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"Teaching"

The expectations with regard to competence-based education (CBE) are high; students would be more motivated to finish their educational programmes and experience less transition problems when entering the labour market. Looking at evaluations of the implementation of competence-based qualifications profiles at country level, it becomes clear that it is not sufficient to solely determine whether competence-based qualification profiles are implemented to be able to generate answers regarding the effectiveness of CBE. In this chapter, it is emphasised that it is necessary to take the design of the curriculum, teaching, learning and assessment into account when trying to answer questions regarding the effectiveness of CBE. Four steps are necessary for designing effective CBE: (1) defining summative competence-based assessment programmes (CBAs), (2) identifying related practical learning situations (including supportive knowledge and skills), (3) formulating relevant personal learning questions and (4) composing corresponding learning activities and materials and putting these together in a personalised learning environment. Implementing CBE is a complex process and includes the coherent application of CBE principles in teaching, learning and assessment activities and alignment of these activities. This chapter describes models and principles to design competence-based vocational and professional education in practice. It goes into the role of vocational core problems in competence-based qualification profiles, and describes steps in the process of designing competence-based learning arrangements. The chapter concludes with the description of a series of authentic and inspiring learning environments as examples of competence-based vocational and professional education. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017.

In the last decade, there is an increasing discussion on teaching quality and teachers’ professional competence (e.g., Cochran-Smith M, Teach Teach Educ 17:527–546, 2001). International comparative studies such as the Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M) and the Mathematics teaching in the twenty-first century study (MT21) reveal that German preservice and in-service teachers lack central competence facets (e.g., content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge; cf. Blömeke S, Felbrich A, Müller C, Erziehungswissenschaftliches Wissen am Ende der Lehrerausbildung. In: Blömeke S, Kaiser G, Lehmann R (eds) Professionelle Kompetenz angehender Lehrerinnen und Lehrer. Wissen, Überzeugungen und Lerngelegenheiten deutscher Mathematik-Studierender und -Referendare – erste Ergebnisse zur Wirksamkeit der Lehrerausbildung. Waxmann, Münster, pp 195–217, 2008, Blömeke S, Kaiser G, Lehmann R (eds) Professionelle Kompetenz angehender Lehrerinnen und Lehrer – Wissen, Überzeugungen und Lerngelegenheiten deutscher Mathematikstudierender und -referendare. Erste Ergebnisse zur Wirksamkeit der Lehrerbildung. Münster (et al.), Waxmann, Münster, 2010). These findings suggest that teacher education programs fail to successfully prepare student teachers for their tasks. A central problem is that – even if there is an increasing amount of studies on preservice teachers’ competence – research on vocational teachers’ competence in the domain of business and economic education is so far scarce. So the key issue of this chapter is to provide an overview of research activities in this field of interest. To do so, the chapter will start from a broad perspective with a look back on the origins of competence-based teacher education (CBTE). The focus will be on competence definitions, modeling, and measurement in teacher education. Approaches will be presented and discussed critically (Sect. 41.2). It must be stated that the early approaches were not successful because of a lack of conceptual clarity and precision as well as a weakness of the empirical foundation (for a critical assessment of CBTE initiatives, see Mulder M, Weigel T, Collins K, J Vocat Educ Train 591:65–85, 2007). In Sect. 41.3 we will discuss recent initiatives of modeling and measuring teacher competence, putting the focus on central competence facets and corresponding measurement models. Current competence modeling approaches mainly draw on eclectic competence models. In this sense, professional teacher competence is seen as a composition of professional knowledge (mainly content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge) as well as beliefs, motivational orientation, and self-regulation. Critical points concerning the earlier approaches of CBTE are taken up in this chapter, too. Furthermore, we will emphasize in what aspects recent approaches can be seen as an improvement. In Sect. 41.4, we will elaborate on an example of current CBTE in business and economic education and discuss examples of modeling and measuring preservice and in-service teachers’ competence. In this section, some findings from different studies will be reported. They show that preservice teachers lack several competence facets, especially content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. The chapter concludes with a critical discussion and an outlook for the future. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017.

The use of smart-phones and tablets has had a big impact on our habits of handling interactive applications. These devices provide us with plenty of information to consult whenever we want. Developing an application is not difficult even lacking a high level of programming. However, creating high-quality application with good usability and the capacity of engaging the users is doubtless a more demanding task. This article shows the usability study of two educational apps created to teach programming and the experiences carried out with students from university and vocational training. The experiences took place in two countries, within an interval of three years. Through the experiences, we identified several very suitable factors in the development of educational apps, especially in teaching programming. © 2017.

The post-Mao period has witnessed rapid social and economic transformation in all walks of Chinese life - much of it fuelled by, or reflected in, changes to the country's education system. This book analyses the development of that system since the abandonment of radical Maoism and the inauguration of 'Reform and Opening' in the late 1970s. The principal focus is on formal education in schools and conventional institutions of tertiary education, but there is also some discussion of preschools, vocational training, and learning in non-formal contexts. The book begins with a discussion of the historical and comparative context for evaluating China's educational 'achievements', followed by an extensive discussion of the key transitions in education policymaking during the 'Reform and Opening' period. This informs the subsequent examination of changes affecting the different phases of education from preschool to tertiary level. There are also chapters dealing specifically with the financing and administration of schooling, curriculum development, the public examinations system, the teaching profession, the phenomenon of marketisation, and the 'international dimension' of Chinese education. The book concludes with an assessment of the social consequences of educational change in the post-Mao era and a critical discussion of the recent fashion in certain Western countries for hailing China as an educational model. The analysis is supported by a wealth of sources - primary and secondary, textual and statistical - and is informed by both authors' wide-ranging experience of Chinese education. As the first monograph on China's educational development during the forty years of the post-Mao era, this book will be essential reading for all those seeking to understand the world's largest education system. It will also be crucial reference for educational comparativists, and for scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds researching contemporary Chinese society. © 2017 Edward Vickers and Zeng Xiaodong. All rights reserved.

A course on spatial geometry has long been a requirement of first-year students studying Industrial Design. However, given the aptitude of today's students to operate 3D modelling software, teaching spatial geometry as has been traditionally done seems increasingly less relevant. An experimental method based on learning-by-doing has been developed to help students acquire understanding of three-dimensional objects. A principal activity is based on: study of the spatial geometry of familiar objects (bottles) through observation, analysis, and deconstruction to reveal their visual vocabularies; and consideration of these visual vocabularies to reconstruct new objects three times larger in scale than the originals (to disassociate their initial functions). This method has been applied the past three years (2012-15), involving sixty-five to seventy students each year. The learning process takes fourteen full days over seven weeks. Students use freehand drawing and apply model-making techniques with basic materials. Through trial-and-error changes in scale, students develop ability to understand objects in three-dimensional space and appreciate that design is an iterative process. Moreover, students learn about composition, structure, balance, and harmony. Focus is on the learning process of students. Research results lead to the conclusion that students express new mental constructs and develop deep sensitivity to three-dimensional forms necessary to design products. © Common Ground Research Networks, Zahedi, All Rights Reserved.

The topicality of the research lies in the fact that there is some discrepancy between the demands of the technical workforce market and the pure linguistic approach ESP teachers usually take in teaching practices. Thus, language studies sometimes lack interdisciplinary issues. The aim of the research is to observe and compare the existing interdisciplinary methods and approaches, decide which of them are the most appropriate in the context of teaching ESP and assess the application of the methods in the classroom through students' feedback and teacher's observation techniques. The paper focuses on such didactic issues as teacher's participation in students' activities, students' autonomy, professional competencies development, motivation, and adequacy of language input in problem-based assignments. Except research in methodological approaches in ESP studies, the paper also presents a sociological perspective expressed as qualitative and quantitative results. The experiment on application of problem-based assignments proves their relevance to ESP studies. As a result, students' motivation and autonomy as well as professional aspects of communication are enhanced. As for language input, thematic correspondence and vocabulary extension largely improve students' subject-specific knowledge and skills. Grammar and phonetics were found to be weak points of language studies and are to be more proficiently integrated into such tasks. In general, the method of problem-based assignments described and evaluated in the article has proved its in-built interdisciplinary nature and positive impact on students' professional activities and learning strategies. © Authors.

This paper presents the curricular redesign of the academic offer in Social Management and Development, carried out by the teaching and multidisciplinary team of the University of Otavalo during the year 2016. The methodology consisted of the organization of multidisciplinary workshops, which allowed comprehensive analysis of the components for the redesign. The result was a harmonious curricular proposal between the different components of vocational training, according to the competency model, which includes strategies for evaluation and quality assurance in the training. The article describes the progress of the transformation that is experimenting Ecuador with respect to higher education according to the curriculum by competences. Therefore, this work can serve as a reference to other universities that go through the process of approval and accreditation of its academic offer.

Requirements of the job market have substantially changed in the recent years while the teaching methods have remained largely the same. Employers find the graduates lacking in teamwork, communication and other soft skills as well as in engineering thinking, engineering intuition and higher order thinking and problem solving skills. Project based learning (PBL) appears to provide an alternative teaching process capable of addressing these employers' needs. The problem arises with implementation of PBL into existing engineering curricula, which are not flexible and easily changeable. Therefore, if full scale implementation of PBL courses is difficult, most significant advantages and barriers to implementation should be sought out. Goal of the paper was to discover the most significant advantages and disadvantages of PBLfrom the students' and professors' point of view. To that end, both students and professors were questioned on their perception of PBL from their own personal experience on a complex interdisciplinary student project. Taking into account the difference in sample sizes of the two groups, the students' opinions were collected through an online survey and the professors' through semistructured interviews and an ABC method questionnaire. Research findings from this paper may be used to determine which aspects of PBL are most suited for engineering education and conversely, which should be focused on the most. On the other hand, it is useful to know which disadvantages and barriers to implementation are the most significant and which need to be overcome first to enable PBL implementation. © 2017 TEMPUS Publications.

This study aims to explore students' learning effectiveness in energy education that integrates STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activities and PBL (project-based learning). The subjects of experimental teaching were 32 junior engineering students enrolled in a project-based course in a Taiwanese university, and this study held a 9-week activity - "STEM & PBL Activities for the Innovative Design of Fuel-efficient Vehicles". In the activity, the integrated thinking emphasized by STEM plays a dominant role when combined with project-based learning strategies. The students took the main role in the course, while the teacher provided guidance to the students in learning and monitored their learning progress. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were adopted in this study: the qualitative analysis focused on students' projects, and interviews were conducted to understand students' opinions on the teaching activities; the quantitative results were analyzed and discussed. The STEM & PBL energy course covers various disciplines, such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, yielding a significant positive effect on learning effectiveness in the field of energy education. The teaching mode of the course includes four aspects: the students discuss real energy problems to deepen their integrated STEM knowledge and abilities; the students work on actual fuel-efficient projects, with focus on integrated STEM learning; the students implement the project based on the STEM knowledge they learn from the energy education course; and the teacher promotes the learning portfolio of STEM and energy education. Based on the above conclusions, this study offers suggestions for teaching and future studies. © 2017 TEMPUS Publications.

Motivated by the research in several international and interdisciplinary initiatives, for example, P21 Partnership for 21st Century Learning or the Collegiate Learning Assessment instruments, we seek for a scalable and measureable set of generic competencies for translation studies. Up to now, the acquisition of competencies in translation studies has primarily been operationalized by implementing authentic projects in higher education classes using socio-constructivist approaches. This results in a hybridization of subject-specific competencies and generic competencies in translator education. Because of the necessity to focus on the acquisition of generic competencies as a primary learning outcome, an additional teaching approach, the simulated project, will be discussed and tested as a new method for a solid generic competence development within higher education. © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2018. All rights reserved.