EUROPEAN CONVERGENCE OF THE DEGREE OF AGRONOMICAL ENGINEERING (HORTICULTURAL CROP PRODUCTION AND GARDENING, ITA) AT THE UNIVERSITAT JAUME I OF CASTELLON: POSITIVE RESULTS?
During the 2006-2007 academic year, the first and second year subjects of the Ingenieria Tecnica Agricola (ITA) were migrated toward the European convergence objectives. The process is to be completed in 2007-08. Regarding the third year courses subjects, the coordinated evaluation of activities was planned and set up during the current course. Thirty four subjects (87% of the three-year degree), 32 lecturers and 4 student assistants were involved in the process. The initiation of the process was made possible thanks to our combined efforts and the valuable help of the Vice-rectorate for Academic Management and Students and the vice-rectorate for education quality and European harmonization. Both vicerectorates supported us by providing technicians and specialists on the topic, and also they contributed economically. In addition they also created the role of Coordinator for Harmonization of the Degree, offering training courses for lecturers and students along with the provision of an informatic assistant tool that helps organize teaching, activities, evaluation, etc, using convergence criteria. The subjects have been organized by generic and specific competences that should be reached through different activities such as lecture classes, classroom practicals and laboratories, field and enterprise visits, seminars given by specialists and the students themselves, projects, problem-based learning and personal tutorials. The time for lecture classes has been reduced to half of the total time per subject, at the same time continuous evaluation is realized in two ways (model of pathways or model of the learning contract). Regarding the opinion of lecturers about the convergence process, in general, 31.3% feel unsatisfied, 18.7% do not care about it, and 50% are more or less satisfied with the convergence. However, most lecturers consider positive the training courses and recognize that convergence has improved their teaching (60%). Most lecturers also consider as an advantage the continuous evaluation and the way to organize the timetable, although nearly all them, coincide about the difficulties to coordinate the competence evaluation and to estimate the real content of the tasks for the students. Also in general, 66% of lecturers disagree with the convergence process at the institutional level, 73% think that this process is positive for students. Students seem to be more prepared or else they more easily face the subjects, also the number of students that attend exams has increased (>98%). However, taking into account all data obtained up to now, the number of students that pass the subjects and the average mark are more dependent on the subject than on the convergence process. That said, competences that were missing in the past are now evaluated. With respect to the lecturers' evaluation of the students' degree of satisfaction with the convergence process, the change did not please students (71%). In general students appreciate the new way of developing the teaching-learning process. They still think the work load is too high. Finally, with the aim of improving certain aspects of the ITA convergence process, it would be good to coordinate generic competences, activities and Degree evaluation and avoid unnecessary overlap that increases the load of lecturers and students. It is also proposed to coordinate the timing to evaluate certain activities that require high dedication by the students.
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