3rd Global Conference
The Idea of Education
Monday 9th August - Wednesday 11th August 2004
Prague, Czech Republic
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Conference Programme, Abstracts and Papers
Session 2:
Case Studies in Education II
Chair: Kevin Fisher
The Role of the Czech Public University in an Innovation-Based
Era: From Academic Socialism to Academic Capitalism
Anna Vysoka
University of Minnesota,
College of Education and Human Development Dean's Office, Continuing Professional
Studies,
Minneapolis, USA
The purpose of this study was to build a group consensus among educational experts as to what the future role of the Czech public universities in an innovation-based era will be. Experts forecasted the most probable events for the Czech public university in the arenas of knowledge production, knowledge professionalization, and knowledge diffusion. Following a modified classical Delphi technique, selected Czech educational experts (n =12) were asked to fill out three rounds of web-based questionnaires containing 58 statements divided into three sub-themes: (1) knowledge production (22 statements), knowledge professionalization (26 statements), and (3) knowledge diffusion (10 statements). The overall findings of the study revealed a high level of consensus toward the necessity of creating an entrepreneurial university, characterized by direct market activity, and entrepreneurial ethos and behaviour, as the most suitable type of Czech public universities for an innovation-based society. More specifically, the Delphi experts agreed upon the following stream of trends: (a) the importance of purposeful networking and collaboration with non-academic knowledge producers; (b) the importance of contextuality and practicality of produced knowledge; (c) the need for transformation of the institutional culture of the public university from a hierarchical to a heterarchical environment; (d) the increased access to higher education; (e) the need for new teaching and learning methods; (f) the importance of developing students’ specialized knowledge as well as general skills; (g) the need for global, issue-oriented, trandisciplinary curriculum; (h) the need for building new communication bridges between academia and society; and (i) the importance of the timely diffusion of innovation.
One Approach for Defining a Procedure for Curriculum Development
Dragoslav Peric and M. Milankovic
College of Electrical Engineering, Belgrade, Serbia & Montenegro
Higher education
reform and Bologna declaration demand necessary changes in college curriculum
. While changing college curriculum it is nece ssa ry to respect some solutions
in existing curriculum . Sometimes, this results in non-consistent new curriculum,
with opposite element in it . One approach for defining a procedure for development
of college curriculum is proposed in this paper . This approach consists of
three stages . In the first, “general” stage, the main parameters
(i . e . number of semesters, number of courses per semester and number
of ECTS credits per curse) of curriculum are defined with the ranges
of its values . For example, the number of courses per semester between
4 and 6, the default number of ECTS credits per course can be 5, 6
or 7 . 5, etc . In this stage it 's nece ssa ry to taking into account
the mentioned parameters in the other, especially European colleges .
In the second, “tuning” stage, concrete college define the
exact values or small ranges of parameters . For example, 5 courses
per semester, 6 ECTS credits per course . In the third, “fine tuning” stage
colleges analyse the differences between new and existing curriculum,
and adjust the parameters of a new one . For example, some of courses
can be expanded or reduced to achieve default number of ECTS credits
. Creation of a numeric parameter is suggested as measure of difference
between two curriculums, which can be useful to compare two or more
curriculums.
This approach is illustrated on examples for two colleges
(technical and business) located in Southeast Europe taking into account
new educational and social conditions and keeping in mind traditional
values of society . The third curriculum, common for both colleges is
made, with intention to investigate the possibility of union of the two
colleges . A systematic analysis of differences between existing and
all variant of new curriculum are made, especially respecting the cost
and outcomes .