LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND ITS OUTCOMES

The increasing diversity and internationalization of higher education in Europe require greater sophistication in the means of assessment of individual higher education institutions, individual units within given institutions, and learning outputs and outcomes. A short historical overview of assessment in Europe and in the United States is given followed by proposals to refine and to broaden specific aspects of evaluation. The authors suggest the development of instruments and procedures aimed at measuring learned abilities and adressing them in the context of curricula, learning environment, teaching, and learning; instruments which can measure both vertical and horizontal differences; and instruments suitable for measuring both outputs and outcomes. They further suggest a number of study design elements and conclude with a recommendation that CHER stimulate research in this crucial domain.     

CHARACTER, CIVIC RENEWAL AND SERVICE LEARNING FOR DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP IN HIGHER EDUCATION

ABSTRACT:  This article explores the civic republican conception of citizenship underlying the Labour government's programme of civil renewal and the introduction of education for democratic citizenship. It considers the importance of the cultivation of civic virtue through political participation for such developments and it reviews the research into how service learning linked to character education can lead to the civic virtue of duty or social responsibility.     

THE DEMAND FOR STUDY PLACES IN HIGHER EDUCATION TOWARDS THE 1980's IN SWITZERLAND

The starting point for a medium‐term policy on higher education is the future demand for study places. This problem constitutes one of the main issues of the Third Report on the Development of Higher Education in Switzerland.

We give below the main findings concerning this issue as presented in the report.     

LEARNING ECONOMICS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: AN INVESTIGATION CONCERNING THE QUALITY AND IMPACT OF EXPERTISE

This article reflects the results of an investigation involving economics and law students and focusing on the quality and impact of their expertise (or prior knowledge) in relation to the course, Economics and Money. Attention was paid in this project to the construction of different tests intended to grasp the complex nature of prior knowledge at the content level. In relation to the quality of expertise, the results of this project could reveal that economics and law students possess a composite of different expertise components. In relation to the impact of prior knowledge on the acquisition of subject‐oriented knowledge, regression analysis shows that expertise accounts for 16 to 17 percent of the variance in posttest scores. Although this percentage is limited, further analysis could reveal that optimal requisite knowledge and mathematics are important in this perspective. These results are important since they might be helpful in order to guide future initiatives to support students in the initial stages of their studies to cope with the demands of specific domains to be studied. In this study, study time was also used as an independent variable to hypothesize about differences in expertise in the impact on the acquisition of new subject matter. No significant findings could be derived to support hypotheses in this context.     

具有连带产品属性的高等教育

高等教育区别于其他多数产品和服务的一个重要特征是 :它是一种“连带产品”。当学生选择本科学院时 ,首先考虑的不仅是大学的教授、课程和设备 ,而且还同时考虑学校里其他同学的学术能力和社会经济背景。大学里的教授和管理者在选择工作机构时同样考虑他们同事的学术水平和社会背景。这种情形在著名大学表现得尤其突出。高等教育的这一特征对高等教育的分层、竞争、非营利属性、院校规模以及偏好的同质性等现象都有一定的解释力。显然 ,未来的高等教育系统将具有双重性 :在底层 ,竞争相对单一 ;在顶层 ,分层相对突出     

高等教育系统的能级函数分析法——以中国高等教育为案例

伯顿·克拉克在其经典之作《高等教育系统的组织与治理》中构建了三种理想的高等教育体制——国家体制、市场体制和学术体制,提出了著名的三角形定性分析法:一个国家的高等教育体制取决于以上三种理想体制调和的结果,因此,不同国家的高等教育体制在三角形中处于不同的位置。但是,克拉克三角形中关于各国高等教育体制的位置分布完全是基于定性分析;本文作者在定性研究和定量研究相结合的基础上,以中国高等教育体制为案例,构建了"能级函数"概念来描述政府力量、市场力量和学术力量对高等教育系统的作用,并构建了"三角形能级函数模型"来直观地描述三力综合作用的结果,从三个方面发展了克拉克的三角形定性分析法:第一,在克拉克三角形中导入了定量元素来分析国家高等教育体制在三角形中的位置;第二,在克拉克三角形中增加了一个新的国家系统——中国高等教育系统,一个在近二十年中经历了巨大变化的国家高等教育系统;第三,用三角形分析法分析国家系统构成元素——子系统的位置。     

THE SWISS SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION

We have received numerous requests to present in “Higher Education in Europe”, in relatively short form, the main features of higher education systems in the different countries of the Unesco European Region.

As partial response to these requests, we present below a survey on the Swiss system of higher education, written for “Higher Education in Europe” by Dr. Esther C. Garke from the Swiss Federal Office for Education and Science, and CEPES Liaison Officer in Switzerland.

We also take this opportunity to invite our readers to provide us with papers or documents for similar presentations.     

REFORMING THE RUSSIAN HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM

An aperçu of the reform process in higher education in the Russian Federation is given. It begins with a statement of the objectives of reform and a listing of the laws and decrees concerning it promulgated in 1991, 1992, and 1993. Great weight has been placed on the setting of standards and the creation of mechanisms to enforce these standards. Also, efforts are being made to adapt certain higher education course programmes to regional needs. The article concludes with a short discussion of current problems.     

HIGHER EDUCATION IN RELATION TO PROBLEMS OF ENVIRONMENT

The first Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education convened by Unesco was held in Tbilisi (the Georgian SSRT USSR) from 14 to 26 October 1977. The Conference was organized by. Unesco in . co‐operation with the United Nations Environment “Programme (UNEP).

The Conference had the following main points on its agenda: major environmental problems in contemporary society; role of education in facing the challenges of environmental problems; current efforts at the national and international levels for the development of environmental education; strategies for the development of environmental education at the national level; regional and international co‐operation for the development of environmental education: needs and modalities.

The following information is based on those parts of the Final Report of this Conference which are of special importance in the planning, formulation and organization of environmental education in higher education institutions in the European region.     

THE IMPLICATIONS OF INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

Studies on intercultural education undertaken by the Council of Europe have highlighted a gap at the level of higher education between transmitted knowledge and the indispensable information needed by individuals living in the pluricultural contexts of contemporary European societies. A task of higher education is to inculcate in teachers an intercultural perspective both for work in schools and for activities in community contexts and perspectives. The intercultural dimension should not simply address itself to a special category of culturally different students, but rather, should address all students so as to sensitize them to the cultural pluralism which surrounds them and to educate them to successfully master it. Certain disciplines have a privileged status with regard to the transmission of useful information for the education of all citizens living in pluricultural societies: history, geography, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, economics, sociology, and law. Several examples of intercultural education programmes offered by higher education institutions are presented in this study (in Portugal, Canada, and France) as well as reference to activities sponsored by the Higher Education and Research Division of the Council of Europe.     

PROPOSAL FOR A CO‐OPERATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM (CHE)

We give below a summary of a paper on the Co‐operational Higher Education System (CHE) presented by Dr. Jozsef Nagy, of Szeged University (Hungary) to the Committee of. Experts Convened on Making Lifelong Education a Normal Part of University Life which met at UNESCO in Paris from 12 to 16 December 1977 (for details of this meeting, see page 5 of this issue).     

ASSESSING AND EVALUATING AN INDIVIDUAL'S HIGHER EDUCATION

My purpose is to raise a number of questions concerning the nature of what is being assessed and evaluated by the contributors to this Journal. I also wish to challenge a number of the assumptions concerning the concept of Higher Education which is implicit in the work of these contributors.

I will be arguing that important dimensions of Higher Education are being omitted from the Journal, not because they do not concern the contributors, but because of the prevailing view of knowledge in institutions of Higher Education. My particular concern is that the aesthetic dimensions of the concept of Higher Education are omitted from the Journal. I am thinking specifically of the quality of human relationship in education within which the unity of humanity is not violated.     

TOWARD AN AFFECTIVE OUTCOME OF HIGHER EDUCATION

A test was developed for measuring the ability of college students to analyze emotional and nonemotional subject matter. The rationale for the test was that students should become able to analyze material more objectively as they pass through the 4 years of college. Results of convergent and discriminant validation indicated that subject responses to "emotional" items appeared to change at an increasing rate with years in college, while responses to nonemotional items did not. Lack of correlation of the test with cognitive materials, adequate internal reliability, and performance consistent with expectations gave support to the construct, labeled "analytical objectivity." Initial structuring of a nomological net for support of the validity of the construct was achieved.     

HIGHER EDUCATION AND LIFELONG LEARNING IN THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

The scientific, technological and social demand resulting from the GDR's advanced level of development has led to continuously growing tasks not only with regard to the traditional functions of higher education hut also to those which enlarge the possibilities for further professional, social and cultural development. The following article, written for “Higher Education in Europe” by Professor Willi Wolter of the Institute of Higher Education at Humboldt University in Berlin, presents these aspects of the GDR's higher education.     

我国高校收费制度改革的分析与思考

本文从学费、支付能力、高校经费来源和贫困学生资助等四个方面,对中美两国高校收费制度进行了比较,对进一步推进我国高校收费制度改革和配套措施提出了建议。