[2016] EoE Copenhagen

Teach Me To Teach You!

BEST Event on Education, Copenhagen 1st July – 11th July 2016

1st July – 11th July 2016

Authors: Yusuf Ulas Yildiz Sonja Mihajlov David João Sousa Pinto

Design: Aleksandra Petrova Alexander Zolzyla

Contact: Yusuf Ulas Yildiz, Yusuf.Ulas.Yildiz@BEST.eu.org

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Table of content Introduction

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About BEST

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Content team

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Organisers

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Experts

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Participants of the event

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Schedule of the event

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Working Methods

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A. Attractiveness of the Engineering Degrees

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1. Interdisciplinary Curriculum

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2. Learning Techniques

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3. The Role of an Engineer

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B. Professor’s’ Role in Higher Educa-

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1. Education Without Professors

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2. Mentoring

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3. Reversed classroom

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1st July – 11th July 2016

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C. Self Directed Learning

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1. Professor Role in Self Direct Learning

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2. Lifelong Learning

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3. Problem/Project based learning

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4. Inquiry based learning

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Examination

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Conclusion

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References

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Acknowledgement

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Introduction Events on Education (EoEs) were created by BEST in order to raise awareness and involve students in the process of education improvement. EoEs aim to bring together students, professors and company representatives in order to discuss relevant educational topics. In order to obtain diverse results, more than 20 technology students from different countries, cultural and educational backgrounds, participate in each event. Their gender, study year, study field and origin are among the factors, that we take into account to ensure the diversity of the participants and therefore reach a broader understanding of our topics. From 1st until 11th July 2016, an EoE was organised by BEST in Copenhagen, Denmark under the support of Technical University of Denmark, in cooperation with the Educational Involvement Department of BEST. During the event, we discussed topics related to Combining Learning Techniques and Teaching Methods: • Self-directed Learning, • Attractiveness of Engineering Education, • The Professor’s Role in Higher Education.

Together with different stakeholders and experts on the topics, participants defined how effective teaching methods should look like and how they can be implemented in European Engineering Education.

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About BEST Board of European Students of Technology (BEST) is a non-governmental, non-profit and apolitical student organisation. By reaching a better understanding of European cultures and developing capacities to work in an international environment, BEST strives to help European students of technology to become more internationally minded. BEST perceives students as one of the major actors in the development of education. Therefore, BEST has been striving to bring the development of European Education closer to students. Today, BEST is present in 34 countries with a total of 95 active local BEST groups and a total of more than 3.300 vibrant and competent young engineering students, who believe in the importance of technology and different ways of thinking.

With putting European universities on the map, connecting students with our partners and closing the gap between students, companies and universities - BEST is adding value to the environment we are part of. BEST understands that the world is changing and is taking the challenge to lead students through those changes by fulfilling its purpose.

What’s more, BEST is not standing idle but looking into what we can still do together. BEST Educational Involvement is one of the main activities that BEST offers to technical students all over Europe. It creates a platform for raising awareness of students on educational matters and to provide impartial input of students to the stakeholders of European STEM Education. Events on Education were created as a tool to raise awareness and involve students in the process of European Education development.

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1st July – 11th July 2016

Content team Yusuf Ulas Yildiz

Event coordinator

Laura Miranda Gomez

Facilitator

Sonja Mihajlov

Facilitator

David JoĂŁo Sousa Pinto

Facilitator

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Organisers

Local BEST Group Copenhagen

Pablo Guerra

Frederrike Byron

Main organiser

Main organiser

1st July – 11th July 2016

Experts

Martin Etchells Vigild Institution: Societé Européenne pour la Formation des Ingenieurs (SEFI)/ European Society for Engineering Education and Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU)/ Technical University of Denmark Position: President of SEFI 2015-2017 and Senior Vice President and Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Student Affairs, DTU

Louise Hindenburg Institution: Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU)/ Technical University of Denmark Position: Office for Study Programmes and Student Affairs, Head of Section

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Participants of the event Name & Surname

University, City

Country

Bert Van Cleemputte

Ghent University, Ghent

Belgium

Lauri Nieminen

Aalto University, Helsinki

Finland

Syrine Zangar

INSA Lyon, Lyon

France

Ourania Koutsoukou

Catholic University of Louvain

Belgium

Tamara Horbunova

National Technical University of Athens, Athens

Greece

Gertrúd László

University of Pannonia, Veszprem

Hungary

Tamás Bakó

Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest

Hungary

Germano Gabbianelli

Politecnico di Milano, Milan

Italy

Martina Schiattarella

University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples

Italy

Marija Bogdanova

University “Ss. Cyril and Methodius”, Skopje

Macedonia

Natalia Pasat

Technical University of Moldova, Chisinau

Moldova

Izabela Dempc

Gdansk University of Technology, Gdansk

Poland

Pedro Duarte

University of Lisbon, Lisbon

Portugal

Ioana Neamtu

POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest, Bucharest

Romania

Pavel Karataev

Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg

Russian Federation

Vukan Levajac

University of Belgrade, Belgrade

Serbia

Daniela Starkova

Technical University of Kosice, Kosice

Slovakia

Clara Moreno

Technical University of Madrid, Madrid

Spain

Pol Rifà Rovira

Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona

Spain

Taylan Yenilmez

Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul

Turkey

Nataliia Morhun

National Technical University of Ukraine “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”, Kyiv

Ukraine

1st July – 11th July 2016

Schedule of the event

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Working Methods

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a structured process, which aims to generate a large quantity of ideas in a group setting. All ideas are recorded and no judgments or evaluations are made. Perhaps, it is the most popular technique used in groups to facilitate the thinking process. Brainstorming works on the premise that even crazy and wild ideas should be listed, as they may spark new and practical ideas that would otherwise not have surfaced. Participants in a brainstorming session are encouraged to contribute any ideas, no matter how irrelevant they are, and to build on one another’s ideas.

One-point survey This method is used to quickly get feedback, affinity, an opinion, while also having this visualised; Getting an overview (e.g. how is the knowledge about a certain topic) and making decisions.

Multi-voting Multi-voting allows a group to select the most important or preferred items from a list with a minimum of discussion. Those items, that move to the top of the list, can then be explored in depth. Multi-voting is done through a series of votes, with low-ranking items eliminated after each round.

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World cafĂŠ World CafĂŠ methodology is a simple, effective, and flexible format for hosting large group dialogue. Participants are divided into groups, each starting from a different spot or table. Each table has a specific topic, that is discussed there. Everything that discussed will be recorded and after the allotted time, groups will change the tables. After moving to the new table, groups will familiarise themselves with what was discussed there before (either by reading the recording or having one person remaining behind to explain the previous discussion to the new group). After learning about the previous discussion, the group will add their ideas. This will be repeated until all the groups have been to all the tables or until necessary. In the end, the ideas from each table will be presented to everybody.

SWOT analysis SWOT analysis is a process that identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organisation. Specifically, SWOT is a basic, analytical framework that assesses what an organisation can and cannot do, as well as its potential opportunities and threats. A SWOT analysis takes information from an environmental analysis and separates it into internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as its external opportunities and threats.

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Discussion group A discussion group is an interactive oral process in which a group of people is given a topic or a situation and after thinking about it for a few minutes, they discuss their views with each other. The opinions and ideas are expressed in a systematic way.

Presentations Within the timeframe of different sessions, participants were asked to sustain their ideas in a presentation, either individual or in groups. In order to prepare a presentation, participants needed to put their ideas in a logical order, so as to be able to share and explain them in front of the audience and to keep their attention and interest.

Case Study Case study researches excel at bringing us to an understanding of a complex issue or object and can extend experience or add strength to what is already known through previous research. Case studies emphasise detailed contextual analysis of a limited number of events or conditions and their relationships.

Card survey Card survey is used to get ideas in a way that they can be rearranged easily. It is useful to involve quieter members and to limit the number of ideas generated.

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Fishbone diagram This technique allows a group to display visually the causes or contributors to a problem or a goal. The fishbone diagram allows the material to be easily organised under major headings and subheadings by adding “bones” at appropriate places on a fish-shaped diagram. Originally called the Ishikawa Diagram, after its creator, Kaoru Ishikawa, the purpose was to display cause-and-effect relationships visually. Used in manufacturing environments, standard large categories (represented by the large bones of the fish) were Methods, Machines, People, Materials, Measurement and Environment. Groups should be encouraged to use or adapt these categories, if appropriate, or to create new categories of their own.

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Matrix diagram A matrix diagram shows the relationships between one group of items and another. Because information is laid out in columns and rows, the relationship between two pieces of information can readily be found and compared to the other relationships displayed.

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Six thinking hats Six Thinking Hats is an important and powerful technique. It is used to look at decisions from a number of important perspectives. This forces you to move outside your habitual thinking style and helps you to get a more rounded view of a situation.

This tool was created by Edward de Bono in his book ‘6 Thinking Hats’.

Many successful people think from a very rational, positive viewpoint.

This is part of the reason that they are successful. Often, though, they may fail to look at a problem from an emotional, intuitive, creative or negative viewpoint. This can mean that they underestimate resistance to plans, fail to make creative leaps and do not make essential contingency plans.

Similarly, pessimists may be excessively defensive. Emotional people may fail to look at decisions calmly and rationally.

If you look at a problem with the Six Thinking Hats technique, then you will solve it with using all approaches. Your decisions and plans will mix ambition, skill in execution, public sensitivity, creativity and good contingency planning.

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Gamification Technique A gamification system was created during the event, which consisted of adding some game elements to the sessions with the aim of stimulating the students to be more active.

After a previous evaluation of the participants’ personalities, they were split into four different teams that would be competing until the end of the event. A points system was used as a game element for its flexibility. In this case, the points were pokeballs, and the winner team would be the one that, by the end of the event, had collected most points. In order to win each pokeball, each team had to show active participation in the activities that were conducted during one session.

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Sessions

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A. Attractiveness of the Engineering Degrees

1. Interdisciplinary Curriculum Introduction

Engineering and natural sciences courses have consistently proven unattractive for male and female students, confirmed by their low number of applicants compared to other degrees. Young people are more interested in technology and socio-economic interdependence/independence, rather than a mono study engineering course.

The combination of technological topics with socio-economic studies into a single degree was revealed as the best way of attracting more students to engineering courses. The creation of these types of courses is also supported by employers, who expect graduate students to master not only specific technical skills, but also gain interdisciplinary knowledge and develop their soft skills.

Taking into account the overlapping points of the young students’ interests with the corporate world’s expectations, it’s possible to find which topics can fulfil the goals of these 2 parts. Examples: knowledge in different languages and cultures, management, technological sociology, the psychology of group dynamics and conflicts, politics and ethics.

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Goals of the session: 1. Identify which interdisciplinary topics can be added to a mono studies engineering curriculum; 2. Rank the interdisciplinary topics according to their importance for an engineer; 3. Discuss how the topics can be added to a curriculum.

Techniques and working hours Techniques: brainstorming, one-point survey, presentations Working hours: 2.5 hours

Methodology Using brainstorming as a tool, participants were asked to think about their expectations regarding their university studies towards extracurricular activities, interdisciplinary subjects and soft skills. Later, they used the one-point survey tool to rank their expectations according to their importance in a curriculum. To finalise the session, they suggested some actions that could help to integrate their expectations in their curriculum.

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Outcomes 1. Outcomes from the students perspective, regarding their university studies expectations:

Expectations Fulfilled • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Interesting subjects Career Opportunities Exchange programs Meet skilled people Training on soft skills Students Organizations Fun Worldwide degree Students Organizations Current Topics Social Life International relations Create (not just analyse) Difficult degree and exams Interesting subjects Nice teachers Good environment Practical Experience Understanding Nature and Technology Doing Research Practical Experience Respect from others fields Community Social Life Money Talent contacts

Expectations not Fulfilled • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Passionate teachers Practical Approach Career Opportunities Mentoring Quality facilities Good Time Tables Interesting projects Practical Experience Competitions Collaboration with industry Extracurricular activities Interesting subjects Nice teachers Good environment Practical Experience Doing Research Specialization Practical Experience Respect from others fields Community

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2. On a scale between 0 and 10, where 0 is the lowest and 10 is the highest, the participants ranked the ideas suggested during the previous brainstorming, regarding their university studies expectations.

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3. The arrangement of the interdisciplinary topics in a mono studies engineering curriculum during the first 2 years - the following subjects are options that can be added to the current engineer curriculum:

1st Semester • Languages and Cultures • Engineering in the Society • 2 days Conference (soft skills and personal development) • 5 days workshops (learning techniques) • Modern science and technology • Excursions to companies and firms

2nd Semester • • • •

Psychology Economy and Management Competitions Foreign Languages (optional during Easter) • English applied to technology • Sociology • 2 days workshop (conflict management)

3rd Semester

4th Semester

Internship (university) Politics and ethics Foreign Languages Scientific history and psychology (optional subject) • Economy and Management • 5 days conference (team building) • Conference (communication and presentation skills)

• Practical project or Internship (company) • Exchange Program • 2 days conference (leadership) • English debates about environmental issues • Ambiental Science

• • • •

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1. Conferences and workshops: These activities should begin in the first year of their university studies and they can approach topics such as: • Personal development and learning techniques: Because the students are in their first year, obtaining knowledge in these areas will allow them to have a more effective study; • Conflict management and team building: As the students are progressing in their studies, they began to work in groups, due to that they should learn how to deal with possible conflict situations; • Leadership: Before having their first practical contact with companies, students should learn about leadership, since, as engineers, the probability of becoming team managers are very high.

Conferences and workshops can be mandatory or not. Their focus is to enable the students with skills that are going to help them to have success during their university studies and also during their professional life.

2. Excursions to companies: Many times the students pick a degree but they don’t know exactly what they are going to do or if they made the correct choice. To solve this situation, in the beginning of their degree the university should allow the students to contact companies in their field of study, in order to know what they are going to do in the future and also to begin their networking with the corporate world.

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3. Optional Subjects In each semester, at least one of the following subjects should be mandatory, they are “Engineering in the Society”, “Modern Science and Technology”, “Psychology”, “Economy and Management”, “Sociology”, “Politics and ethics”, “Economy and management” and “Ambiental Sciences”.

• Engineering in the Society and Modern Science and Technology: These subjects have the goal to transmit the basic knowledge of engineering and the engineer role to the students. They should be provided at the beginning of their university studies.

• Psychology and Sociology: The aim of having these subjects in an engineering curriculum is to enable the students with knowledge related to soft skills, understand the behaviour of the other people and the way that different societies are organised.

• Economy and Management: Through these subjects, the students have the ability to manage and calculate the costs of their projects. This knowledge should be delivered before or during their first projects (and in the first year/ during the second year).

• Ambiental Science, Politics and Ethics: Because the world is facing several challenges, these subjects have as a goal to provide and offer the opportunity to the students of discussing these issues. The outcomes that they are going to get from these subjects might be important for the development of their future projects • Practical project: After having some knowledge in engineering and some interdisciplinary topics, the students should have the opportunity to design their first projects, which should begin in their second year of studies.

4. Internship They offer the opportunity to students to contact with the corporate world in order to have their first practical experience. As the practical projects, this experience should occur after having the basic knowledge in engineering.

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2. Learning Techniques Introduction Interdisciplinary courses have been proven to be the most effective measure to increase the attractiveness of engineering courses. This measure is followed by the teaching methods that are being used during the university studies.

It’s known that project-based learning, small teaching groups and teaching of non-traditional topics by specialists are creating a learning atmosphere that is more effective than traditional teaching methods.

These methods are usually integrated with several techniques, such as; live-demos, readings and discussions of state-of-the-art literature, presentations, academic research, guest lectures, case studies seminars, intensive courses, discussion groups, field trips, lab lectures, expert interviews, tutorial teaching, world Café, expectation queries, flashlight, partner-conversation, teamwork, fishbowl, group puzzles, expert groups, open space technology, walt-disney-method, six-thinking-hats and mind mapping.

Goals To Identify which techniques and learning methods can be applied to the subjects suggested in the previous sessions

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Techniques and working hours Techniques: Brainstorming, multivoting, world cafe and presentations.

Working hours: 2 hours and 30 minutes

Methodology Using the brainstorming technique the participants review all the techniques and teaching methods that they know. After that, they pick some techniques and teaching methods using the multi-voting technique. The chosen ideas were used during the world cafe, when the participants suggested which techniques could be applied to the curriculum created before. The session finished with the presentation of their conclusions.

Outcomes Teaching Methods and learning techniques that can be applied in the subjects suggested in the session “Interdisciplinary subject”.

1. Conferences and workshops on Soft Skills • Teamwork • Presentations • Peer to peer 2. Excursions to Companies

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1st July – 11th July 2016 3. Optional Subjects: Techniques that can be used.

Engineering in Psychology the Society and and Sociology Modern Science and Technology

Economy and management

Ambiental sciences, politics and ethics

Case Study

XX

X

XX

XXX

Presentation

XXX

XXX

X

XX

Project based Learning

XX

XX

XXXX

XX

Pomodoro

XX

X

XX

X

Videos

XX

Reverse Classroom

XX

X

6 thinking hats

X

XXX

X

XX

Teamwork

X

XXX

X

X

Internship

X

XX

X

XX

SWOT

X

Conferences

X

Peer to peer

X

X

X

*The number of crosses “X” represents the number of groups, in a total of 4, that agreed in using that technique for the correspondent subject.

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4. Internships 5. Languages 6. Mandatory Subjects • Algebra and Calculus Subjects • Physics and Chemistry • Basic programming • Statistics

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3. The Role of an Engineer Introduction The role of the actual engineers varies widely. Because university studies provide a wide range of skills to students, it’s easier to find an engineer working in business, management, sales or in a technical and development position.

However, the status of engineers within different European countries varies significantly. There are countries where an engineer profession has a good reputation, there are other countries that can’t distinguish between an engineer and a technician.

It’s also easier to identify a dentist, a nurse or a lawyer than an engineer, since most of the times people are not dealing directly with them, while in the other professions they do.

Due to these reasons and the fact that there is a wide range of engineer’s professions, it’s hard to identify what the engineer’s role is and how they are seen by the society.

Goals Understand what motivates the students to pick other courses rather than engineering degrees

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Techniques and working hours The role of the actual engineers varies widely. Because university studTechniques: World Cafe, Brainstorming, Discussion Group Working hours: 1.5 hours

Methodology After a brief presentation about the engineer role, the participants were split in 3 groups. Using the world cafe as a tool, in each table they had to compare several jobs from different fields with engineering professions using as indicators the reputation of the job, employability and salary. To conclude this exercise, the participants brainstormed about the possible job positions where an engineer can work as their first job or as their following job. The session finished with 4 participants writing the sentence that best describes the engineer role on the paper. In the end, the sentences were showed to the other participants and they had to pick the one that they most agreed.

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Outcomes

Describe the role of an Engineer - sentences: 1. To invent and develop solutions which will ease the life of the society - 11 votes 2. Dealing with new technologies, challenges - 5 votes 3. Make progress! To infinity and beyond - 3 votes 4. Best push it till the limits - 2 votes

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B. Professor’s’ Role in Higher Education

1. Education Without Professors Introduction

In the last decades the world changed dramatically, mainly due to the technology developments. If the generation Y lived the transition to internet world, the following generation, also known as generation Z (born after 1996) never knew a world without it. They grew up with cellphones, computers and tablets, they just need a click to access the information that they needed, anyplace, anywhere. Due to this characteristics, they are known by their autonomy and capacity to learn.

The differences between generations are tremendous and the educational system should be able to adapt to these changes. This way, in the last years, it was possible to assist the emergency of massive open online courses (MOOCs). Courses facilitated by universities (Harvard, DTU, Delft, others) and big companies, such as Google, that don’t require the presence of the students in the classrooms. All this make us reflect about what is the future of the education and what should be the teacher’s role in this brand new future.

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Goals This session aimed to evaluate the current situation, whether we need educators or not and tried to find adequate ways to improve the European education with Professors.

Techniques and working hours Techniques: SWOT Analysis and World Cafe Working Hours: 2,5 Hours

Methodology The session started with a SWOT Analysis. Participants evaluated the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of the education system with professors as in 4 groups which were divided before. After they found the improvement points and the needs of the current system, the groups aimed to find several solutions in order to develop European Educational System during the world cafe. At the end, each group presented the work they did during the session.

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Outcomes The outcomes of SWOT Analysis regarding having professors in education: Strengths

Weaknesses

• Professors have more knowledge and experience than students or assistants • They are professionals in their fields • Their guidance is good • They inspire and show their support to students individually • They show out of the box to students • They are responsible in what they are doing • They can be approached personally and interactively • They clarify every detail in topic • They give recommendation and connection to students

• Professors don’t have their own pace. They sometimes proceed too fast or too slow • They don’t have a fixed time table • They most of the time don’t keep up the latest updates on their field and that’s why they become outdated • Mostly, they are too old for being a teacher • They don’t have strong motivation due to their overload of work • Professors don’t have much flexibility • They lack in social skills • They lack in empathy to their students • They are taking professional critics as personal. As a result, they ignore the feedback on purpose.

• They are not dedicated to education • They are comprehensive in their lectures • They don’t have very good presentation skills • They are not objective • They don’t give the confident to students in order to ask questions

Opportunities

Threats

• • • • • • • • • • •

Students can focus better in important topics They can be prepared for exams better Teachers’ explanation help memorising and learning Students can ask their question at any moment Career advices may be given to students Professors can help to expand students’ network Educators can give advices regarding going deeper in the topic Mentoring can be given to students during their educational life and job careers Students can be supported and recruited for related projects Professors can spot the talented students Lectures can be easier to follow with good educators

• Students can be drastically demotivated • Lecturers are forced to teach • Sense of inferiority may affect the quality of the education in a bad way • Fear to ask question may occur in the future • Teachers may be demotivated in the future • Respect for the teachers decreases • Pressure to publish papers influences the dedication of educators • Students can get easily distracted in groups during the lecture • Students can’t attend lectures if the teachers are not available • Professors’ private life may influence their work • They may use power of their position to influence point of views (Propaganda) • Humiliating of some students • Arbitrary in decision making • Students’ marks can be influenced by relationship with educators • Generation conflicts may occur

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During the world cafe, participants tried to find solution for education without professors. As in the old groups, they dedicated their time to come with ideas which fit European Education in order to replace professors/educators. They have listed their opinions as: • Creation of an Online Platform: Wikipedia-like platform that can serve to students topics of the lectures, forums that students interact regarding lectures with frequently asked questions, past students’ recommendations, quizzes, previous exams and notification system for deadlines and homeworks. Also, this platform may group students for their project so that students can socialise and develop their soft skills. Grading system can be same as the current version.

• In the current education system just professors can be removed. Facilities with laboratories and libraries will remain the same. It has a timetable like the current system but with a flexible approach. Lectures are based on the videos that lecturers recorded , furthermore, it is important to have many sources for lectures so that students can observe from different knowledge presentation. This can also combine with online working opportunities (ex: solving problems online) and online guidance. Almost all assignments are in groups and projects with mentoring system implemented. For better development of students and network opportunities in business job fairs, students exchanges and conferences must be contained in the curriculum.

Evaluations are going to be continuous and made by other students as they are working in groups. At last, constant feedback system must be developed in order to update the lecture materials.

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• Free Classroom: This system promotes working in groups and together. There is going to be several groups and each group will have 4 to 6 students. Each of these student groups will work on a specific main topic and each student will work on a specific subtopic.

Once they learn their subjects, they start to teach the subjects one to another in order to ensure that everyone understands the subject completely. Moreover, a constant information will be transmitted from older students to younger ones. After the learning part, exercies will be done together with groups. Free Classroom method will develop the students’ involvement in their field, team spirit, teaching skills, self-confidence and inspiration for the subject as groups.

• To close the gap between universities and companies: in the education without professors the students should be guided through all the evaluation process. In this case, it’s an opportunity to improve the contact with the corporate world by giving the students the chance to participate and solve tasks delivered by companies, such as case studies or internships. Using this methodology, the mindset from an education with professors to an education with professors changes completely, going more to what a company is looking for and expecting from the graduate students that just finished their degree.

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2. Mentoring Introduction Mentoring is maybe the most well known teaching method that everybody experienced in their life, sometimes formally and sometimes informally. It is usually defined as a relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. There are several types of mentoring and not all of them are that famous. For instance, peer mentoring or peer support is a form of mentorship that usually takes place between a person who has lived through a specific experience (peer mentor) and a person who is new to that experience (the peer mentee) - i.e. an experienced student guiding a freshmen through studying for exams they already passed. Mentoring is a common method of employee development in many companies, yet we wanted to find out how present it is in Universities across the Europe, what are the benefits of this method, how it can enhance learning, what are the barriers in its implementation in our Higher Education system and what is the desired ideal state that we are striving for.

Goals The goal of this session was that students got to know about Mentoring and Peer to peer support methods while analysed the effect of Mentoring on Higher Education system.

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Techniques and working hours Techniques: Presentation, SWOT Analysis and Case Study Working hours: 2 hours

Methodology During the session, Mentoring system and Peer to peer support were presented as two teaching methods. Participants were splitted in 4 groups and analysed both methods through SWOT Analysis: first two groups analysed Mentoring system and other two groups analysed Peer to peer support. In the second part of the session, participants created the ideal mentoring system, using the outcomes of the SWOT Analysis.

They were again divided in 4 groups, from which 2 groups analysed the method from the perspective of the student and other 2 groups from the perspective of the professor. After each exercise, groups presented their outcomes.

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Outcomes SWOT Analysis Mentoring system: Strengths

Weaknesses

• The students trust the teacher and believe that what they are teaching is true; • Teacher is a professional, they can also help the student to schedule their time; • The mentor has a lot of experience and a broad knowledge in their expertise area; • The information that is being delivered to the students is uniformed, once the same teacher is speaking to a lot of students; • It’s more reliable having a mentor than having another teacher to teach the student; • Pedagogical approach

• Method is less flexible, the University schedule is tight, however it doesn’t take into account their opinions; • The professor doesn’t care so much if the student understood or not; • If the teacher doesn’t have good communication skills, it can cause some misunderstandings between the information that they are transmitting and the information that the students are receiving; • Many students don’t ask questions because they fear of the reaction of their teachers; • There is some hierarchy, usually the teachers feel they are better than the students; • Social distance between professor and the student; • The mentors are not trained, usually they are PhD students

Opportunities

Threats

• Teacher is an expert, they can summarise the information, allowing the students to learn faster; they have a wide range of knowledge, because of that they can clarify any doubts • If the mentor has a similar age as the student, then the system becomes similar to the peer to peer support; • Teachers have contacts with companies, this way they are able to create career opportunities for the students; • Students have the opportunity to learn and leave their comfort zone; • Students can get used to the formal communication used in the society by speaking with professors; • The mentor is an expert, they can bring new perspectives to motivate students; • The mentors know how to interact with the students

• If the teachers didn’t receive training to be a mentor the system can fail; • Some students don’t like to deal with professors, usually if they are shy; • The universities are not supporting these teaching methods; • Insecure students do not ask questions and do not understand the whole lecture; • Through the mentoring the teachers get to know the students and during the evaluation process they might be partial; • Good answers are not guaranteed

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Peer to peer support:

Strengths

Weaknesses

• Informal relation between the student and their peer; no hierarchy; • It’s easier to find a peer to help a student; call for help at any time; • Peers can share the solved exercises and problems with the student; • The communication between the students and the peers is essential, since they speak the same technical language; communication is easier; • The peer can introduce their friends to the student, which creates an improvement of the student network; • Flexible connection; • Emotional connection; • Better understanding of the subject

• Peers are not experts in the topic they are teaching; • Peers don’t have enough experience and they are lacking technical skills, due to this the message that is being transmitted to the students might be wrong; If they made mistakes or did some bad decisions in the past, there is a risk that the new student is going to do the same; • Peers and students have similar age and hobbies, they can easily get distracted; • Peers don’t have experience and authority, they need to build the respect from the scratch; • Highest need for the help from the peers is during exams periods; however, probably the peers are also having exams thus they are not available to assist the students; • Depends on the good relationship and the schedule; • Not always institutionalised

Opportunities

Threats

• The peer can help the students to set a list of priorities; • One peer can have more than one student, this way it’s possible to create a working group and to make the learning environment more interactive and dynamic; There is an open community spirit, teaching and learning with other students is funny and allows the students to make new friends; • After passing the exam, the students can also become a new peer; • If the student did Erasmus+, peer to peer support is going to allow the student to find a peer that speaks the native language of the new country, allowing the student to practice other language; • After the peer joins the job market, he can give advices to the students, helping them to find a job; • Cross disciplinary

• Relationship between students and their peers can stop the learning environment; • Bad relationship between peer and student; • Peer is volunteering, the success depends on their motivation; • Peers can misunderstand the knowledge transmitted by the teacher; • Easily gets distracted because of similar age and hobbies; • Student is relying on the peer, due to this they are not studying anymore alone; • It’s possible that instead doing their own homework, the students are going to copy the exercises of their peer

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Case study: How ideal mentoring system and ideal mentor should look like (which skills they should posses, which attitude, etc) The students’ perspective: • Mandatory: mentor needs mentoring skills and experience because professor sometimes just talk but they don’t know how to transmit the knowledge; • Be outgoing and open minded in order to create a bond and social network between them and students; be approachable, reliable, dedicated; available and flexible; eager to teach and share; • To share the relevant knowledge; to use the updated materials; to be advanced in their field of study; • Relationship should be respectful with semi-formal communication; • To have the possibility to have several mentors from different fields; • Mentoring should be a continuous process; • Good references – the teacher should treat all the students as equal and to have good relation with other professors and mentors The professors’ perspective: • Mentor is a facilitator of the learning process and should have some skills, be talkative and a motivator, they have to be trained how to interact, also experienced; relevant skills: communication in order to transmit the knowledge, emotional intelligence, dynamic, tolerant, respectful; to be passionate by their subject; • Define the rules for the communication; • Students can be afraid or shy, so mentor should schedule social and informal meetings to decrease the distance between the teacher and students; • Using the mentoring the students are going to get better marks; • Learning environment: mentoring should happen at set times for each student, the student should be highly motivated in order not to spend teacher’s time, relation is built by mutual communication; in some cases, the teachers have assistants to answer simple questions, using this technique the teachers can have more time to give feedback, the teachers should fill a form about the students they are mentoring.

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3. Reversed classroom Introduction Many students are facing the problem that lectures are not interesting enough and that they are not interactive. In past 30 years new teaching method was created - the reversed classroom. The reversed classroom inverts traditional teaching methods, delivering instruction online outside of class and moving “homework� into the classroom. One of the common practice is that students watch lectures at home at their own pace, communicating with other students and teachers via online discussions. During classes, focus is on concept engagement and problem-finding, collaboration, design and problem solving, with the help of the teacher. This way students are actively involved in knowledge acquisition and construction as they participate in and evaluate their learning.

Goals The main purpose of the following session was to analyse the current presence and effectiveness of Reversed classroom method in universities, benefits and obstacles of using it, to create the ideal state from students’ point of view and to get to know participants with this teaching method.

Techniques and working hours Techniques: Presentation, Simulation and Fishbone Diagram Working hours: 3 hours

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Methodology The method was presented to students with Knewton infographic [1] and through simulation - they watched a short video [2] about “The Influence of the industrial revolution” after which facilitators asked them few questions to check what they remembered. After that, participants were divided in 4 groups and they analysed The Reversed classroom method using Fishbone Diagram technique. This technique allows a group to display visually the causes or contributors to a problem or goal, such as Materials, Equipment, Students, Teacher’s role, etc. When this analysis was finished, participants created an ideal Reversed classroom method using World Café technique, based on outcomes from Fishbone Diagram method.

Outcomes Fishbone diagram: 1. Defining the main categories necessary for implementing a successful Reversed classroom Participants decided that following categories are the major categories: Teacher’s role, Materials, Time management, Equipment, Environment and Students

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2. Brainstorming of all possible factors that are affecting each category Brainstorming was done for every category separately. After all ideas were collected, participants decided if they fit the category or they should be moved to other category. Also, not relevant ideas were removed. Final outcome of the session looks like this: Teacher’s role • • • • • • • • •

motivate the students to watch the videos continuous assessment give explanations/reminders in the beginning of the lesson has to be prepared provide feedback control the proportion between the students and the teacher control and search for new materials, to guarantee the quality of the materials keep the system and content adaptable to all the students be sure that materials are good and updated

Materials • • • • • • • • • •

easy accessible by the students support materials on the website (youtube, images) possibility of putting subtitles on the videos for students that are from different countries the videos should be short and objective in order to understand the main message of the video have a software that block the notifications from social networks stimulate the creativity have a quiz on the website well organised updated content available in different levels of difficulty

Time management • • • • •

needed for students to be able to prepare for the lessons and watch the videos the tasks should be sub-divided and have estimated duration to be completed possible to connect using cellphone, real time system the homework in the class should be very flexible, according to the students need because it’s continuous learning, it’s not necessary to do everything in the same day

Reversed classroom • • • • • • •

not necessary a high tech equipment, it can a be a trip to the museum, a conference studying in the library laboratory adapt the materials to the equipment that we already have it’s necessary to have basic equipment to work with this method interactive materials with feedback on mistakes to help other students userfriendly, usable and accessible web platform

• • • • • • •

various groups with the same knowledge level, so they can work together easily the teacher and the student should work together, be equal all students should contribute for the final result be competitive and challenge for the student, research more and not just find the solution the environment should allow the students to check the progress of other students be able to comment the material in order to build a final version together at home you can stop the video or watch it several times

• • • • • •

• • • • • •

Equipment

Environment

connect lessons with things students like, related to their experience and their life be eager to learn hard to push unmotivated students to learn give motivating tasks to push students to learn snowball effect - start with one topic/video and then look for new topics that can be related make a progress with questions, where the students are the ones who formulate the questions for themselves work on topics that students know where can be applied in the real life give the wider meaning to the separate tasks so that everyone contribute to the final result be focused and concentrated be engaged critical view from the students start learning with an inquiry

Students

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3. Defining positive and negative factors in each category After Fishbone diagram was completed, participants defined which factors are positive and which are negative. Negative factors are marked red, positive factors are the rest. The conclusion is that participants were focused on positive sides of the method from the brainstorming phase thus most of factors are positive.

4. Summary and conclusion Students – key factor: Motivation and eagerness to learn Parents also need to push the students to learn – the motivation can also come from home, even in higher education, however this process should begin when they are younger. The student should begin by doing something that they are interested in, once that probably the teacher doesn’t know it.

The interest to learn should come from the family. The child should grow in a learning environment, however the teachers are the ones that can pull the trigger, applying the knowledge in a real situation. Teachers and students should work together.

Negative point: it is hard to push unmotivated students Equipment Difficult to implement the method if the student doesn’t have the basic resources.

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Environment When doing homework, if a student finish earlier, they can explain the homework to the others, this way the teachers don’t need to waste more time during lecture.

The students should communicate between themselves, in order to increase the time management, but also to create better learning environment.

Every group should have a balance, because there are groups that learn easier or faster than others. Each group should have different level of knowledge. However, the following problem can happen: every student might try to be in the best group not to feel excluded.

It’s better to have lessons at the university, students can ask something and receive an instant answer, making it more interactive.

Groups should be formed naturally, maybe there is someone that loves teaching and they are going to teach the colleagues.

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C. Self Directed Learning 1. Professor Role in Self Direct Learning Introduction New methodologies have been emerged in the last years, due to that it’s important to rethink the role of the teachers when they are using them. In this case, it’s often asked what is the role of a teacher in a self-directed learning environment? If students are self-directed, then why do they need a teacher?

This way, it’s important to mention that, even in a self directed learning situation, the teacher is responsible for helping to cultivate an environment that is conducive and provides assistance for individuals and groups of learners.

A self-directed learning isn’t about solitary learning, the teacher is there to help the students to get involved in the evaluation process, as they have grown in confidence and competences, becoming critical thinkers regarding what they are learning. It’s also about giving support on social and emotional aspects, such as motivation. For last, it’s the professor’s job to organize all the content that needs to be used by the students.

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Goals • Transmit to the students what is and what is not self directed learning; • Identify the role of a teacher that works using a self directed learning methodology in their lessons;

Techniques and working hours Techniques: Brainstorming, multivoting Working hours: 1 hour

Methodology After an introduction about what is self directed learning, the participants did a brainstorming about what should be the professor’s role under this methodology. Because of a lot of ideas were suggested, it was asked to the participants to vote on the ones that were more important and urgent to work on with the aim of having a new successful teaching methodology.

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Outcomes 1. Brainstorming: The role of the teachers in self directed learning

Guidance

Provide feedback

Push students

Provide good environment

Find weak points

Psychological orientation

Promote critical thinking

Unite students

Focus on objectives

Give specific examples

Motivate students

Mentoring

Not censor students ideas

Provide materials and resources

Rephase ideas

Be available for students

Establish and remember deadlines

*the ideas in green were neglected, since they were related with the others already mentioned.

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2. Multi Voting to select the ideas that are important in a self directed learning context Ideas most voted: Guidance (10 votes); Focus on objectives (3); Ideas with a single vote: Promote critical thinking; Motivate students; Provide feedback; Mentoring; Be available for students; Provide material and resources; Establish and remember deadlines;

Summary It was concluded that in a self directed learning context, a good teacher is: (i) the one that knows how to guide the students through all the process and (ii) is clear in transmitting the goals to the students the goals that need to be achieved;

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2. Lifelong Learning Introduction Since its foundation, university has been believed to be the main and the final education step people can possibly reach by most of the population. However, if it is calculated, the time that we spend in an educational system is way less than we spend after the higher education.

Furthermore, the world is developing and changing on. In parallel, the current knowledge and information our fields are altering and cumulatively increasing. Every second, something can be found out wrong or proven right. Also, university graduation is not giving every detailed information regarding the fields or many information for the sector. That’s why lifelong learning should be sustained.

Lifelong Learning is the constant acquisition knowledge and skills through a lifetime. It may contain learning a foreign language, basic education skills, work related courses, apprenticeship programs or personal interest courses.

Goals • To understand whether or not life-long learning is important. How would educational system change if we had a proper lifelong learning (Discussion Group) • To come with a new solution for lifelong learning/ To create a new system to sustain life-long learning. (World Cafe)

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Methodology In the beginning of the session the concept of lifelong learning was explained formally and with a video [3], after which participants were asked to summarise what is lifelong learning. During the discussion group, participants shared their opinion on the direction of several trigger questions and topics.

After why lifelong learning is and how would it change educational system part, participants were asked to generate ideas in their groups to implement constant lifelong learning in daily life. At last, they presented their work.

Outcomes Discussion Group: • Why lifelong learning is important for the society and community?

• Although relatively older people, 40-50 years-old, are part of the workforce, if they are not being updated, they are going to represent a world problem.

• If everybody learns updated information regarding their fields, everyone will know how to face with the current issues in technical fields.

• Well informed people make better decisions when it comes with politicians and life.

• Consider it in your countries, how do you think this is?

• People have a base so they can keep building in it and they don’t adopt the newly created knowledge to their work • For IT (Information Technologies), if the learning is stopped, it isn’t possible to get promoted • People expect specific things from lifelong learning, what do you think lifelong learning can serve as a specific skill?

• Learning languages • Developing soft skills (Leadership, time management, presentation skills...)

• Learning coding (Mostly IT related) • Being aware of newly created technologies

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World Cafe: • Companies may provide continuous training sessions which are carried throughout the year in many fields. In return, a tax cut may be executed for the implementation.

• EU refunded opportunities may be provided for people without an age limit. These can be different types of courses which vary on several topics and related to the society such as courses on newly found technologies or language classes.

• Free scientific magazines may be disseminated which are available for everyone and regardless from politics and economics • A complete curriculum regarding soft skills can be created which includes some technical topics such as modern sciences, communication tools, programming, languages, gamification, time management and working strategies. These courses and conferences regarding on these fields also can be organised online so that their accessibility becomes easier and spreads between many interested people.

• Universities can generate the projects cooperated with companies and students. This way, students can get inspired and people of every age or level of experience can be gathered in order to sustain constant learning.

• Two way mentoring: this idea prefers to have a wiki-like website where there are 1 mentor (a teacher or an elder student) and 1 mentee (a younger student) for every person. If it’s true that a mentor can teach their experience by sharing his knowledge and serving as networkers to the mentees, the mentees, on the other hand, can share the updated information with their mentor and make them involved in their social life.

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3. Problem/Project based learning Introduction Problem Based Learning and Project Based Learning are not the same methods. They have similarities, and they both belong to the Self-Directed Learning process, but Project Based Learning is more guided by the teacher while Problem Based Learning is a more free-minded method in which students have to collaborate deeply.

Project Based Learning is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge.

In Problem based learning courses, students work with classmates to solve complex and authentic problems that help develop content knowledge as well as problem-solving, reasoning, communication, and self-assessment skills. These problems also help to maintain students’ interest in course material because students realize that they are learning the skills needed to be successful in the field.

Some studies are saying that almost any course can incorporate Problem/Project Based Learnings, and most faculties and students consider the benefits to be substantial. Is it the same in our case?

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Goals • To understand the differences between Project and Problem Based Learning (Simulation) • To develop implementing PBL in Universities (Case Study)

Techniques and working hours Techniques: Simulation (6 thinking hats) and Case Study Working hours: 2h

Methodology In the beginning of the session, both methods were presented through video [4]. Participants were splitted in 3 teams and teams were assigned with different topics and different approach. The only person in the team who knew which approach that team has was “the teacher” - person who facilitated the task according to Project/Problem Based Learning.

Participants experienced these methods during the simulation and then made conclusions about how this could work for them and how could it be implemented in the nowadays high education through case study.

They presented their work after each technique.

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Outcomes Simulation: Each team was assigned with the different topic and different method, as shown in the table: Team 1

Team 2

Team 3

Topic

Food Waste (1)

Food Waste (1)

Illiteracy (2)

Method

Problem BL

Project BL

Problem BL

Only one person in the team was aware of which method should be followed and that person was “the teacher”. With their guidance, team members were encouraged to either follow teacher’s instruction or come to the solution on their own.

During presentations of their outcomes and working methods, participants were supposed to guess that there is something different with team 2 because in their case the teacher set the problem and the steps to follow. Participants noticed this difference and successfully guessed that team 2 was using Project Based Learning method.

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Case Study: Facilitators explained the topic of the Case Study - analyze the method that the team was using during simulation and develop the strategy how to implement it in the University.

Some guidelines were presented: • Describe the current situation • Define the desired situation: PBL implementation • Good sides vs Bad sides • Develop a strategy • Check the strategy to see if it works Project Based Learning: Good sides: No waste of time on finding the steps; deeper analysis; organised; having enough time to get soft skills Bad sides: Too guided method, students can’t innovate or come up with new ideas; lack of creativity; easy to get lost and demotivated; wrong target Strategy: The teacher just gives the proposal of steps and students can follow them or not

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Problem Based Learning: Current situation: It’s not implemented because we don’t solve real problems/In most cases PBL is not used Desired situation: We need to get in touch with real problems/We want to implement it Good sides: Easier to find motivation/purpose; solving society needs/ Motivation; better understanding Bad sides: Sometimes we can’t understand deeply the problem; unexpected obstacles/Different teaching styles; need of more educators; more effort for educators Strategy: 1. Ideas fair 2. Database with the chosen ideas 3. Solutions created by students or 1. Group projects 2. Practical work 3. Mentoring

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4. Inquiry based learning Introduction 1. Self-direct learning The 21st century has brought unprecedented changes in all spheres of our lives, creating a need for continuous learning and relearning. It is now essential that learners has given an opportunity to develop a broader repertoire of skills, attitudes, and approaches in their formal educational experiences to prepare them for lifelong learning.

Gaining competence in the traditional school subjects is no longer enough; there is now an urgent need to develop and practice skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, resource identification, as well as attributes such as curiosity, initiative, and acceptance of responsibility for one’s own learning. All of these skills and attributes are incorporated in the characteristics of a highly self-directed learner.

2. Inquiry Based Learning Process Inquiry learning involves developing questions, making observations, doing research to find out what information is already recorded, developing methods for experiments, developing instruments for data collection, collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data, outlining possible explanations and creating predictions for future study. It starts by posing questions, problems or scenarios—rather than simply presenting established facts or portraying a smooth path to knowledge. The process is often assisted by a facilitator. Inquirers will identify and research issues and questions to develop their knowledge or solutions.

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Goals • Increase the knowledge regarding Inquiry Based Learning.

• Obtain the most suitable objective for inquiry based learning

Techniques and working hours Techniques: Brainstorming, multivoting for decision making, card survey Working hours: 3.5 hours

Methodology After explaining the concept of inquiry based learning through video [5], students were asked to brainstorm regarding the fundamental objectives of inquiry based learning. Subsequently, they have had multi-voting in order to lessen the options and choose the most appropriate one.

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Outcomes 1. Brainstorm: During the university studies every student have access to unlimited resources. Not just the internet, books or magazines, but also the teachers, some experts and mates, with the same goal.. The challenge is, how can these 2 worlds - material resources and human resources - work together in order to bring the best of the students?

• • • •

Mentoring system Patience Time management Independence from politics and economics • Accessibility to everybody • Shared learning

• • • • • •

Management Soft skills Teacher professionalism Facilities Individuality Good environment

• • • • • •

Equality Feedback system Broadwide degree Practical experience Career orientation Respect

According to the multi voting process, the results are: 1. Accessible to everyone 2. Mentoring system 3. Shared Learning and good environment 4. Equality and independence from politics and economics 5. Facilities, flexibility, respect and patience

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Structured Inquiry

Guided Inquiry

Students direct inquiry

Students research inquiry

Soft skills

No

No

Yes

Yes

Knowledge evaluation

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Good environment

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Practical experience

No

No

Yes

Yes

Desirable

Structured Inquiry

Accessibility

N/A

Guided Inquiry Students direct inquiry N/A

Students research inquiry

5

Yes

Patience

1

Yes

Mentoring

0

Yes

Good environmental

4

Yes

Shared learning

3

Equity

0

Independence

0

Respect

1

Flexibility

1

Facility

1

Total score

16

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Examination The examination part consisted of developing an educational system that could be implemented in all the countries of origin of the participants. It should be focused on higher education related to the scientific and technologic area.

To develop this system, the participants had to define up to 5 main problems in the current educational system and could use up to 4 of the methods that we had been working on to create the solutions, such as the reversed classroom or the education without professors. Later on they had to prepare a presentation just with flipcharts and physical material.

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Team 1 Problems

Solutions

1. Involvement on the projects There’s low interaction between students and teachers. Usually the last ones don’t have much availability, which results in just a few or no support from their side. Besides this, the projects that exists aren’t very demanding in terms of creativity.

1. Use alternative learning tools Techniques such as problem/ project based learning or even events such as competitions should be used and promoted in order to stimulate the students creativity and engage them in the learning process.

2. Lack of knowledge Some teachers are lacking in english skills, they don’t know how to express very well.

3. Curriculum problems In some cases, there are too many subjects, some of them irrelevant for the degree. Due to this, there isn’t time to study for the subjects that really matter.

4. Provide feedback There aren’t much feedback from the teacher to the students (and also from the students to the teacher) about the evaluation process, which can result in loss of motivation.

5. Lack of empathy Students and teachers have different points of view, however inside the classroom it needs to be like the teacher say.

2. Lifelong learning Having a methodology of lifelong learning in the universities allows the teachers to be supported in their difficulties during their careers.

3. Peer to peer support By studying together, the students can also give feedback and support to each other. The existence of platforms for peer grading, allows the students to receive others opinions, improving their work.

4. Workshops By organizing workshops and applying different inquiry it’s possible to work on the lack of empathy, improving the relationship between students and teachers.

Chosen techniques: Project or problem based learning; Lifelong learning; Peer to peer support

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Team 2 Problems

Solutions

1. Self Directed Learning 1. Examination methods (exams) They only evaluate a part of the acquire knowledge, Using this method the students create a product which through active learning and active involvement of the there is always information that it’s not asked.

2. Teaching methods The used methods are basically the old lectures, which aren’t so interesting when compared with other possibilities, decreasing the students motivation.

3. Professors role Many of the teachers don’t want to teach, instead they want to do research on their field of studies.

Due to this, some of them don’t prepare the lessons, they just do some adjustments.

4. Lack of motivation and involvement (students)

5. Gap between universities and companies Students go to the university, however because there isn’t contact with the corporate world, some of them get unmotivated. The same happens when they join the labor market, they have a lot of knowledge, but they don’t have experience.

students and it can be even used the solution for their future work 1.1. The exams should be a challenging, not just the exercises of the book or the lessons, they should be organized in a way that makes the students think. This way students will gain the skills using Lifelong Learning.

It helps to think out of the box 1.2. Case study - in the end of the semester, the goal is to involve the students with the companies 2. Other methods 2.1. Reversed classroom: to help students get involved and turn lessons more interesting, competitive spirit would encourage students to use this method.

2.2. Project Based Learning - involve the students by working in groups.

2.3. Collaboration between professors in order to come up with more interesting materials.

3. Not dedicated professors 3.1. Project Based Learning - it involves students and professors as well. The professor is not alone and can be more dedicated 3.2. Mentoring - the professors are prepared every time that a student comes to them, they have a high level of responsibility. This kind of learning includes the preparation from the professor when they are going to the class, but they didn’t prepare themselves.

4.1. Self Directed Learning - demands things like creation of their own solution, analyse 4.2. Peer to peer support - students are networking with other students who want to help 4.3. Interactive learning - professor has to make interesting classes, he has to attract. The students go to the lessons because the professors are using other learning techniques.

5. Real world environment Students need internships to get involved with the industry and to get motivated.

Chosen techniques: Self directed learning; lifelong learning, reversed classroom, project based learning, peer to peer support and mentoring

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Team 3 Problems

Solutions

1. Lack of working life skills

1.1. Implement more PBL (Project/ problem based learning) - because it brings several benefits, such as: teamwork, working with several types of people, prepares students to work with anyone, everywhere. Holistic way of thinking. Knowledge of yourself 1.2. Company projects - as the lectures move on, students are able to develop the project. This way students can engage the learning in a deeper way. If students did real scales problems, they may not need the exams - in the end they can do a project. While doing it they can use internet, daily blog, blog to make sure that they are progressing in the project.

2. TCognitive diversity In the classroom there are many different types of people. Each one learn in their own way. This way, it’s challenging to keep the speed of the learning without having changes in the motivation. * The speed should be focused on the lower member, in order to make it faster.

3. Lack of flexibility Lack of flexibility which leads to the lack of creativity, usually the professors have to follow the schedule and they can’t deviate from it. They have always the same curriculum and they don’t have the freedom to change anything. The projects have always the same topics and the way to do it is always the same. The students are giving the idea and sometimes even the solution, they don’t have freedom to come up with new ideas and solve new problems.

2. Learning by doing The students solve problems in the lessons in several teams. There is a mentor, it can be an older student, it doesn’t need to be an expert. Every team is solving the same exercises in a different way, in order to be able to help each other.

3. Use PBL The professor should find new problems to solve

4. Time management skills 4.1. Reversed classroom - the students can watch video in other places and in the classroom they do the 4. LTime management homework, and if they are stuck in same place the prot’s also problem of the professor, when the students have a busy schedule they maybe aren’t go- fessor can help them, or even another student. It’s not a ing to learn or do the homework and the professor waste of time.

4.2. Timetables - the student should know where he needs to repeat the last lesson, which is a waste of should be, and can control the time that is missing for time. the test. Student can prepare before lessons and even for the tests.

5. Pedagogic skills Sometimes the professor doesn’t know what to say 4.3. Students should use learn by pomodoro and wake up games. to the students and how to help.

5. The student can ask another professor for help, looking for their lessons in order to find a good example of learning methods.

Evaluation of this educational system could be done through the form, which would encourage students to provide feedback.

Chosen techniques: Project based learning and reversed classrooms.

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Team 4 Problems

Solutions

1. Lack of teaching training (main)

1. Implementation of training sessions for teachers They might not be the smartest one, but they are going to be better. For that can be used gamification, online courses, reversed classrooms and self directed learning. Professor is the one that is going to support the students, his role is guiding the student in order to help them to learn more things.

2. Lack of motivation and engagement of the students

3. Hard to create a good environment for the students like they were at home

4. Loss of concentration during the lessons

5 Evaluation problems

2. Lack of motivation and engagement It can come from the professor or from the student; 2.1. Professor - SDL and reversed classroom, the role of the teacher is just guiding and helping. Through the Reversed Classroom he could use more time to their experience. This way he is going to be more motivated, as a consequence he will motivate more the students.

2.2. Students - peer to peer support and inquiry based learning.

3. Create a good environment Let the students work in PBL, this way they are more concentrated. The professor is not the leader, so they can feel that they are in the same position as the professor. Social activities with professor can reduce social distance.

4.1. Reversed classroom would be good because this way the students will be more concentrated. The same happens for self directed learning..

4.2. Feedback it will be good because the students would be able to receive feedback during lessons.

5. Evaluation processThe professor is focusing just in some skills. There are more skills that should be considered. People have more than one type of intelligence, depending on the person, they can develop different types of intelligence: musical intelligence, they are sensitive with the rhythm and sound; some people learn better by creating story and poetry, others learn better in an interactive way; some can study better alone. Kinetic intelligence learn better through movements. Evaluation is not equal as examination. In an exam we don’t evaluate all these type of intelligence, just one. It can be implemented with music or as a project in schools.

Chosen techniques: Reversed classroom, self directed learning, project/ problem based learning, peer to peer support and inquiry based learning

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Conclusion It was a long week, filled not just with sessions, but also with cultural trips and a lot of fun moments. However, it’s important not to forget about the most important thing: it was a week where the students had an opportunity to have their voice heard, by giving their opinions about the education system. It was the beginning of a change on education!

If during the event some important topics were discussed, during the examination the students had the opportunity to apply all the acquired knowledge. By hearing them, it was possible to identify which problems the engineering students are now facing at their universities. Examples: lack of teaching training, lack of motivation and engagement from the students and the existence of a gap between the schools and the corporate world.

However, more than problems, the students also identified solutions that allow them to overcome the existence challenges. During their final presentations, they defended that the solutions are highly related with the teaching methods and learning techniques that can be used by the teachers, in substitution of the traditional ones. Project/ problem based learning, reversed classroom and self directed learning are just some of the most common methods mentioned by the students, who argue that the use of these techniques will solve the lack of motivation and creativity that they’re now facing in the higher education institutions.

These outcomes need now to be used and spread through all the scientific community in order to improve the quality of the higher education. In a world where the teacher voices were the final decision on education matters, this new century brought a revolution, originating a new worldliness where the students are now the new actors of change.

This way, let’s make it happen!

1st July – 11th July 2016

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References [1] Reversed Classroom definition and example infographic - https:// www.knewton.com/infographics/flipped-classroom/ [2] Influence of the industrial revolution video - http://study.com/academy/practice/quiz-worksheet-influence-of-the-industrial-revolution.html [3] Life Long Learning definition and example video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDsWJaFg1HY&feature=youtu.be [4] Project Based Learning definition and example video - https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=LMCZvGesRz8&feature=youtu.be [5] What is Inquiry Based Learning video - https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=PbCpXwxmedo

State of Art Angele Attard, Emma Di Iorio, Koen Geven, Robert Santa - Student - centred learning (SCL) toolkit https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByBKNxGZJ2ctak52bHZCYkZJODA/view Andersen/Heilen (eds) The Roskilde Model – problem oriented, project based studies – 2015, Springer Verlag

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Acknowledgement As the content team of EoE Copenhagen, we would like to send greatful thanks to the people and bodies that didn’t hesitate to help and dedicate themselves in order to make this event better: • LBG Copenhagen and its members, for the desire to host and giving invaluable effort to make it in a best way; • Martin Vigild and SEFI, for a great cooperation from the scratch and an inspiring official opening speech; • Louise Hindenburg, for contributions and increasing the awareness of ‘Green Challenge’; • DTU (Denmark Technical University), for showing their hospitality and logistic support for the event.

Contacts Dragana Manasova Educational Involvement Department Coordinator E-mail: draganamanasova@gmail.com

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