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The e-portfolio used as a tool in the process of teaching and learning, provides students with opportunities for reflection so they can achieve improvements throughout their own learning process. This is also a powerful tool that accompanies the process of fulfilling changing requirements, ensuring strong involvement of students, increasing awareness of their own learning and progress, and emphasising the promotion and development of skill-based assessment. The e-portfolio has been implemented in nursing studies at the Universitat d'Andorra, in all the practical subjects, provides a wide range of activities that guide and assist in the teaching-learning process and shows the progress of students' improvement during their clinical training, in a transversal and longitudinal way throughout the first university level in nursing. In this paper, we analyze a group of 25 students of Bachelor of Nursing, and we clearly show how mentoring and monitoring the student during clinical training is very important, both to offer tracking of the activities thus helping their improvement, and to provide continuity and support. This tutoring offers the opportunity to reflect continuously on the activities and experiences in front of new real situations that involve new approaches, doubts and therefore evolution and progress. The results of implementing the e-portfolio shown in this paper, demonstrate the high level of participation and constancy of the students and their progress throughout clinical training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the problems that has to be faced by university teachers is the large number of students that start doing a degree without actually knowing the professional profile they will have after finishing it, as well as without knowing what the profession they are being trained for actually consists in. Furthermore, one can usually find definitions of professional identities which only take into account the technical and legal aspects while overlooking emotional and social components. University provides us with an appropriate space for the development of that identity on the basis of a comprehensive concept of training. However, at the same time, the compartmentalized structures of the degrees, which are subdivided into different subjects, mean an obstacle for the implementation of that development. Hence, we decided to create a team of university teachers specialized in different subjects in order to suggest a proposal to be implemented in the classroom. This proposal is intended to put an end to the rigidity of a structure organized by subjects through the design and implementation of a number of joint activities whose ultimate aim is the acquisition of competences. This paper presents our personal views about the professional identity of those degrees relating to Economics and Business, suggesting a comprehensive team work proposal which integrates different views on different subjects in order to design activities which may help students to achieve a better understanding of their future profession. This paper includes a summary of the designed activities, the evaluation tools and the results of their implementation during the first years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tutoring is one of the methodological resources which has undoubtedly experienced a deepest evolution since the implantation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Tutorial conception as a merely legal obligation to address students' doubts has given rise to the use of tutorials as one of the most useful methods to develop certain skills and competences, in addition to its contribution to the learning of the subject in which they are inserted. This paper analyzes, from the perspective of developed innovative teaching experiences, the evolution of traditional mentoring until the current use that can be made of them as an interactive forum of equals, and, moreover, suggesting a classification. Finally, this paper shows a new breakthrough in the role of tutoring supported on new technologies as a suitable means of contrasting opinions, encouraging critical thinking and building student's autonomous thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is focused on the selfassessment trough e-rubrics. Rubrics as an instrument of self-assessment involve a process of reflection that can contribute to increase the involvement and awareness of their own achievements. Here we wanted to engage students from the design and creation of rubric through a collaborative process of building an e-rubric by the students and the teacher. In this study, undergraduate students of Pedagogy participated in an elective subject in their third year. It was developed in several stages in a semester: training for using e-rubrics, designing and construction of e-rubrics, using the e-rubric as a tool for self-assessment and filling a final questionnaire to collect their views. It's important to consider that when we work with innovative strategies of assessment, students have to know not only the features of the instrument but also they have to know the influence to improve their learning processes and they have to achieve the ability to incorporate it to their own skills as education professionals. As main result, students highlighted the importance of rubrics to guide their learning processes and to reflect about it and the capacity of rubric to predict their performance in the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systematic training for in-service teachers whose main occupation is not teaching presents challenges. This paper describes a teaching training program at a university of health sciences that deals with them. Around 40 professionals who teach in undergraduate and graduate courses of the Instituto Universitario del Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires take part annually in this program. In order to explain how this program faces those challenges, we perform a pedagogicaldidactic characterization of some of its "training devices". This analysis is part of didactical design research undertaken by the authors and teachers responsible for this proposal and includes both systematic record of experience in the classroom, participants written work and their personal reflections. As a result we find that these devices can be grouped into three types: to mobilize the reflection on their own conceptions, to produce alternative courses of actions and to play the whole game of teaching. From the voice of the participants, these devices, complementary and throughout the two years of the program, problematize practices uncritically reproduce, modify conceptions and improve the practice of teaching. Thus, this analysis provides conceptualizations and training proposals that could support not only the activity of those who are responsible for designing and conducting such projects, but also to the production of knowledge in the field of teacher training in university teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the design, construction and validation of a questionnaire to assess the academic performance of university teachers from the perspective of students. The process includes the list of specifications that make operational the construct; it has served as a reference for both the construction of the claims of the scale and the expert assessment of the consistency between the questions and the specifications (content validity). The Questionnaire was applied to a random sample of students (440) from a private institution in the metropolitan area of Mexico. We have determined the internal consistency and reliability by halves partition; also has been performed both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to determine the appropriate measurement of the construct to be evaluated. The results have shown a reliability of 0.965 (Cronbach's alpha); he degree of agreement (Cohen's kappa), was found as greater than 0.7 and, finally, the confirmatory factor analysis points out to two factors between the three possible. They are results that do not depart drastically from the theory that has served as the basis for our work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a general overview of the literature about faculty evaluation. The review process begins from the main challenges that have been found in different publications, research reports and literature, where faculty evaluation has been addressed by its conceptions, purposes, approaches and instruments. Through this lens four aspects has been considered: the complexity of the teacher activity, the lack of agreement towards what to be a good teacher at university is, to limit the teacher's responsibility only to student learning, and the growth of the criteria for teaching evaluation. These criteria could be materialized in some perspectives about "good teaching". The review offers a clear idea of the state of the art regarding faculty evaluation research. It gives elements of analysis for the development of research in the future. The paper concludes by describing a comprehensive, open and flexible approach to teaching evaluation. In addition, we describe some foundations for the development of this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current competency-based educational models emphasize student's self-regulatory processes, through this seek to develop skills for learning throughout life and thus contribute to the continuous improvement of professional performance. Rubrics are tools for training and evaluation, which gradually promotes self-regulating process, while progressively reduces the external support. This paper poses a methodological strategy to promote the students self-regulation by the use of rubrics. Three key elements that support the learning process are discussed: reflexive practice, collaborative learning and feedback provided by peers and teachers. The design and use of rubrics in higher education demand: curriculum alignment, coordination with other subjects in the same educational section, collegial work and critical reflection about formative practices. It also pose that designed learning environments must travel from areas of greater control and certainty to areas of greater complexity and uncertainty, leading students to nearby situations to professional performance in real settings. It concludes with a series of reflections on the generation of a culture of professional education that promotes greater autonomy and responsibility of students' whit their own learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes and analyses the application of new educational practices in the Preschool Teacher Degree at the University of Alicante. We live in a society in which knowing how to use information and communication technologies is an essential part of a teacher's life. The main objective of this research was to explore and analyze the effectiveness of social networks and virtual networks in developing collaborative learning in the classroom. A mixed methods approach (quantitative and qualitative) was followed, using a questionnaire filled out by 63 students. Data was analyzed using the SPSS.19 and the AQUAD Six programmes. The results show clear student satisfaction regarding both the methodology and the collaborative work: both are understood as ideal in terms of project realization. However, the conclusions of this study show that: 1) we are still along way from considering communication technologies as a natural component in teaching/learning activities; 2) their integration within a virtual institutional environment is not a simple matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the presence of vulnerable groups (disabled people and members of indigenous communities) at universities has achieved greater visibility and attention from government agencies, public policy and educational institutions. This paper is a thoughtful analysis of the relationship between diversity and socio-educational inclusion at the university spaces as well as the distance between normative discourses and real practices, addressing the devices that universities use to guide, accompany and support the academic and personal processes carried out by students. Contributions from two doctoral research on the subject in argentine public universities will be recalled. These studies integrate quantitative and qualitative methodology, with a strong predominance on the second. For the purposes of the study, semi- structural interview was designed to relieve some basic variables and significant axes. Also, the researchers use key informant interviews, in order to regain institutional and organizational aspects that could enrich the approach. From the results of these research in regard with the real practices, it would be important, once this findings had been acquired, to be socialized in order to include the study and treatment of diversity at the university agenda, promoting the design and implementation of policies, programs, and affirmative actions (tutoring, orientational and supporting systems) that may bring on more democratic, inclusive and intercultural spaces, and that the process of entry, persistence and graduation of students in vulnerable situation become stronger and more significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The School of Medicine of The University Walter Sisulu trains competent doctors to serve South Africa's rural communities with a view to improving the health conditions in historically impoverished areas. The admissions policy caters for students from schools where teaching materials are scarce, which is a challenge for both, students and tutors. In this paper we share experiences tutoring basic sciences medical students as well as explore the skills that these students value more in their tutors. Small tutorial groups are cooperative learning units where an educational environment encouraging students to learn may be developed. The problem challenges individual knowledge because it generates the need to improve it; this cognitive dimension of the process occurs in and as a result of students' interactions, which add a powerful social dimension to this learning approach. The tutor, with her/his actions, should ensure that the enthusiasm engendered by the problem is channeled into the search for its solution, the quality of which, depends on each individual's effort and responsibility to achieve this collective goal. The students rated important the skills that they regularly assess in their tutors, their favorites being those that facilitate the development of cognitive strategies favoring the quality of learning (horizontal and vertical integration). Tutor's skills regarding the collaborative component of the tutorial process were given less importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of this century, University has been experiencing a profound transformation. In this framework, the guidance and tutoring are a major issue in Higher Education. The modern Life designing conception highlights two fundamental factors: the commitment of the person in the construction of the life-project through systematic reflection and the need for professional support in different forms and contexts: a challenge for reflection and creative response of guidance and mentoring at universities. This is why innovations in tutoring are so numerous, promoted at universities either by teachers or by governance in order to achieve the implementation of guidance and tutoring systems, based on new technologies and scientific developments that respond to identified needs. This is generating an innovative dynamics and a structural renovation at universities, achieving a better Higher Education quality. Thus, the studies included in this paper constitute a mosaic of intervention practices in University. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of building the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has not been without controversy and different levels of interpretation in its creation, foundation and development. The aim of this paper is to portray the situation and go beyond the theoretical study, based on official documents which have accompanied and complemented meetings of European ministers responsible for higher education. From these deep interviews, in semi-structured format, we found interesting to capture the views, expectations and perceptions of responsible and active actors in the process of building the EHEA: Guy Haug, Domenico Lenarduzzi, Marius Rubiralta, Eric Froment, Josep M. Bricall and Jorge Fernández Díaz. All of them with political and university relevance have been implicated from different institutions: European Conference of Rectors, European University Association, Department of Education of the European Commission and various Ministries of Higher Education. Their contributions have provided knowledge to contrast and offer a better understanding of EHEA display. Based on the triangulation of the contributions of the interviewees and the review of official documents and statements the study concludes that the university (together with the research - European Research Area and lifelong learning - European Lifelong Learning Area) is the fundamental hinge for society development and European seal. But it needs to adapt to changing times and to be linked to competitiveness and efficiency. It also needs to provide more and better cooperation and proximity to encourage mobility and mutual recognition. Besides, the creation of EHEA corresponds to a power struggle between the University autonomy rights, the legislative right of state governments and the European Commission's recommendations. However, all of them agree to raise a self-critical reflection as regards the diffusion of information so as to avoid possible misinterpretation or misunderstanding and enable more and better ways of participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluation is a process whose results can be used to make improvements in the teaching‐learning process. From this view, evaluation is largely used within the bound which is maintained with the students, but its contributions to teachers’ learning can be wasted. Also, the information obtained from evaluation makes it possible to regulate the factors involved in teaching. To that end, we must pay attention to all the agents (teachers, students, contents, the classroom and the academic environment) and collect data in natural contexts. Evaluation does not close the circle; this is supplemented by the adjustments which are introduced into the process using the results obtained. In a sense, the adjustment phase is turned by natural evolution into the framework of conditions for the planning phase of the next stage, and so the circle begins again (Zabalza, 2009). In this paper, in the first place, we present the students’ evaluation as a process that regulates the teacher’s practice, that is, as an instrument to analyze the teaching‐learning process. Secondly, we describe the results obtained by conducting a survey. The analysis of the information collected through that instrument was carried out on the basis proposed by Grounded Theory, a qualitative methodology developed by Strauss and Corbin (1998) that can lead to a new theoretical framework based on the collection and systematic analysis of data. Furthermore, the resulting data have been linked with other quantitative data shown in another context (Daura y Amarante, 2011). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of quality management systems in Degree and Master education programmes offers a great opportunity to face some of the most persistent problems and challenges in Spanish higher education. In this context, it is possible to think of new institutional coordination schemes to expand and deepen into the idea of a study as an evolving joint project driven by a coordinated teaching team. However, in order that these new quality management systems become powerful agents for change in teaching culture, coordination and true improvement of the students' learning experience, they need to be thought, specifically, from an internal enhancement perspective and not from the usual external quality assurance perspective or as a device for external accountability. On one hand, it implies that quality management systems should be designed as actual academic coordination and government structures, with capacity for effective intervention on the curricula and learning processes of the studies. On the other hand, the ability of these systems for empowering deep enhancing changes on learning experiences depends on are spect of the diversity and ownership of studies and individuals, on fostering the presence of the students' voice inside the coordination system, on giving support to leadership inside the teaching team responsible of the study and on designing good internal and formative assessment procedures. This paper, grounded on the experience at the Universidad de Zaragoza, proposes a synthesis of these requirements in ten principles for a quality management system in higher education programmes specifically oriented toward the enhancement of the students' learning experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An Education in Health Sciences Magister program was created in 2005 in the University of Chile, Faculty of Medicine, with the purpose of expanding the professional profile of academics and health professionals. The aim of this paper is to analyze the theses presented in this program and characterize their authors. Methods: Contents and main features of the fifty-one theses presented between 2006 and 2011 were reviewed. Results: Graduates belong to different health professions: 35.3% are physicians, 41.2% come from different faculties of the University of Chile, and the rest are from other institutions. Noteworthy is the absence or scarcity of physical therapists, nutritionists, medical technologists, occupational therapists and nurses from the University of Chile. The theses themes are: clinical teaching (23.5%), students' competencies (23.5%), teachers' competencies (13.7%), and 40% raised management, assessment, learning, ethics of teaching, values, and others. The research design is mainly constructivist (96.1%). The University of Chile graduates did research more commonly in clinical teaching and students' competences. Graduates from other universities focused mainly on students' competencies, clinical teaching, teachers' competencies and learning. Conclusions. Constructivism predominates in these program theses. They include various topics related to the teaching-learning process in health careers. Noteworthy is the scarcity of theses focusing on assessment of learning and educational management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of higher education the training and development of the teachers' quality is probably one of their biggest challenges. To address it rationally we must first determine the nature of the teacher's role within a highly complex and demanding environment such as the twenty-first century and then develop the basic program and strategy of its management. It is also a key element, determining the characteristics of the trainers who will boost these processes. In our paper we analyze the preferred spaces that make up the performance of the teachers and the nature of their relationships. From this study we derive the competencies associated with the work of the teacher and from them, we try to determine the nature of the approaches for use in teacher training college and the role that their facilitators must play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]