorbonne Declaration and to co-ordinate policies in order to make a figure of aims, peculiarly to set up the European commonwealth of higher instruction and to advance the European system of higher instruction world-wide ( Bologna Declaration, 1999, p. 3 ) . Among the chief stakeholders in the Bologna Process-a procedure implemented from 1999 through 2010-were the Europea n University Association, the European Association of Institutions of Higher Education, the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, the Council of Europe, the European Commission, UNESCO, the European Students Union, and the motley authorities curates creditworthy for higher instruction ( Heinze & A Knill, 2008 ) . The stakeholders held a figure of semiannual meetings in Paris ( 1999 ) , Prague ( 2001 ) , Berlin ( 2003 ) , Bergen ( 2005 ) , London ( 2007 ) , and Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve ( 2009 ) .The Bologna Declaration is non a lawfully binding papers alternatively, it is an understanding in which the participating states voluntarily synchronise their systems of higher instruction based on thoughts antecedently expressed in the Sorbonne Declaration ( 1998 ) . This synchronism implies that pupils makings be defined in cornerstones of larning results, instead than in footings of the length of survey, which, in bend, means that the basic unit has sh ifted from the figure of professor contact hours to student work load. It too requires the acceptance of determined degrees of higher instruction makings, for illustration the unmarried man s and maestro s grades.The European Credit Transfer System ( ECTS ) , which was discussed in both the Sorbonne and the Bologna declarations, is based on the work load required by the mean pupil to accomplish the aims of a class, that is to state, to successfully finish the work required and go through the obligatory scrutinies, which in bend are based on the class s course of study and expected larning results. The ECTS is an musical instrument implemented to acknowledge pupils study-periods, but it is of import to retrieve that the intent of the original Declarations, including the debut of the ECTS system was non exactly to help pupils. Another-equally authoritative-purpose was to sharpen Europe s debate, as Adam ( 2001 ) reminds us. The politicians and polity shapers did non outline t he Sorbonne and Bologna declarations based on unselfish philanthropic gift, instead they were concerned about the nature and fight of European higher instruction ( Adam, 2001, p. 292 ) .Student-centred instruction and skill resultsThe footings student-centred instruction and larning results ( Otter, 1993 NCIHE, 1997 ) are precondition outstanding topographic points in the Bologna Process and in the paperss released by the higher instruction curates. The Leuven/Louvain-la-Neuve Communique from 2009, for illustration, discusses the importance of student-centred acquisition in it, the curates stipulate that student-centred larning requires authorising single scholars and new attacks to learning and larning , every bit good as effectual support and apprise constructions and a course of study foc employ more clearly on the scholar ( Leuven/Louvain-la-Neuve Communique , 2009, p. 3 ) . Student-centred instruction includes the possibility for pupils to take their ain survey wai es during their old ages at higher instruction establishments and sections. The curates acknowledge this and reason that the curricular reform taking topographic point in the EHEA will be an on-going procedure taking to high quality, flexible and more separately trim instruction waies ( Leuven/Louvain-la-Neuve Communique , 2009, p. 3 ) . From reading the Communique , it is clear that the curates are confident that student-centred acquisition should be the end of the course of study reforms during the Bologna Process. The term larning results is too conspicuously discussed in the ministerial communiques, such as the Berlin Communique from 2003.Competence-based instructionThe construct of competencies has been utilize in assorted educational scenes over the last decennaries, both in the USA and in Europe. In the context of the Bologna Process, the term was used in the Bologna Declaration, which verbalize that a Europe of cognition was an of import factor for growing and for sup plying Europe s citizens with the necessary competencies to confront the challenges of the new millenary, ( Bologna Declaration, 1999, p.A 1 ) . The construct was besides extensively used in the Tuning Educational Structures in Europe undertaking. The purpose of the Tuning undertaking, which began in 2001, was to crinkle the educational constructions in European higher instruction and to ask for argument sing subject-specific and general competencies ( Tuning, 2002, p. 3 ) . At the Prague Ministerial meeting in 2001, it was stated that Europe s citizens should be able to efficaciously utilize their makings, competences and accomplishments throughout the EHEA ( Prague Communique , 2001, p. 1 ) . It is interesting to detect that the Prague Communique uses the term competences , alternatively of competencies , unconnected other communiques-it is non clear if this was a witting ending from the curates.Four old ages after the Bologna Declaration, the construct of competencie s was besides discussed in the Graz Declaration ( 2003 ) , published by the European University Association ( EUA ) , where a continued development of a common definition of competencies was emphasised. Subsequently the same twelvemonth, when the curates responsible for higher instruction met in Berlin, they hold the statement put frontward in the Graz Convention ( Berlin Communique , 2003 ) . Therefore, the Berlin Communique states that the member provinces should lucubrate a model of comparable and compatible makings ( Berlin Communique , 2003, p. 4 ) and that this model should depict makings in footings of larning results and competencies. In the same communique , the curates besides declared the select to reaffirm the Lisbon Recognition Convention and to heighten the fight of European higher instruction.The EUA s following of import papers, the Trends-IV Report ( 2005 ) , was published prior to the meeting of European higher instruction curates in Bergen in 2005. The study i ndicated that some agnosticism existed in certain parts of Europe towards the thought of competence-based instruction. The study besides addressed the fact that differences sing learning attacks and the grade to which student-centred acquisition was a portion of the mundane life at universities prevailed ( Trends-IV Report, 2005, p. 48 ) . The curates go toing the 2005 Bergen meeting took note of the consequences and suggestions presented in the Trends-IV Report and discussed the demand for continued work in the EHEA. An overarching model for makings was adopted for the undergraduate, maestro and post-graduate degrees, every bit good as forms for each rhythm, based on larning results and competencies ( Bergen Communique , 2005, p. 2 ) .In 2007, competencies were briefly mentioned in the London Communique , in which the European higher instruction curates conclude that higher instruction should play a strong function in aggrandizement the degree of cognition, accomplishme nts and competencies in society ( London Communique , 2007, p. 5 ) . In this Communique , the curates discuss the ways in which developments have brought them a authoritative measuring stick stick closer to the realization of the European Higher Education Area and reference that this country has been developed in a mode that will ease mobility, accompaniment employability and strengthen Europe s attraction and fight .Competences were besides briefly mentioned in the Leuven/Louvain-la-Neuve Communique in 2009. The Communique , which was agreed upon in April 2009 by the curates responsible for higher instruction in the so 46 states of the Bologna Process, discussed the importance of employability and asserted that higher instruction should fit pupils with the advanced cognition, accomplishments and competencies they need throughout their schoolmaster lives ( Leuven/Louvain-la-Neuve Communique , 2009, p. 3 ) .In March 2010, the curates of the states take parting in the Bolog na Process adopted the Budapest-Vienna Declaration and officially launched the European Higher Education Area. The curates continued to admit the importance of supplying pupils with the chance to get cognition, accomplishments and competencies and agreed that the acquisition environment should further student-centred acquisition ( Budapest-Vienna Declaration, 2010, p. 2 ) . Recognition was besides given to the original Bologna Declaration of 1999 and its vision for 2010, in which pupils would profit from just acknowledgment of their makings.The impact of the Bologna Process in the EHEATherefore far, student-centred and competency-based instruction and pupils competencies on the pan-European policy degree have been discussed. However, it is every bit of import to turn to these facets from regional and national positions in order to to the full appreciate and understand the challenges posed to instructors and faculty at the establishments and sections that constitute the EHEA.An increased force per unit area on higher instruction establishments and sectionsThe mundane determinations made at higher instruction establishments are influenced by complex issues, doing it hard to expect extroverted alterations and the practical deductions of these alterations ( Newton, 2003 ) . The Bologna Process, and the creative activity of the EHEA, has increased faculty members work load. Furthermore, increased competition between diverse higher instruction establishments to enroll pupils and staff has been observed. Rapid and extremist alterations in educational methods have besides taken topographic point as a effect of the important developments in computing machine and Internet-based instruction. The new type of pupils, who are much more familiar with using the cyberspace in order to obtain information, puts new demands on the establishments of higher instruction in footings of advanced larning methods, such as unfastened and distance acquisition, with support from in formation and communicating engineerings ( ICT ) . These demands are coupled with an increased force per unit area on higher instruction establishments, managers and caputs of sections to be accountable and to go through the audit from assorted governments and regulating organic structures. In amount, these tendencies add to the overall challenges faced by educational suppliers who deal with issues related to learning and larning on a day-to-day footing in order to program and put to death high quality instruction and pupil assessments.The drawn-out debut procedure an illustration from PortugalThe debut of the Bologna reform within each member province has been a drawn-out procedure. In Portugal, for illustration, the execution of the Bologna procedure has taken rather some tweet and has caused stakeholders a certain sum of problem. iodine ground for these jobs can be attributed to the elaborate and normative traditions of the Lusitanian statute law , harmonizing to Veiga & A Amaral ( 2009, p. 57 ) . In a 2006 study of higher instruction establishments in Portugal, Veiga and Amaral ( 2009 ) demonstrated that universities had high outlooks of more horizontal mobility activities on the maestro s degree after the Bologna Process was implemented. However, this expected addition in mobility has non manifested itself, partially as a consequence of jobs with the articulation between rhythms and some deficiency of coherency between the different types of Masterss being developed ( Veiga & A Amaral, 2009, p. 61 ) . Veiga & A Amaral besides report issues associated with the incorrect usage of the ECTS system in Portuguese higher instruction. Veiga & A Amaral s ( 2009 ) information indicate that the precedence among many establishments was to travel from a learning paradigm to a student-centred acquisition paradigm, stating, Lusitanian higher instruction establishments saw Bologna as a window of chance to present pedagogic and curricular reforms without aiming other reforms to the ends of Bologna ( Veiga & A Amaral, 2009, p. 62 ) . Veiga and Amaral concluded that the execution of Bologna in Portugal has been achieved in name merely ( Veiga & A Amaral, 2009, p. 67 ) , as a effect of the velocity by which the Bologna Process was implemented and the deficiency of information and legislative support from the authorities.The challenges of module development and preparation an illustration from SpainDiaz, Santaolalla & A Gonzalez ( 2010 ) conducted a survey of attitudes among module and of the sensed preparation demands among these professors, to react to the challenges of the EHEA. The survey, which included 257 university instructors in humanistic disciplines, societal scientific disciplines, experimental scientific disciplines, wellness, and engineering from the Complutense University of Madrid, focused on the EHEA and policy devising in general. In peculiar, the survey focused on the cognition and attitudes among these modul e members and the sensed preparation demands for the instructors based on the demands of the EHEA. The consequences show that about one tierce of the instructors report that they possess merely superficial cognition about the EAHE, and about one 3rd province that they are non certain how the EHEA-induced alterations will impact them as instructors. 66 % of the sample indicated that at that place is a demand to alter learning methods, but at the same clip 57 % do non believe that the structural conditions of the establishment and their sections will back up the development work needed to suit the instruction that is being offered to the demands of the EAHE system. Based on their consequences, Diaz, Santaolalla & A Gonzalez ( 2010, p.A 112 ) provinces that module preparation causes a batch of passion to billow and that it plausibly will do it even more hard to plan this type of plans.The usage of the construct of competence-based instructionThe term competence-based instruction h as been contested, and certain persons have argued that it is merely a term used by policy shapers for political and societal grounds, instead than resting on a scientific footing. Hodge ( 2007 ) , for illustration, notes that the term competence-based ( or performance-based ) instruction has been used for decennaries to intend different things, and claims that policymakers in Europe presently use it as a bombilation word and as a conceptual footing for redesigning course of study and learning scenes within the EHEA, based on a political docket.Indeed, the term competence-based ( or performance-based ) instruction has long been used in assorted educational scenes and by different organisations, such as the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education ( AACTE ) . For illustration, the AACTE appointed a Committee on Performance-Based Teacher Education in the early 1970s, which issued a list of features of successful performance-based instruction ( Elam, 1971 ) . Harmonizing to this list, competencies to be demonstrated by the scholar, e.g. a pupil, should be stated in order to be able to measure the scholar s behavior. The standards to be used in this appraisal should besides be expressed and should depict the degrees of competencies. Furthermore, the instructional programmes, that is to state, the classs, should assist develop scholars competencies, and the appraisal of the pupil s competencies should use public presentation as the primary beginning of grounds ( Elam, 1971 ) .At least a part of the historical roots of the construct of competence-based instruction lies in the USA, the Cold War epoch ( 1950-1970 ) , and the technological competition between E and West ( Hodge, 2007 ) . The initial success of the E, with its Sputnik programme at the terminal of the 1950s, for illustration, was a irritant in the West s side and in its instruction and preparation programmes. In the USA, extended probes and reorganisations of schooling and professional pro grammes were undertaken. One consequence of this check-up was that the educational focal point shifted from faculty member cognition to practical and applicable competencies and utile results. Teacher instruction in the US was besides bear upon by this probe, as educational programmes were reorganised. The instructor instruction programmes were reformed to concentrate more on single demands and existent work demands, and, as a effect, alterations in appraisal besides took topographic point, with a stronger accent on measuring public presentation and discernible results. In the late sixtiess, for illustration, the American authorities issued instruction manual to the establishments responsible for teacher instruction to develop new course of study with a stronger focal point on public presentation and behavioral results, competencies to be learned and the rating of these public presentations, results and competencies ( Hodge, 2007 ) .Appraisal and scaling in the EHEATherefore far, the constructs of student-centred and competency-based instruction in the EHEA have been discussed. Our attending will now turn to university instructors ratings of their pupils competencies.Different appraisal formatsMethods of measuring and rating undergraduate pupils vary across Europe ( Sullivan, 2002 Karran, 2004 & A 2005 ) . Numerous attacks to assessment and assessment methods proving a scope of accomplishments and abilities exist. The virtually common method is to free the pupils write tests, essays or studies, but there are many other attacks used for appraisal, such as self- and peer appraisal and oeuvre-based appraisal in off-campus locations. It is of import for instructors to use the optimum attacks and methods, based on the classs course of study, and to give pupils a mix of attacks and methods, thereby enabling them to show the scope of their abilities.Traditionally, it is the instructor who assesses the pupils, but coachs in supervised vocational preparation pattern or director off-campus may besides analyze and rate the learning advancement of pupils, presuming that they are prepared for this undertaking and that they receive support. Regardless of who assesses the pupils, it is of import that the rating is based on clear and available standards and defendable grounds ( Brown, 1999 ) .Scoring and rating pupilsIn higher instruction, there are numeral tonss and classs. Classs are frequently given in the signifier of letters ( or some other descriptive component ) and are employ to peculiar public presentations. A passing class is frequently achieved when certain standards, designed to set up whether pupils have reached a minimal degree of competence, are met.The scaling of pupils, i.e. the procedure by which a instructor assigns values to a pupil s public presentation ( for illustration 1-10 or A-E ) , plays a important function in higher instruction. Classs are of import to such interested parties as possible employers, Ph.D.-programm e admittances commissions and bookmans, who lose it the effects of educational scenes ( Davies & A Graff, 2005 ) or who analyse the prognostic cogency of classs, that is to state, to what extent classs from classs can foretell future public presentations in alumnus classs and in professional life ( Taylor & A Albo, 1993 Gonnella, Erdmann & A Hoja, 2004 ) . save above all, classs are of import to the pupils themselves. Previous research confirm that pupils hold strong positions about appraisal and scaling, and these positions influence the ways in which pupils approach larning and analyzing ( Sambell, McDowell & A Brown, 1997 ) .Student-centred appraisalIn the European Higher Education Area, appraisal is regarded as something meant to heighten pupils acquisition ( Leathwood, 2005 ) . Therefore, assessment governments and formats are get downing to alter, going fictile instead than simply summational. In add-on, the possibilities of utilizing a assortment of appraisal techniq ues, including self- and peer appraisal and problem-based acquisition and appraisal techniques, deserve to be explored ( Segers & A Dochy, 2001 ) . The job, from the position of instructors who are used to multiple pick questionnaires and similar trials, is that these modern appraisal signifiers are perceived to hold lower degrees of dependability and cogency. Furthermore, appraisal in the EHEA will besides be more practical and non-academic, instead than simply scholastic and for the exclusive intent of fixing undergraduates for post-graduate surveies.During the last decennary, involvement among educational suppliers in inquiries sing appraisal and scrutiny has increased, every bit good as in how different methods of appraisal affect pupil acquisition ( Wilson & A Fowler, 2005 Leathwood, 2005 ) . It has become more and more common for university and college instructors to utilize formative appraisal, instead than merely summational appraisal, to heighten pupil acquisition ( Sege rs & A Dochy, 2001 ) . Formative appraisal is an rating whose intent entails modifying and/or bettering an educational class or the pupils acquisition environment, based on information obtained during the class. Summational appraisal, on the other, refers to the traditional method of measuring pupils it takes topographic point at the decision of a class, with the intent of finding the class s effectivity and the pupils classs ( Roos, 2005 ) .The relationship between classs and future workplace successResearch concentrating on classs and workplace public presentation after graduation makes usage of two theories cognitive accomplishments theory claims that pupils develop their cognitive accomplishments during their clip at the university and that their degrees of public presentation are seeable in their classs. These accomplishments so lead to success in the workplace, and, since productiveness is rewarded with increased net incomes, a positive relationship should be between acad emic accomplishment and net incomes ( Donhardt, 2004, p. 281 ) , as the more educated the employee, the more productive he/she isa and that employers reward more extremely educated workers with higher wage ( Donhardt, 2004, p. 273 ) . Meanwhile, corroboration theory claims that occupation appliers certifications ( grades and sheepskin ) are what affairs to employers, instead than classs. Harmonizing to this theory, classs have no influence on future net incomes.Donhardt ( 2004 ) studied net incomes results by researching the anticipation and growing of net incomes over the first 3 old ages following graduation. Classs were the step of academic achievement, and net incomes were declarative of the value ascribed to an person. Donhardt wished to find whether accomplishment in college, as measured by class point norm, can foretell the growing of net incomes over clip. He expected rate point norm to be cardinal in the relationship ( Donhardt, 2004, p. 281 ) . However, his consequ ences indicated that class point norm had small impact on net incomes. GPA was non a important variable and had really small correlativity with net incomes. Nor did pupils with high classs experience significantly higher growing of net incomes over clip when compared with pupils with lower classs. Donhardt concluded the enfranchisement theory, which claims that occupation appliers are frequently screened based on their university grades, since grade certifications designate the pupil as a difficult worker, to be more plausible. This determination is nil new to research workers in higher instruction. In old research, Pascarella and Terenzini ( 1991 ) , for illustration, have demonstrated that a positive association exists between holding a college or university grade and success in the workplace.Looking in frontThe following Ministerial Meeting will be hosted by Romania in Bucharest on April 26-27, 2012. At this meeting, the curates will look into the advancement that has been made i n the Leuven/Louvain-la-Neuve docket and will endeavor to drive it frontward. The undermentioned ministerial conferences will be held in 2015, 2018 and 2020. What can be expected in the close hereafter with regard to higher instruction in Europe? Competency-based instruction and student-centred appraisal methodological analysiss will most surely continue to be utilised, merely as the merchandisation of higher instruction seems likely to go on. Global economic factors will go on to act upon educational systems and the labor markets, and higher instruction establishments will confront even ferocious economic competition from one another.This paper has described the general understandings and the international character of the Bologna Process the assorted histrions and administrations involved have merely been superficially outlined. Many more constructions and factors impact the Bologna Process and impact the EHEA. For the establishments and sections, it is detailed to be witting of constructions and factors on the local degree, for illustration in the planning and execution of professional development and preparation for university instructors and other staff. In these attempts, it is of import to admit, for illustration, the instructors ain demands, the possible differences associated to scientific Scopess, and academic and age class , as Diaz, Santaolalla & A Gonzalez ( 2010, p. 117 ) reminds us.