BIP (Analysis of educational policies in a comparative educational perspective)

Aims of this intensive programme

• Post graduate students (after completion of cycle I with at least 180 EC points according to the Bologna declaration) should acquire the competencies they need in order to analyse comparative educational systems. These analyses are indispensable for a European counselling in the field of educational policy. Current tendencies of as well as challenges towards a European education development should be worked out. Innovative approaches should be introduced, tested and evaluated
• Students should receive the necessary assistance within a multinational learning and problem-solving group in order to work on their comparative researches for their doctoral or master thesis
• Instructors of universities should exchange, acquire or broaden their competencies, which they need for an efficient realisation of corresponding seminars or lectures at their “home” universities. Within a European study setting existing and remarkable approaches of these issues should contribute to a mutual expansion of perspectives
• The realisation of the above objectives represents a considerable European surplus value. • This programme will be integrated within the regular study programme of the participating universities and require appropriate preparation and evaluation.

Topics

The following thematic areas may be worked out:

• Legal basis for the educational development in Europe focussing on national education policies as well as European policies
• Structures and characteristics of chosen European educational systems
• Methods of a comparative educational science
• Counselling of an educational policy
• The Bologna process: Background – realisation – problems and challenges
• Policies of lifelong learning in a European comparison: Reality or just pretence
• Models of quality assurance: Background – realisation – results – options
• Analysis of policies towards @-learning and their contribution towards the realisation of a qualitative European education
• Multilingual Europeans in a multilingual Europe as a challenge: Analysis of language policies in Europe
• Models of financing education

The intensive programme

The working days within this intensive programme may be described as follows

• Four slots a day, each representing a workload of 1.5 hours
• At least one additional slot, also representing a workload of 1.5 hours for the work in “special interest groups” or individual counselling of research and development work of students The workshops should offer profound discussion of the different presentation for lecturers and students. Furthermore each participating student will have the opportunity to publish his/her presentation.

Guiding principles of an educational-didactic approach are

• Constructivist learning theories
• Collaborative problem-solving and
• Active learning within multinational learning and problem-solving groups

Up to 7.5 EC points may be awarded to the student for the participation, presentation and its publication

Dates and Place of this IP

The intensive programme will take place in beautiful Jurmela, Latvia from Sunday, 20th August – Friday, 1st September 06

Travel, accommodation and subsistence costs will be covered by EU funding and other sources

Coordinating institution

State College of Teacher Education in Linz, Austria: Siegfried Kiefer, Siegfried.kiefer@phlinz.at, +43 664 4446438
Local coordinator: Dainuvite Bluma, dainuvite.bluma@lu.lv or Dbluma@eduinf.lu.lv

Participating institutions

University of Oldenburg, Germany (Klaus Winter, Klaus.winter@uni-oldenburg.de)
Tallinn Pedagogical University, Estonia (Ene-Silvia Sarv, enesarv@tpu.ee)
University of Helsinki, Finland (Irina Buchberger, Irina.buchberger@helsinki.fi)
Latvian University, Latvia (Dainuvite Bluma, Dbluma@eduinf.lu.lv)
University of Lodz, Poland (Joanna Michalak, dwzul@uni.lodz.pl)
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (Slavko Gaber, slavko.gaber@guest.arnes.si)
Umea University, Sweden (Lisbeth Lundahl, Lisbeth.lundahl@educ.umu.se)
Sheffield Hallam University, UK (Brian Hudson, B.G.Hudson@shu.ac.uk)
Akdeniz University, Turkey (Ihan Gunbayi, igunbayi@akdeniz.edu.tr)

Up to four students of each university and one lecturer may participate in this programme