(90)INNOVATION COMPETENCE BAROMETER ICB – A TOOL FORASSESSING STUDENTS’ INNOVATION COMPETENCES ASLEARNING OUTCOMES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

摘要

The European way of building curricula is competence based. However, there is no or very littleinformation available about the innovation competencies in the literature. We need reliable informationabout the key competence areas leading to innovative professional knowledge. It becomes essentialto find the innovation competencies which will be made as one of the aims for any educationalprocesses.The key question is to define the innovation competencies and a measuring tool, the innovationcompetence barometer, ICB, for assessing them. Also the best methods which should be used whenaiming to the development of these competencies should be found. The innovation competencebarometer ICB as well as the research hatchery (REHA) method, both investigated in the INCODEproject and financed by European Union Erasmus LLL Programme, are value adding methods whenmoving towards the European Union aims.In our paper we describe the aims and the development process of ICB, and how by using the ICBand testing the results of different teaching and learning methods universities get up to dateinformation about the usefulness of these methods and can make decisions on how to implementthem to wider use. Teaching staff has to be educated to use methods which enhance the achievementof innovation competencies. Also the students must be informed and motivated to participate in thesestudy units carried out in a different way compared to the old more purely lecture based ones.Ultimately it is the local working life that benefits from the newly educated professionals who willpossess better qualifications and who will be better prepared to act in the diverse innovationprocesses in the working life.