Student assessment methodologies related to the EHEA

This paper concerns university instructors ' ratings of their pupils ' competencies ( cognition and accomplishments ) and discusses student-centred and competency-based higher instruction in the European Higher Education Area ( EHEA ) . The statement is that a dramatic displacement of focal point has taken topographic point in European higher instruction, from teacher-centred to student-centred instruction, and instructors in this system need to familiarise themselves with this displacement and the related constructs. For illustration, the course of study and appraisal methodological analysiss in today 's universities emphasize competencies and concentrate on what pupils can execute and how these competencies can be related to work. In order to get a comprehensive apprehension, cognition about the historical roots behind student-centred instruction and competence development may be required, and this paper attempts to supply some of this information. With these new 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 best pick lies someplace in between these two options? Regardless of one 's emotions, such a personal pick should be based upon and motivated by the best information available.

The Bologna Process and the EHEA

The European Higher Education Area, EHEA, is an international undertaking in Europe and beyond, in which higher instruction systems are made more crystalline and in sync with one another. Founded in 2010 as a consequence of the Bologna Declaration , it presently comprises 47 national provinces and a figure of advisory organisational members. The historical roots of the Bologna Process can be traced back to a figure of earlier understandings ; it is of import to pay attending to these in order to to the full understand the procedures and the EHEA of today.

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The Lisbon Recognition Convention is an understanding between 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 survey must be recognised `` unless a significant difference can be shown '' 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 together to promote survey periods abroad, to better excellence in survey and research, to develop a common apprehension of instruction and acquisition 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 call to other provinces `` to fall in us in this aim and a all European Universities to consolidate Europe 's standing in the universe through continuously improved and updated instruction for its citizens ''.

The 1999 Bologna Declaration and the ECTS system

The 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 country 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 European 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 assorted authorities curates responsible for higher instruction ( Heinze & A ; Knill, 2008 ) . The stakeholders held a figure of semiannual meetings in Paris, Prague ( 2001 ) , Berlin, Bergen, London, and Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve.

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. This synchronism implies that pupils ' makings are defined in footings of larning results, instead than in footings of the length of survey, which, in bend, means that the basic unit has shifted from the figure of professor contact hours to student work load. It besides 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 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 merely to help pupils. Another-equally important-purpose was to sharpen Europe 's fight, as Adam ( 2001 ) reminds us. The politicians and policy shapers did non outline the 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 acquisition results

The footings student-centred instruction and larning results are given 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 counsel constructions and a course of study focused more clearly on the scholar ''. Student-centred instruction includes the possibility for pupils to take their ain survey waies 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 ''. 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 besides conspicuously discussed in the ministerial communiques, such as the Berlin Communique from 2003.

Competence-based instruction

The construct of competencies has been used 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 stated that `` a Europe of cognition '' was an of import factor for growing and for supplying Europe 's citizens with `` the necessary competencies to confront the challenges of the new millenary, ''. 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 tune the educational constructions in European higher instruction and to ask for argument sing `` subject-specific and general competencies ''. 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. It is interesting to detect that the Prague Communique uses the term `` competences '' , alternatively of `` competencies '' , unlike other communiques-it is non clear if this was a witting determination from the curates.

Four old ages after the Bologna Declaration, the construct of competencies 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 acknowledged 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 demand 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, was published prior to the meeting of European higher instruction curates in Bergen in 2005. The study indicated 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. 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 ''.

In 2007, competencies were briefly mentioned in the London Communique , in which the European higher instruction curates concluded that higher instruction should play a strong function in `` raising the degree of cognition, accomplishments and competencies in society ''. In this Communique , the curates discuss the ways in which developments have brought them `` a important measure 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, addition 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 professional lives ''.

In March 2010, the curates of the states take parting in the Bologna 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 ''. 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 EHEA

Therefore 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 staff at the establishments and sections that constitute the EHEA.

An increased force per unit area on higher instruction establishments and sections

The 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. The Bologna Process, and the creative activity of the EHEA, has increased faculty members ' work load. Furthermore, increased competition between different 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 information 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 appraisals.

The drawn-out debut procedure - an illustration from Portugal

The 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 clip and has caused stakeholders a certain sum of problem. One ground for these jobs can be attributed to `` the elaborate and normative traditions of the Lusitanian statute law '' , harmonizing to Veiga & A ; Amaral. 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 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 and Amaral concluded that the execution of Bologna in Portugal has been `` achieved in name merely '', 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 Spain

Diaz, Santaolalla & A ; Gonzalez 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 module 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 there 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 provinces that `` module preparation causes a batch of passion to billow '' and that it likely will do it even more hard to plan this type of plans.

The usage of the construct of competence-based instruction

The term competence-based instruction has 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, 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. 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.

At least a part of the historical roots of the construct of competence-based instruction lies in the USA, the Cold War epoch, and the technological competition between E and West. 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 programmes were undertaken. One consequence of this check-up was that the educational focal point shifted from academic cognition to practical and applicable competencies and utile results. Teacher instruction in the US was besides affected 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 instructions 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.

Appraisal and scaling in the EHEA

Therefore 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 formats

Methods of measuring and rating undergraduate pupils vary across Europe. Numerous attacks to assessment and assessment methods proving a scope of accomplishments and abilities exist. The most common method is to allow the pupils write tests, essays or studies, but there are many other attacks used for appraisal, such as self- and peer appraisal and workplace-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.

Scoring and rating pupils

In higher instruction, there are numeral tonss and classs. Classs are frequently given in the signifier of letters ( or some other descriptive component ) and are applied 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.-programme admittances commissions and bookmans, who analyse the effects of educational scenes 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. But 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.

Student-centred appraisal

In 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 formative instead than simply summational. In add-on, the possibilities of utilizing a assortment of appraisal techniques, 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. 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.

The relationship between classs and future workplace success

Research 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 academic accomplishment and net incomes '', as `` the more educated the employee, the more productive he/she isaˆ¦ and that employers reward more extremely educated workers with higher wage ''. Meanwhile, Certification 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 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 ''. However, his consequences 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, for illustration, have demonstrated that a positive association exists between holding a college or university grade and success in the workplace.

Looking in front

The 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 in 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 critical 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 reminds us.

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