future skills :: research : teaching : coaching

Schlagwort: learning

  • Competence development

    240_f_57698650_fkwfsai71f5bgz2536i1bbuyi5hti1tnI am currently attending a meeting on educational policy development with 25 representatives of higher education (mostly Ministries) from European members states. In the meeting of the working group nr 3 on developing the future education policy recommendation here in Stockholm, we are discussing the experiences and the way forward the European member states have made in the field of Competence orientation of higher education. And we ended at the same conclusion like discussions about competence development often  end…: it is complicated!

    Why is that? I was wondering why a discussion about competence orientation is so difficult to conclude something from. I believe, it is because with this topic we are right in the center of the educational concepts, and these are, as we know, very much rooted in national cultures, terminology is often not common and what is right and wrong is subject to longstanding rules, experiences and practices.

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    However, our discussion proofed to be very fruitful in the end. The discussion about competence in higher education has three important moments:

    Moment 1: The Why

    That is the rational, the context for which we assume competence orientation is the important future development in education.

    The main issue on which our argument builds here is uncertainty. Educators, policy makers all over Europe become more and more aware that we educate for an uncertain future. For jobs which we do not know yet and which have not been developed yet. The importance  of the concept of competence oriented higher education which emphasizes: Being able to act successfully in unknown future context is there fore more convincing than the current state of the art model – to convey  knowledge which can be reproduced any time. This has to do with exactly this idea of uncertainty.

    Moment 2: The How

    If we have accepted the why – the how becomes important. Here it is indeed really complex and it is a matter of hard and deep education science considerations… but also institutional management and strategy issues. There are a lot of models about curriculum development and a lot of different definitions of competence and competence assessment techniques available out there. An important  learning which  we could draw from the discussion in the working group: There is one particular place in an educational experience where competence orientation becomes manifest – and that is the assessment, the test, the exam. If this is designed in a traditional way and asked for mere reproduction of knowledge, then, the entire educational process is probably also designed in a way whee education is seen as  knowledge transfer to students, and not skills and attitudes development. But if the test or assessment  is designed in a way that it  focusses on performance, solving a problem, mastering a problematic situation, act in a successful way, then the learning before also has to be designed in an active way, competence oriented.     There fore: Competence orientation needs to include – or even start from – the moment of designing assessments for competence.

    Moment 3: Institutions and policies 

    In our discussion we are always asking for the consequences for European and  national policy making in higher education and institutional development. In the discussion it was becoming clear that teacher education is key for successful  implementation of competence orientation, that sufficient time for development and implementation and good practice sharing will be important. The implementation needs a holistic full institution strategy to get the important topic out of the corner of the individual enthusiastic responsibility into the institutional responsibility.

    The meeting was very interesting and I am looking forward to the next which will take place in April 2017 in Brussels.

  • Quality and Assessment for new learning cultures. Preview for my new book – sent to the publisher yesterday….

    It is finished… and sent to Springer for publication…:-)

    My new book is about two topics, the fast change of learning in the open learning worlds of web 2.0 which I refer to as open learning cultures and quality development and assessment for those open learning worlds and landscapes. When I started out to draft the first chapters two things became apparent to me: First, I noticed that indeed we have arrived at fast changing learning cultures and that every month brought about new aspects to my topic which I strived to integrate and which expanded the scope. Many issues I feel are barely enough elaborated for their actual and emerging importance. Secondly that a great variety and diversity of learning cultures exists which expresses in manifold learning designs and in the emergence of open learning landscapes, and also the discourse about the topic has a great diversity of actors, in parts deviating terminology and fashions. Therefore I decided to add to the original plan to publish a book on quality and assessment – two already broad themes – the chapters on learning in a web 2.0 world, open learning cultures and learning with peers in networks.

    Assessment and Quality are amongst the topics which are hotly debated and extremely important to educators today. While much of the reality of assessment is (still) tied to formal learning scenarios in higher education institutions we can see that higher education institutions teachers more and more are bound to recognize also informal learning processes and networks of their students, moving ahead to new and more open learning cultures. Many are embracing this fact already as a naturally given reality, as many case studies in the book show. It is, however, not evident and often not easy to create assessment concepts for open learning cultures which allow recognition of informal learning influences into institutionalized learning worlds. The open learning cultures are drastically opening the learning process to influences beyond the classroom and the institutional context and merge private, informal learning, the benefits of open knowledge and publicly available content with traditional formal and often institution bound learning processes. Open learning cultures are challenging the old and long practiced pathways of our practice as educators. They are often characterized through elements of open learning architectures and transform learning into a more student driven and self-responsible learning, using technology to connect resources, students and teachers in a new way. I also like to think of them using the metaphor of learning ecologies due to the fact they have an evolving and emerging nature which is composed of many interdependent parts, beyond traditional classrooms borders stretching into the family, private life and activities or professional contexts, and all together building the ecology in which learning is embedded. In these open learning ecologies, assessment has the function of moving closer to the actual learning experience itself and is a tool for learners to determine their own progress, learning needs and next steps. Evaluation criteria are negotiated with peers and facilitators or learning coaches and assessment and evaluation become integral parts of learning themselves. But how to deal with these so dynamic and individual processes of evaluation and assessment?

    After a phase of divergence and polarization we can see now that a new form of blended learning is evolving. Blended learning here means not only that technology is enhancing the learning environment but also that blended forms of quality development, of blending formal and informal learning, and of self- as well as peer-assessment are evolving more and more. Open learning is displaying a new mélange of contexts and elements. This book is a contribution to understand better the challenges we are facing when creating assessments for new and more open learning cultures, how open learning landscapes, open learning ecologies look like and how, as educators in higher education institutions, we can still get to terms with quality development and assessment.

    The motivation to publish this book has its origins in numerous discussions during the last few years that I had the opportunity to hold with colleagues from all over the world. They took place during many international research projects and conferences related to learning technologies, as well as in higher education institutions meetings and in policy seminars, and they were triggered by the fundamental changes visible through integration and adoption of technologies into all areas of teaching and learning. I would like to thank everybody who contributed to this often critically discussed topic which is – sometimes – splitting the community into two – the skeptics and believers. Between both communities there are large plains of consensus, some sharp hills of disagreement and many valleys of fruitful learning opportunities. To all those colleagues whom I had the chance to work with in international research and development projects, from Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia, and which contributed in their own ways to this book, I wish to express my gratefulness for their open minds, their willingness to share and contribute to a more global vision of learning.