Conference Agenda

This work focuses on the teaching and assessment of the learning-to-learn (LTL) competence in university degrees, and its results come from a three-year research project ^[1]. LTL is a key competence for lifelong learning in the European education systems (EU, 2006 & 2018). The definition of LTL relies mainly on the scientific literature on Strategic Learning (Weinsten, 1988) and Self-Regulated Learning (Pintrich, 2004; Zimmerman, 2002).

At the beginning, the researchers included three dimensions to explain how students ‘learn to learn’: cognitive (skills, strategies and techniques related to information processing), metacognitive (awareness and management of the learning processes) and affective-motivational (self-concept, motivation, etc.) (Hoskins & Fredriksson, 2008).

Later, a fourth dimension was added: the social/relational dimension, rooted in the social-cognitive theory (Thoutenhoofd & Pirrie, 2013). These ideas clearly influenced the current proposal of the EU (2018), who has renamed LTL as ‘personal, social and learning to learn competence’ (Caena, 2019; European Comission et al., 2020).

Based on a literature review, our research team developed a model on LTL, including these four dimensions and we added an ethical dimension (Gargallo et al. 2020). The student has to learn respecting ethical codes and contributing to create an increasingly equitable society (OECD, 2005; Cortina, 2013; Buxarrais & Conceiçao, 2017).

The objective of the European Union was for the students to achieve an adequate mastery of LTL at the end of compulsory schooling. However, it is not proved that university students handle it with an adequate skill, and they need specific training (Cameron and Rideout, 2020; Viejo and Ortega-Ruiz, 2018).

That’s why we are developing an intervention model to teach this competence, which can be useful for European researchers and university professors. We are trying to test functional proposals to teach the competence, integrated into the teaching of university degree subjects. To do this, we defend a “constructive alignment” (Biggs, 2005), in which competences, contents, learning outcomes, and teaching and assessment procedures are aligned to achieve learning of quality.

In this way, the learning tasks to teach the competence can be used as assessment procedures, from a perspective of authentic tasks and authentic assessment: learning projects, problem solving, case studies, portfolios, etc. Furthermore, organized, and systematic observation will be a good procedure to assess the achievement of LTL.

Then, we developed the curricular design of LTL, specifying dimensions and sub-dimensions to work on, in the different subjects of the university degrees and in their academic years. We also concretized assessable learning results, contents and teaching and assessment procedures, and made the necessary materials.

Later, we are applying the training proposals organized in the previous phase, in two universities of Valencia (Spain) in different degrees (Education, Medicine, Engineering, and Architecture), and collecting evidence to assess the possible success achieved.

In this work, we present the results of the training proposals developed in the previous phase, in one of the subjects of the Education area. This is a first test to validate our proposal, specifically in the Theory of Education subject, which is taught in the 1st year of the Pedagogy degree at the University of Valencia.

[1] ‘The learning to learn competence in the university, its design and curriculum development. a model of intervention and its application in university degrees’ Project PID2021-123523NB-I00, funded by the MCIN/AEI /10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF A way of making Europe.

During the last decades, the number of non-traditional students (NTS) at European Universities has grown significantly (Hauschildt et al., 2021). There are different ways to define NTS – in our poster presentation we take one possible definition of Schuetze and Slowey and define NTS as first-in-family students whose parents did not graduate in higher education (Schuezte and Slowey, 2002). Numbers for this specific group of students vary across Europe and the actual share of first-in-family students – respectively NTS – ranges between approx. 20 % (Norway) and 70 % (Turkey), in Austria approximately 60 % of the students are first-in-family students (Unger et al., 2020). Despite this development, there are still barriers to and in university based on social inequality (Zaussinger et al., 2016). Not only is the access to university but also student attrition affected by social inequality. NTS also have a higher dropout risk than students with a more privileged background – in an economic, social and cultural sense (Lehmann, 2007; Gury 2009; Quinn, 2013; Nairz‑Wirth and Feldmann, 2018; Cessna et al., 2018). Independent from the distinction between non-traditional and traditional students, the matter of student attrition and dropout is socially relevant as well as for education policy. European universities already report of high dropout rates – in Austria, the average dropout rate is estimated between 30 % and 50 % – depending on the calculation method (Vossensteyn et al., 2015; Unger et al. 2020) as well. Dropping out from university is connected to high costs, a lack of innovation, a lack of skilled labor as well as a loss of competitiveness and diversity (Thaler and Unger, 2014; Nairz-Wirth and Feldmann, 2018). Geisinger and Raman (2013) for example point out that potential students with a diverse background are needed to solve societal problems of inequality and the challenges of sustainability. Furthermore, one of the European Union’s stated goals is to achieve greater equality in educational opportunities, which also makes it necessary to reduce dropout rates (European Union, 2013; European Commission, 2015). Due to the above stated developments universities face a growing pressure to implement measures that prevent student attrition (Thaler/Unger 2014; Bornkessel, 2018) – especially focusing on the needs of NTS (Cessna et al., 2018).

Therefore, universities implement different measures in order to prevent student dropout and longer duration of studies. The poster illustrates the results of a best practice study and delivers options and suggestions for problem solving strategies, organizational innovations and knowledge networking at different levels. Based on theoretical concepts and an extensive literature review, principles, types and categories of measures were developed that can prevent student dropout and improve study success. Scientifically proved and internationally approved measures are outreach programs (collaborations between schools and university), summer courses, transition programs, mentoring, tutoring, learning communities, service learning and research-based learning and teaching during the first semesters.

The current labour market presents ever-increasing challenges to people entering the workforce, leading to more flexible, but also unpredictable and undefined employment prospects (Savickas, 2013). Holding a degree is no longer a passport to employment (ILO, 2017), and therefore Higher Education institutions, as part of their social responsibility (Brown & Cloke, 2009), are called to intervene, fostering students’ career resources and better equipping them to face those challenges. This is particularly relevant since career resources have shown to be susceptible to being intentionally promoted (Monteiro et al., 2023; Soares et al., 2022).

Distance interventions in the career development context are a particularly interesting way of trying to promote such career resources (Bimrose et al., 2015; Kettunen et al., 2013; Pordelan & Hosseinian, 2022). Distance interventions are particularly adept at reaching diverse publics, and, thus, promoting equity and inclusion by reaching audiences that tend to be excluded from face-to-face interventions, such as working students, adult students, and students with disabilities or learning difficulties, among others. Therefore, they present an opportunity for the inclusion of vulnerable groups, not only in the intervention programmes themselves but also in the labour market.

This poster presents a distance intervention designed to promote career resources, developed and implemented in Portugal, in two public Universities (one based on face-to-face education, and another on distance education) – the Boost 4 Career programme. In the poster, we present the project’s background, structure, and pedagogical approach.

Career resources can be defined as “anything that helps an individual attain his or her career goals” (Hirschi, 2018, p. 4). Such career resources are not limited to individual traits, such as knowledge, motivation, and skills, but encompass an environmental dimension, acknowledging that career development does not happen in a void, but is intrinsically connected with the contexts where individuals develop (Haenggli & Hirschi, 2020).

The Boost 4 Career programme aims to help HE students with diverse characteristics to (a) explore the working contexts where they may wish to enter, and the competencies they will need to succeed at their job and throughout their career; (b) to inform them about the opportunities their HE institutions and the surrounding environment have at their disposal to provide them with knowledge and foster competencies’ development, and; (c) to reflect on their experiences and their competencies, their needs, and mostly, the career trajectory they want to pursue. Based on the diagnosis of needs (Seabra, et al., 2022), the programme focuses on career exploration, job market knowledge, occupational expertise, soft skills, continuous learning, organizational career support, networking, career clarity, and career confidence. Each week includes individual and shared activities and was developed to include the possibility of choice, in line with the self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2009). The pedagogical model used is based on the Virtual Pedagogical Model of the Universidade Aberta (Portugal) (Pereira et al., 2007).

A recent trend in funding programmes of the German Ministry of Education and Research in the last decade was to promote multi-institutional higher education networks aiming on the maintenance and further development of higher education quality. Current challenges such as digitalisation and diversity were addressed and innovative solutions fostered. Change processes were initiated by e.g. establishing further education programmes for lecturers or developing teaching materials or infrastructures. Funding was provided for professional support staff and discipline-based educational development. Funded projects open new opportunities for higher education institutions but also come alongside with challenging conditions like start-up or time-limited funding for specific project applications and additional staff members that are employed on time-restricted contracts. Many funded higher education networks do not survive the end of the funding period which often comes alongside with the loss of experienced staff, of established innovative solutions and of practical institutional knowledge. This arises questions about the factors that influence the success or the failure of such networks.

Regarding these general conditions, it is necessary to assume that different organisational logics of action (e.g. educational orientation at the project level, strategic logics of action at the governance level) must be balanced so that conducive structures for the further development of teaching and learning can be established. How this is achieved in the collaborative work of management and staff member from several higher education institutions has not been investigated sufficiently so far.

In a collaborative research project, we aim to clarify the conditions for successful cooperation in such multi-institutional higher education networks and to provide knowledge about promising actor- and governance-constellations for future initiatives and projects. We focus on formalised bodies, in which several higher education institutions hold membership.

Our understanding of educational quality is derived from the idea of Bildung. From this perspective higher education should be oriented towards universalistic values of the common good. Educational quality, thus, is social value-based and it is related to democratic citizenship. This educational theoretical stance allows to derive general goals of higher education: Student’s development of academic identity and personality; education for maturity and solidarity; and reflection skills necessary for scientific communication, for taking social responsibility and a commitment to democracy (cf. Merkt, 2021, pp. 93-96). Such an education cannot be decreed from above and cannot be sufficiently be expressed in performance indicators. We therefore ask: How can multi-institutional projects contribute to foster educational quality in higher education?

Drawing on the educational-governance-approach (Altrichter, 2018, 2010), we analyse multi-institutional higher education networks’ effort to contribute to an organisational learning process for improved teaching and learning conditions. Such processes are explained from the perspective of negotiating different logics of action in specific actor constellations in the multi-level system of educational organisations: Organisational and teaching development processes are analysed in terms of the extent to which the objectives and logics of action of different actors (e.g. administrative staff, third-space professionals, lecturers and students) take part in negotiating and making decisions that frame the conditions of teaching and learning.

• To what extent do education-oriented logics of action prevail in negotiation processes and become established?
• What strategies and considerations do leaders and staff members pursue with/in their projects?

In recent years many universities have expanded tremendously due to massification and widening participation (Hovdhaugen, 2009). This has led to an increasingly diverse student cohort across disciplines. Although more students than ever enrol in HE, a large number of students terminate their studies prematurely. In particular the dropout rate in HE within the first year of study is about 30% across many countries and disciplines (Berka & Marek, 2021). This tendency is especially a problem within STEM subjects (Ulriksen et al., 2010).

Why do students leave early? What issues discourage students from continuing to study beyond the personal? This poster presents an original and ongoing investigation of the possible connection between dropout and curriculum construction in Higher Education (HE). The study presents an organisational perspective on dropout. We are interested in how the structure and construction of education and curricula influence the student's integration and sense of belonging and ultimately influences the decision to stay or leave. This perspective contributes to new insights and knowledge of how the institutional framework influences student experience.

The research question that guides this study is:

• How can curriculum construction during the first and second semesters support the goal of reducing dropout rates in the first year of study?

To investigate these questions, this study uses a broad range of retention- and first year theory as the theoretical framework. A large part of the research in this theoretical field shows that dropout results from individual opportunities, characteristics, and educational structure. In this field, there is a tendency to focus on the perspective of the individual and their experience rather than the institutional range of possibilities (Qvortrup & Lykkegaard, 2022; Tinto, 2012).

Two overarching themes in the literature – structure and phases – have been chosen as frameworks for the analysis and the two will be further described in the following.

The structure of dropout:

Much of the literature on dropout and retention studies the interaction between the individual and the institution. In other words, the interplay, counterplay and encounter between students' individual characteristics, including their social and academic opportunities and limitations, and the institutional framework are examined (Briggs et al., 2012). Tinto’s 'Institutional Departure Model' (Tinto, 1993) is often used as a framework for the structure of possible influences on dropout. The model contains a series of possible factors that influence the student's social and academic integration. The influence of the institution, the norms of the academic system and the structural conditions of education are seen as significant factors in several studies (Braxton et al., 2000; Schaeper, 2020; Ulriksen et al., 2010), also, within the STEM subjects (Deeken et al., 2020; Ulriksen & Gregersen, 2022).

The phases of dropout:

It has been demonstrated that the decision to drop out is a process influenced by several factors over time (Braxton et al., 2000; Tinto, 1988; Ulriksen et al., 2010). Heublein (2014) describes the decision-making process as divided into three phases. The first phase is the background variables; the second phase is the student’s study experience, which leads to the third phase, where the actual decision to leave or not to leave is made (Heublein, 2014). Similar findings can be found in a study by Berka and Marek (2021), who argue that background variables have the most significant importance for dropout within the first year, after which other things, such as grades, become more relevant, and thereby they point to the fact that the dropout factors change over time (Berka & Marek, 2021).

Nowadays, universities need to dialog with society, to offer responses to the main problems of humanity, and to face the social and environmental crisis. Their role cannot be depleted in the conventional tasks of a Higher Education institution, focused on the coordination of teaching programs and research lines (Santos Rego et al., 2015). They have the obligation to reflect on their civic mission, being able to change and improve their surrounding environment and contributing to a more inclusive society.

The adaptation to the European Higher Education Area was a good opportunity for reflection, renewal and improvement for universities. This is how the introduction of methodologies such as service-learning, centered on the student and which strengthen the social dimension of university education, is promoted. Service-learning is defined as an educational purpose that combines the traditional processes of learning with a community service in a single project in which students learn meanwhile they work on real needs of their community with the objective of solving them (Puig et al., 2007).

Traditionally, research has focused on studying the impact of this methodology on students, in terms of improvements in learning and development of skills (Santos Rego et al., 2021). Despite the importance of the community in this process, we lack solid research on the impact of service-learning on the community and how this relationship may have affected the university (Redondo and Fuentes, 2020).

It is therefore appropriate to study the impact of service-learning on organizations and their users (Shek et al., 2021), along with the way in which this theoretical impact could favor the learning and innovation processes in the university. In this case we acknowledge the concept of 'reciprocity' as a basic principle for the inclusion of this methodology in the university context. Reciprocity means adherence to the principles of respect, trust, genuine commitment, balance of power, shared resources, and clear communication between universities and community agents (Jacoby, 2015). The aim is to promote, using service-learning as a pedagogical strategy, the relationships of exchange and mutual benefit between Academia and social actors (Asghar and Rowe, 2017).

There are works that confirmed the benefits for the community derived from its involvement in service-learning courses, and in which the exchange of knowledge and meeting the needs of entities or groups were the main focal points (Nduna, 2007; Van Rensburg et al., 2019). However, the way in which the content of the project is perceived, the quality of the project provider, and the benefits received are predictors of the overall satisfaction of the recipients and the community (Shek et al., 2021).

Despite the relevance of the issue, one cannot state that research attention has been lavish (Butin, 2003; Ward and Wolf-Wendel, 2000). According to Reeb and Folger (2013), the studies that focused on this area showed serious limitations, especially from a methodological point of view, since the results obtained were based solely on the impressions of community members, teachers or students.

In this paper we present the design of an extensive research carried out by researchers from nine Spanish and three foreign universities. These are the main objectives:

• Analyze the reciprocity between the university and the community as an element to improve quality of the service-learning projects, which conditions their impact on the entities, their users and the university.
• Study the possibilities of service-learning as a methodological approach capable of contributing to the achievement of the objectives of the 2030 Agenda in community organizations and in the university.

This paper is framed in the Research Project “The impact of the university in the community through service-learning projects. A study focused on reciprocity (SL(C))” (PID2021-122827OB-I00).

This research study will be an in-depth exploration of practitioners’ processes to illustrate broader lessons that could be learned for higher education institutions wanting to diversify their curricula to provide lifelong and life-wide learning opportunities. This research project will critically explore three diversely designed curricula at one Adult Continuing Education Department (ACE) of a university in Ireland. The participants and researcher will create a visual artifact (concept map) outlining the individual and subjective curriculum design processes of each of the three participants (Novak, 1998). This collaborative method aims to make explicit the dynamic and complex praxiological endeavour of curriculum design for adult education practitioners in the higher education context. It will also provide a visual representation of the meaning making that was co-constructed between the research participant and the researcher during this case study.

Research Questions:

• What are practitioner/educators’ perceptions of course or curriculum design for lifelong learning?
• What are the critical elements in course or curriculum design in lifelong learning environments?
• What are the important theories, topics, skills and/or activities for lifelong learning design?
• What, according to practitioners, is ‘good practice’ in curriculum design?

Conceptual Framework:

Life-wide learning recognizes that people inhabit a number of different learning spaces, with the lifelong journey providing the learner with a variety of experiences (Jackson, 2011). This learning embraces all forms and types of learning and curriculum is driven by learner interest, needs, and intrinsic values. The exploration of the practitioners and researchers processes and assumptions will be framed within the concept of life-wide learning.

Topic, objective and conceptual framework

Students in higher professionals education are being prepared for high level professional practice. Research among university students has shown that one of the prerogatives for this transformation is that students are aware of this need to transform and that they are willing to transform interacting with powerful bodies of knowledge (Ashwin et al., 2014). However, in higher professional education interactions are provided with professional knowledge, theoretical knowledge and professional practice to develop their professionalism. Professionalism is a prerogative to be able to function as a professional. ‘Professionalism’ is here defined as a functional integration of professional knowledge (including embodied knowledge), professional identity and the capability to act professionally (Barnett, 2009; Griffioen, 2019; Guile, 2014). It has been suggested that for a student, each step taken requests a transformation and therefore a rebalancing of knowledge, identity and action (Trede et al., 2012; Young & Muller, 2014).

Several studies consider separate aspects of this trajectory, such as the student’s step from high school to college (Scanlon et al., 2007), or the transition from study to professional life in relation to professional identity and professional practice (Tomlinson & Jackson, 2021). (Barnett et al., 2001) conceptualize knowledge, action and self to describe their balance higher education curricula, theorizing a similar process, although ‘action’ is here related to the action needed for learning by the student within the educational system. While the assumption is that bachelor students in professional education develop all three areas while becoming professionals (Griffioen, 2019), how the three notions that comprise professionalism develop in relation with each other in students has however not yet been studied. This poster presents the first two measurements in a four year bachelor trajectory, indicating how students’ professionalism changes in the first study year.

Research question

How does the self-preceived professionalism (knowledge, identity and action) of bachelor students in professional higher education change during their studies? What influences their perceptions over time?

This work presents the designs of two methodological proposals for the teaching and assessment of the learning-to-learn (LTL) competence in university degrees, in the context of a research project[1] focused on the development of an intervention model for its teaching and learning.

In previous investigations, our research group elaborated a model to define the LTL skill, considering its four dimensions according to literature: cognitive, metacognitive, affective-motivational and social/relational (Hoskins & Fredriksson, 2008) (Thoutenhoofd & Pirrie, 2013), and including a fifth dimension related to ethics (Gargallo et al. 2020). This dimension refers to responsibility and honesty in learning; being guided by civic and moral values, developing one's potential while respecting others and contributing to the creation of a fairer and more equitable society.

Despite the relevance of LTL competence for the students’ personal and professional development (OCDE, 2015; EU, 2006 & 2018), it has not been included, at least explicitly, among the generic competences for university degrees, although there are many that can be considered as part of it, such as collaborative work, planning, organisation and time management, autonomous and self-regulated learning, effective management of information and communication processes, among others. Nevertheless, the transversal and dynamic characteristics of this skill are the main difficulties that hinder the application of appropriate teaching and learning approaches aimed at its development and assessment in the educational context.

The implementation of active methodologies consisting of authentic tasks in which students take part in their own learning process and face real situations, such as problem solving, projects, portfolios or case studies, stands out among other more passive methodological proposals, facilitating the learning of the competence (Fernández, 2006). In previous experiences, case study methodology has provided a favourable learning environment for the development and assessment of LTL competence with the aim of providing learners with a better understanding of optimal learning strategies (Osete and García, 2020).

At the current stage of the research, different strategies for teaching and learning some of the specific dimensions and sub-dimensions of this skill are being developed and implemented. Given the wide range of dimensions and sub-dimensions of the learning to learn competence (21 in total), in these first experiences it was decided to limit the study to two sub-dimensions. Specifically, we present here the methodological proposal for the development of the specific sub-dimension of problem solving from the metacognitive dimension and the sub-dimension of ICT usage from the cognitive dimension. These will be tested in a first-year undergraduate course of the degree in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage from the Faculty of Fine Arts and in a second-year subject of the degree in Public Works Engineering from the School of Civil Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de València.

The implementation of these designs will constitute a first experimental approach for the validation of the methodological proposal and the achievement of the necessary adjustments in the teaching process for the development of the competence in further educational experiences.

[1] ‘The learning to learn competence in the university, its design and curriculum development. a model of intervention and its application in university degrees’ Project PID2021-123523NB-I00, funded by the MCIN/AEI /10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF A way of making Europe.

This study aims to describe how a learner centred and transformative education may be implemented when using flipped classroom practices. There are different conceptions about flipped classroom that can include particular pedagogical activities or resources A key idea is centred on the flipped concept, meaning “that events that have traditionally taken place inside the classroom now take place outside the classroom and vice versa” (Lage, Platt & Treglia, 2020). The change in teacher and students’ roles from a teacher centred pedagogy to a learner centred and active pedagogy can also be considered a charactheristic of the flipped classroom. In this scope, one can say that flipped classroonm fits the paradigm change that characterize contemporary education, from a pedagogical model centred on teaching and teachers, on information giving, a banking education, to a lifelong pedagogical model, that focus on the student as participants in knowledge creation, and thus education as transformative. Flipped classroom can include particular pedagogical activities implemented or resources used, in particular, that highlight the use of videos as a key resource. Lundin, Bergviken Rensfeldt, Hillman, Lantz-Andersson, & Peterson (2018) referred that ‘the flipped classroom is a new pedagogical method, which employs asynchronous video lectures and practice problems as homework, and active, group-based problem solving activities in the classroom. The use of videos and technological resources, althgouhg controversial, are is also mentioned in other definitons, for instance “the flipped classroom is a pedagogical model in which the typical lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed ‘in the flipped learning model, teachers shift direct learning out of the large group learning space and move it into the individual learning space, with the help of one of several technologies. Teachers record and narrate screencasts of work they do on their computer desktops, create videos of themselves teaching, or curate video lessons from internet sites (Hamdan, McKnight, McKnight & Arfstrom, 2013).

The transition from higher education to the world of work has become a prominent research topic over the last two decades. As a result of the Bologna process, and the European integration, the universities have tended to be more responsive to the labour market needs (Hrubos, 2010). In Hungary, the graduates’ post-study career, and the various aspects of their labour market performance are essential indicators in order to monitor and evaluate the higher education institutions. The most significant step was achieved in 2005 when the national government launched the Graduate Tracking System (GTS). After some considerable improvements, the integration of various (mainly administrative) databases (e.g., tax data, higher education data) has become the central element of this national-level system (Nyüsti & Veroszta, 2013). The tracking of international graduates leaving Hungary after their study is not possible, though. Therefore, and due to the missing empirical studies, little knowledge existed about international graduates’ careers. This gap has been filled by the practice-oriented research conducted among international graduates having completed their full-time studies under the framework of Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarship programme (SH) in Hungary.

The conceptual framework guided the research is mainly based on the concept of employability. Drawing on the broader employability literature, the research focuses on questions of employment obtainment, satisfaction, personal and employability skills (Cai, 2013; Pham & Jackson, 2020). The other theoretical approach was the implementation science in order to better understand and evaluate the implementation of a scholarship programme (Nilsen, 2015).