A bimonthly publication of AQU Catalunya

45

November 2009

In a recent study we set out to identify teaching strategies that would be effective in helping students to learn more and in a better way. The purpose was to construct an instrument for analysing teaching and learning situations in higher education and to ultimately bring about significant enhancement in them.

The project covered the performance of teachers, which was assessed by the students themselves according to quality criteria, certain of which were pre-established. Two types of benchmark were adopted: those referring to criteria of observed quality, namely, benchmarks accepted today as being based on research into learning, and criteria of perceived quality, which deal with how the students perceive the teaching relationship on the basis of their own experiences.

This distinction postulates quality not just according to resources, analytical techniques or pre-established anticipated objectives, as is often the case, but also by taking into account the specific experiences that take place among the students as a result of this whole series of decisions and resources. Evaluation of these experiences must however be associated with certain key aspects of the teaching-learning relation in order to "validate" the perceptions of the students in terms of observed quality benchmarks.

Attempts to define a concept of quality on the basis of apriorisms or just external indicators, without referral to any context in practice, any notion of process or any intervention that forms part of the students' education, and to do so just in terms of user satisfaction, are reductionist approaches that, far from helping an understanding of the constituent properties of quality, disguise it. The reason is because quality and standards are two different constructs, and the latter do not necessarily involve the former. Quality and goal achievement or user satisfaction are also different issues. And this without mentioning anything about quality being understood as a property that is constructed, set and determinable.

In our study, we therefore took the concept of quality as being a product that is the result of a certain teaching-learning relationship which is orientated towards the student's intellectual and educational autonomy, a condition whereby he/she tends to get involved actively in the unfolding of a "deep" learning process.

In this regard, certain key benchmarks in the analysis were that the students have a relevant opinion about what they learn and the greater depth that is encouraged in learning, the higher the quality it tends to achieve, according to what activity is proposed to the students and how it is put across to them. This depth calls for personal and intellectual involvement and a sense of autonomy in the students. Any kind of learning, in order to be as effective as possible, requires certain settings and the functionality of these settings, although its quality will not depend so much on any property itself, or any series of properties, but on the functional alignment of a series of identifiable elements, within a given learning context. The type of assessment carried out by the teacher is also decisive because it will affect the student's study strategies and his/her sense of autonomy and/or dependence.

The product of our research has become an interpretative model, which has been validated in different university contexts, with over a thousand students from different places and with different study interests.¹ As a model, it sheds light on best practices, where the application of different variables properly combined by the teacher gives results that significantly are highly assessed by the students.

The model informs teachers about their strategies and provides orientation on introducing relevant enhancements, whether their intention is to make for better learning conditions for the students or to inspire quality assurance in programmes where there is an interested in developing this. A secondary element, although just as important, is that of establishing a good foundation for accumulating series of data on the ongoing development of certain factors that affect the quality of a given degree programme, faculty or university. The fact is that it is possible to foster significant levels of quality by combining foreseeable factors and procedures, without having to depend on random elements, great intuition, exceptional conditions or exceptional individuals.

This affirmation is based on data such as the following: the better overall assessment of students shows the studies and subjects that come under the notion of a project explained by the teacher; specifying what a project is in teaching gives it added value; in a complementary way, the favourite learning activities are those that associate theoretical knowledge with either practical or specific applications, such as working on projects and problem-solving; lastly, everything that refers to social interaction and its contents, working with others, self-assessment through others, etc. awakens a high level of interest among the students.

Data was also obtained that show us the way ahead. Generally speaking, they give us the impression that students study in very defined contexts according to the instructions given by teaching staff and that they consider their autonomy to be relatively unimportant. Taught classes, directed exercises and similar activities are the preferred situations, and they would appear to be the dominant ones, which shows a learning culture more focused on the teaching staff than on the student. Their sense of autonomy would seem to refer more to the framework of study defined by the teaching staff as to them actually having their own agenda or sense of initiative.

This is seen in the significantly below the average assessment made of the documentary setting (what I have to read, what I have to do, what I need, where I can work on this, etc.). The data provide food for thought about the role assigned by the students to the teachers, their explanations and notes, and the basic rules and guidance provided by them. The same can be said for the fact that practically the same assessment was made for the teaching staff factor and the context for self-regulation, a way of self-directing oneself in the process of study. This leads us to believe that student self-regulation is very closely linked to the normative function of the teachers, given that the students show relatively little interest in exchanges with teaching staff.

To sum up, without any self-regulation, without any significant exchange with the teachers, without any sense of project and with no significant sense of autonomy, that is, of the awareness of "what I can do, how I do my homework or research, how I get on with it", it is still possible to find satisfaction in one's studies, in a self-complacent way; it does not, however, presage ways and outcomes for real study and deep learning among students.

¹ The model described here and its characteristics, together with the full version of the body of text, are published in J. Rué et al., Un model d'anàlisi de la qualitat de l'ensenyament, des de la perspectiva dels estudiants, a titulacions de quatre universitats catalanes (Barcelona: AQU Catalunya, 2009) [in print].