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This paper recognizes the way in which scientific knowledge has reached center stage, have opposed the dogmatic arguments, cultural and ideological beliefs uncritically established for years. The scientific achievements allow for changes inhuman conceptions to transform the perception, interpretation and interaction between humans and their environment critically and reflectively. This essay re-creates the complexity and impact for which they had to move evolutionary ideas in some states of the American Union, the situation in Argentina and finally the case of Mexico, which all fall similarities and differences. Similarities in the difficulties and differences in the acceptance, management of time and the influence of beliefs about the origin and formation of our planet. Beyond the passage of a controversial debate, this paper frames a reflection that searches there adersaw are of the role played by the University in the transmission of knowledge and critical discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a knowledge model of the good teaching practice of a university lecturer in "Social Organization and Human Development" a subject taught in the first semester in Sociology: The model was developed as a part of a research project conducted by 6 Spanish universities. The paper identifies, analyzes, explicates and, with the aid of the CMap Tools software package, maps the pedagogical thinking and teaching practice of a university lecturer with a reputation for good teaching practice. The knowledge model for the good practice of this lecturer, which is readily accessible via the Internet, provides an excellent example for the guidance of both novice and experienced lecturers who wish to improve the quality of their teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a knowledge model of the good teaching practice of a university lecturer in "Social Organization and Human Development" a subject taught in the first semester in Sociology: The model was developed as a part of a research project conducted by 6 Spanish universities. The paper identifies, analyzes, explicates and, with the aid of the CMap Tools software package, maps the pedagogical thinking and teaching practice of a university lecturer with a reputation for good teaching practice. The knowledge model for the good practice of this lecturer, which is readily accessible via the Internet, provides an excellent example for the guidance of both novice and experienced lecturers who wish to improve the quality of their teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work describes the legal education system as it currently exists in England and Wales (the rest of the UK has a somewhat different structure) and highlights perceived shortcomings in that system. It then goes on to address these and to suggest how learning and teaching can be improved by paying attention to form as well as content, particularly from the perspective of how legal education is delivered. The paper focuses on one particular approach to legal education, termed: problem-based learning (PBL). This forms the key means for study at one of the UK's leading law schools. The rationale for and concept of PBL is explained and extensive reference is made to a wealth of source materials on the nature and effectiveness of such a learning medium. The implications for PBL in the context of experiential learning are also explored including the use of PBL in live-client clinics. The chapter concludes with the suggestion that more interactive or 'hands-on' methods of study will increasingly feature in legal education across the common and civil law worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the last decades of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first, the teaching of English for specific and/or professional and academic purposes has probably constituted one of the most innovative areas in the Spanish University. With the advent of the Bologna reform, the theory and praxis of this dynamic field of knowledge has enhanced its range of activity, so as to include not only students, but also lecturers, whithin its concerns. The result can be measured by the innumerable variety of CLIL (Content Language Integrated Learning) teacher training experiences carried out along the Spanish Tertiary Education geography. This paper has two main purposes: on one hand, to give the account of the CLIL teacher training at the UPCT (included in the larger frame of teaching innovation programs), under its corresponding theoretical approach and bearing in mind the particular circumstances of the institution. On the other hand, to pose questions about the future perspectives of similar experiences in a teaching context that is becoming more and more complex and 'hybrid' from its very foundations. The partial conclusions of this study depict a global teaching/professional scenario that is both challenging and appealing, which must be seriously dealt with from the Universities and our common European administrative framework alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the development and validation of an instrument that measures students' perceptions of 'the quality and effectiveness of the learning support' (for mathematics) during their transition to university. This is achieved through quantitative analyses of students' survey data - including some predictive modelling with the measure - complemented with insights from interview data. The construct validation of the measure was performed using the Rasch Rating Scale Model (RSM). Results include fit and category statistics and the construct hierarchy which is presented with some extracts from interview data. The paper concludes with some educational implications and examples of how this measure can be used to give substantial practical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2012, the English Higher Education system witnessed one of the biggest hikes in the cost of university participation seen in the sector, with the annual fee for most undergraduate degree programme raised to a new limit of £9,000. Accompanying this rise in 'headline' fees was a series of changes to the repayment mechanism that allowed the move to be framed in progressive terms by policymakers and other advocates. A small dip in applications followed, but the UK's widening participation agenda seemed not to be bruised by the hike, with the proportion of students from less advantaged backgrounds applying to higher education institutions (including higher prestige universities) remaining constant. This paper examines the messages that were communicated alongside the 2012 fees rise, its aim being to help shed light on how public discourses about participation in the higher fees era are framed. It is argued that the greater overall expense for most students in terms of lifetime repayments was partially obscured in favour of a narrative that emphasised the short-term benefits for middle-earning graduates and long-term concessions for lower-earning graduates. Using the contemporary English model as a case study, the wider implications for quality and, more particularly, equity of a less regulated, more market-driven higher education system are explored. Attention is also paid to the impact on selection procedures and on broader questions about the extent to which university is (and is perceived as) a public or private good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic writing in European higher education is a little explored field hidden behind fifty major language and fifty national educational systems of which it is part. The article aims at developing a perspective for studying the diversity of writing in Europe and finding a shared language for analyzing student writing. The article recaps baselines theories for the teaching of writing and reports on three important European writing traditions. The main part of the paper is devoted to three foundational conceptions for writing: The role of genres in understanding student writing, the function of writing practices for the organization of student writing and the meaning of writing competences for the teaching of writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the construction of an academic identity through writing in English as a foreign language, using a theoretical approach based on socio-constructivism, genre theory, systemic-functional linguistics and cultural-historical activity theory. Specifically, we study the relationship between academic genres and identity in first-year Humanities students, and to what extent a reflective social approach to writing instruction can foster students' initiation by providing spaces to analyse and discuss the nature of the academic activity system. The theoretical underpinnings present students' identity in construction as an essential element in the process of acquisition of academic genres, hence key to students' success at university, and students' identities as key elements of the academic activity system, at the same level as the other three - its communication tools, users, and goals. The theoretical framework guided the design of a course on academic English as a foreign language for first-year Humanities students at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. The course materials were used simultaneously as research tools to gather the data for the study, using an emic perspective as a teacher/researcher. The results show a close relationship between students' problems with the acquisition of genres in English and conflicts between their identities and other elements of the academic activity system, particularly their relation to other members and to ideational content, and hence students' inability to make relevant contributions due to problems using academic genres in English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tensions between the research and teaching roles in university are well recognised. Past teacher training practices have only partially considered such issues and indeed the motivations, bias and priorities of the teaching researcher. This paper provides an overview of teacher training (content and process) that is suited for the research-focused environment. Particular attention is given to a training approach that has been recently adopted at Imperial College London. The approach involves practicebased and experiential learning, support and input from a broad community (e.g. peers, senior peers and education experts), clear discipline contextualisation and ownership, and emphasis on the potential parallels between teaching and research and the value of teaching to research. Furthermore, teaching practices that capitalise on researcher and institutional strengths are encouraged, and exemplified through the notion of research-supporting teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doctoral education has undergone, in recent years, a revolution paralleling changes in modern society. In the last two decades, the world has witnessed a wave of doctoral education reforms driven by government funding cuts, commercialization, rationalization, internationalization, quality assurance, as well as by increasing demands from employers and doctoral graduates to train doctoral students for an ever-changing competitive job market, which goes beyond the walls of academia. With an historical view of doctoral education at international level, and paying special attention to the process of Bologna taking place in Europe, this paper investigates the different models of doctoral education developed, as well as how its initial traditional conceptualisation has evolved and diversified, driven by educational policy and changes to higher education funding, into new models of doctoral education relevant to our current society. It discusses, from an international perspective, how different higher education institutions are approaching the task of equipping doctoral students with transferable or generic skills, as well as specific skills, in order to educate active and sustainable researchers for the competitive international knowledge based societies of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Web is an item available from the universities to issue information and to develop relationships with different target groups, among them students both potential and actual. Today the universities, through their Web pages have information for both groups, becoming a powerful communication tool. In this paper we analyze the information for the potential students. From the information and its accessibility, the university attempts to bring together and analyze the position of their websites. It has also been tried to link the groups of universities with the " Webometrics Ranking of World Universities", as an initiative of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), in order to analyze correlations between the analyzed variables in the study and the position in the general ranking at the CSIC and the different indicators of it, and to compare the average between the universities in the groups developed. As a consequence, we extract an important relationship between the position of groups of universities in our analysis and the development in the ranking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes an innovative cooperative teaching activity developed in a Spanish university that allowed students to get into contact with the professional world while developing some basic skills required in the workplace. Specifically, this paper describes an activity carried out during the 2010/2011 academic year in which senior students of a double degree in Business Administration + Market Research and Techniques, designed and put into practice a real marketing campaign. The activity was also attended by students from the Engineering School of this university. For maximum visibility and gaining the support of companies willing to sponsor the project, marketing and engineering students worked in different teams to design and develop a website, brochures, campaigns on social networks (Facebook, twitter, tuenti, etc.), and develop some mass events, such as sweepstakes or organizing a concert. Some of them got great coverage in the mass media, such as television (MarcaTV), digital media, and forums. To test whether the activity's goals were achieved, two questionnaires were answered among the students (before and after their participation). The excellent results obtained from the descriptive statistics and the t-student means test confirmed the suitability of the proposed activity at the University. Specifically, it is shown that this activity does not only serves to bring students to the professional world, but also enables to develop several core skills required in the workplace such as team working, information integration, critical thinking, responsibility, planning, innovation and communication skills, initiative, and conflict management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the experience of using Project Oriented Learning (POL) in University Teaching is analyzed. The use of this methodology has positive aspects in terms of reality adaptation and work mentoring, but has difficulties in clarifying the individual responsibility of each student in the workgroup. To overcome this limitation we have chosen to include cooperative learning dynamics based on the puzzle of Aronson. After some initial considerations on the features, possibilities, and limitations of cooperative learning and PAT, we discuss expertise development, which has been carried out in a group of Early Childhood Education Teacher Degree over a quarter on the first year degree. Goals pursued and axis or issues serving to achieve them are reflected, as well as the stages that organize the students as individuals and workgroups that become "experts" of the addressed issues. The experience valued by students and teachers is also shown. In this evaluation, based on a questionnaire and the teacher's diary, workgroup high assessment, advances in theoretical learning and overcoming the so-called stowaway effect affecting the workgroup, become evident. It is also shown that the main difficulty is the theory-practice relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes a comparative and systematic study on staff development between Chinese and European universities with North American universities as background studies. The conceptual analytical lens is two-fold, one is Boyer's multiple-scholarship perspective and the other is a four dimensional faculty development framework proposed by America National Education Association. The specific investigation framework of case studies pays attention to the following aspects: conceptual underpinning, context and policy, organizational structure, program and program delivery, incentive and reward scheme for staff development work, evaluation and effect of programs and future staff development trends. The objective of this study is to find out the staff development practices in European universities to shed light on the next phase of staff development policies and programs in China [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The engineering programmes offered at the Higher Education Polytechnic School of Águeda, University of Aveiro, have been organised, since 2001, around the Project Based Learning paradigm. This paper will briefly set the scene for the educational development and will then proceed to describe the curricula implementation that is nowadays on the field, reflecting the accumulated nine-years' experience of running the programmes. Finally, the author will offer his personal perspective on the difficulties of the development and its implementation, as an actor engaged in the process [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]