Evaluation of competence-based teaching in higher education: From theory to practice

Abstract

Competence-based teaching in higher education institutions and its evaluation have become a prevalent topic especially in the European Union. However, evaluation instruments are often limited, for example to single student competencies or specific elements of the teaching process. The present paper provides a more comprehensive evaluation concept that contributes to sustainable improvement of competence-based teaching in higher education institutions. The evaluation concept considers competence research developments as well as the participatory evaluation approach. The evaluation concept consists of three stages. The first stage evaluates whether the competencies students are supposed to acquire within the curriculum (ideal situation) are well defined. The second stage evaluates the teaching process and the competencies students have actually acquired (real situation). The third stage evaluates concrete aspects of the teaching process. Additionally, an implementation strategy is introduced to support the transfer from the theoretical evaluation concept to practice. The evaluation concept and its implementation strategy are designed for internal evaluations in higher education and primarily address higher education institutions that have already developed and conducted a competence-based curriculum. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Higher education implementation Quality management Competence-based teaching Participatory evaluation

Index Keywords

Teaching higher education human procedures Humans Quality control Students curriculum student university European union Faculty educational model Models, Educational competency-based education academic achievement Europe Participatory approach consumer evaluation study standards Education, Graduate Consumer Participation

Author Affiliations

Department of Applied Psychology: Work, Universität Wien, Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Department of Applied Psychology: Work, Universität Wien, Vienna, Vienna, Austria, Veterinarmedizinische Universitat Wien, Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Veterinarmedizinische Universitat Wien, Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Funding & Acknowledgements

Grant: 86145, 86145-1

This research was financially facilitated by “ KELDAT – Kompetenzzentrum für E-Learning, Didaktik und Ausbildungsforschung der Tiermedizin ” (nos. 86145 and 86145-1 ) [Competence center for e-learning, didactics, and educational research in veterinary medicine], a project funded by Stiftung Mercator and the Volkswagen foundation. Please note that the funding source had no involvement in the research at hand. A previous version of this paper was presented at the 40th annual conference of the Association for Medical Education in Europe, Prague.

Volkswagen Foundation

This research was financially facilitated by “ KELDAT – Kompetenzzentrum für E-Learning, Didaktik und Ausbildungsforschung der Tiermedizin ” (nos. 86145 and 86145-1 ) [Competence center for e-learning, didactics, and educational research in veterinary medicine], a project funded by Stiftung Mercator and the Volkswagen foundation. Please note that the funding source had no involvement in the research at hand. A previous version of this paper was presented at the 40th annual conference of the Association for Medical Education in Europe, Prague.

Stiftung Mercator

This research was financially facilitated by “ KELDAT – Kompetenzzentrum für E-Learning, Didaktik und Ausbildungsforschung der Tiermedizin ” (nos. 86145 and 86145-1 ) [Competence center for e-learning, didactics, and educational research in veterinary medicine], a project funded by Stiftung Mercator and the Volkswagen foundation. Please note that the funding source had no involvement in the research at hand. A previous version of this paper was presented at the 40th annual conference of the Association for Medical Education in Europe, Prague.

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Evaluation of competence-based teaching in higher education: From theory to practice

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