The Power of VPL: Validation of Prior Learning as a Multi-targeted Approach For Access to Learning Opportunities For All

The power of VPL is that it empowers both the individual and the organisation! Learning is more than ever important and valuable, people are encouraged to invest in their potential throughout their lives, taking into account their prior learning. According to policy papers all across the globe, this should concern all citizens, including the underrepresented groups and non-traditional learners with regard to higher education because everywhere the knowledge-economy needs more higher-educated participation from all..

The educational role of evaluation: formative and shared evaluation in the university field

Nowadays, we have a scenario marked by an increasingly complex and time-consuming formative model, which differs considerably from that which has been used until now. This raises the need to rethink, review and reconsider the teaching and learning model of today's universities with the aim of designing a new educational model that responds to the new emerging training needs that early twenty-first century society demands. These changes in the training model make it necessary to rethink the existing evaluation processes, which are going to be affected by strong changes. They are determined not only by the passage of the traditional emphasis put on the teacher and the education, to the importance that is given today to the lea rning and to the student as the centre of this learning process; but it also changes the purpose of evaluation, moving from the acquisition of a series of academic knowledge to the development of skills and gaining basic and more complex applied knowledge; but above all, it changes the role that evaluation has in improving these learning processes. The usefulness of the evaluation is not only in the ability that it gives us to verify the final performance of the student's learning, but that it should also serve as a training element, which is integrated into the teaching and learning processes from start to finish. Thus, the evaluation should serve not only to assess whether the student has assimilated knowledge, but also to guide their learning. This in-depth review of the evaluation process also involves thinking about the method and the actors involved in this process. So, against the punitive nature of traditional assessment carried out by the teacher who evaluates a group of students in an exercise of authority, it is necessary to think of alternatives that involve and engage students in their own evaluation process and, therefore, in their own training in order to achieve a lasting learning that will serve them throughout life. In this new evaluation model, the actor who assesses is not only the teacher, but all those involved have a responsibility to participate in the evaluation and self-assessment activities. In this way, evaluating is a shared responsibility, in which neither the teaching nor the learning are stopped. The student must participate in all activities to keep learning. Thus, the evaluation should be understood as a formative and shared activity between teachers and students. This will allow us to definitively know whether or not the teaching objectives, methodology used, resources, assessment, etc. are responding as expected or whether they have to be changed in time to get closer to the fixed goals. All this leads us to consider and to take into account in the process of teaching and learning not only the more technical aspect of evaluation, but also its more human, critical, reflective, formative and negotiating dimension.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Virtual pedagogical model: development scenarios

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Researching mobile learning: overview, September 2006 to September 2008

This is the summary of the report, which brought together the findings from the third phase of a two-year development and research project that focused on the impact of one-to-one personal ownership of mobile devices. Two areas emerged from the analysis as important in relation to impact, namely students' use of and attitudes to their mobile devices and the professional development of teachers

Exploring the landscape of reflection

open4noopenFrison, Daniela; Fedeli, Monica; Tino, Concetta; Minnoni, ErikaFrison, Daniela; Fedeli, Monica; Tino, Concetta; Minnoni, Erik

A review of teacher evaluation beliefs

Teacher evaluation beliefs have received a substantial amount of attention in the educational literature, but comparatively little attention from the belief research topics specially. As the driving force, evaluation resembles belief mention but lack the systemic description. On the base of the student-centered and teacher-centered philosophy, in the present paper, we provide a literature review to explore the essential factors of teacher evaluation beliefs (why, what, who, when and how), followed by the key problems of Chinese New Curriculum Reform as “why-aim”, “what-content”, “who-student-teacher relationship”, “how-method” and “when- time”. In line with the discussion of five factors of evaluation beliefs, we proposed six perspectives to inform educational researchers for the further researches

An International Study in Competency Education: Postcards from Abroad

Acknowledging that national borders need not constrain our thinking, we have examined a selection of alternative academic cultures and, in some cases, specific schools, in search of solutions to common challenges we face when we consider reorganizing American schools. A wide range of interviews and e-mail exchanges with international researchers, government officials and school principals has informed this research, which was supplemented with a literature review scanning international reports and journal articles. Providing a comprehensive global inventory of competency-based education is not within the scope of this study, but we are confident that this is a representative sampling. The report that follows first reviews the definition of competency-based learning. A brief lesson in the international vocabulary of competency education is followed by a review of global trends that complement our own efforts to improve performance and increase equitable outcomes. Next, we share an overview of competency education against a backdrop of global education trends (as seen in the international PISA exams), before embarking on an abbreviated world tour. We pause in Finland, British Columbia (Canada), New Zealand and Scotland, with interludes in Sweden, England, Singapore and Shanghai, all of which have embraced practices that can inform the further development of competency education in the United States

Key Competences in Europe: Opening Doors For Lifelong Learners Across the School Curriculum and Teacher Education

The aim of the study is to provide a comparative overview of policy and practice concerning the development and implementation of key competences in the education systems of the 27 Member States of the European Union. In particular, the study assesses the implementation of the 8 key competences contained in the European Reference Framework of Key Competences in primary and secondary schools across the EU as well as the extent to which initial and in-service education and training of teachers equips them with the skills and competences necessary to deliver key competences effectively.key competences, lifelong learning, cross-curricular, competence