Title: THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPETENCES AND THE METHODS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING IN SPANISH UNIVERSITIES
1Ljubiana, Slovenia 24-26, September 2009
The development of competences at Latin-American
universities A multi-level production function
approach
Luis E. VILA, C. Delia DÁVILA and José-Ginés
MORA
University of ValenciaUniversity of Las
Palmas de Gran Canaria Institute of
Education, University of London
2Outline
- Introduction
- Production of competences in H.E.
- Proflex data
- Modeling strategies
- Some estimation results
- Concluding remarks
31. Introduction
4H.E. the economys potential for innovation
1
- Individual and aggregate productivity gains, and
therefore growth and development, emerge from
using in production newly available knowledge - Schultz (1975) ? allocative ability
- Lucas (2009) ? ? in ??(t)/?t ??(t)
- H.E. contributes to build innovation potential in
the economy via the supply of new H.E. graduates
5Innovative role of graduates
1
- Fresh HEGs bring into the workplace (among other
forms of human capital) their capacity to
innovate - Ability to mobilize in their jobs
already-available knowledge/resources not
utilized previously - Ability to continuously create or adapt, and
use, newly-available knowledge or resources while
developing tasks and responsibilities in their
jobs
6Competences to innovate (CTIs)
1
- Innovative behavior implies a sequence of
activities - Detection, acquisition, evaluation, reallocation
- Specific competences are needed to perform well
in the activities leading to productive
innovation - We will call them competences to innovate
(CTIs)
71
Innovative behavior and competences
Activities
Competences
Detection of opportunity
Alertness to new opportunities
Idea creation or acquisition
Come up with new ideas, solutions
Evaluation of new ideas
Willingness to question ideas
E.S.
Resource reallocation
Mobilization of capacities of others
8Objective and approach
1
- To explore production function relationships
between the development of innovation-related
competences and the prevalence of diverse
teaching and learning modes in H.E. studies - Production of education theoretical framework
- Model-based general approach
- Data Proflex (? 8,700 graduates from 33
Latin-American universities in 9 countries)
9Motivation
1
- Stronger emphasis in the right TL modes would
-ceteris paribus- increase the contribution of
Higher Education to economic growth and general
wellbeing in Latin-American countries by
improving aggregate innovation potential through
a more effective development of CTIs by graduates
102. Production of competences in HE
11Literature two main views of learning
2
- Early Childhood Development Knowledge
acquisition as a cumulative process starting in
early childhood at the household - Education Production Function Cognitive
achievement as the result of applying diverse
combinations of educational inputs to students
122
A model for competence production
Teaching learning modes
Educational resources ( R )
Programme characteristics
Competence development ( C )
Higher education studies
E.S.
Dedication, effort
Student resources ( R )
Prior investments
Ability
133. Proflex data
143
Table 1Field of study (ISCED 2000). Descriptive
statistics
N 8301 records
15- Questions on competences in Proflex
3
- How do you rate your own competence level?
- What is the required level of competence in
your current work? - What was the contribution of the programme
completed to your competence development?
- Answers to A ? Individuals human capital
- Answers to B ? Human capital needed for job
- Answers to C ? Value added by H.E. study
16Output Contribution of Higher Education to
competence development
3
17HE input Modes of teaching and learning
3
183
Table 2Other variables in the analysis.
Descriptive statistics.
194. Modeling strategies
20Estimating education production functions
4
- Ability is unobserved ? Stochastic frontier
models - Competences correlated ? Orthogonal factors
- Subjective evaluation ? Relative measures
- Group effects / endogeneity ? Multi-level models.
- TL modes ? (Programme, X)
- Student effort ? (Modes, Programme, Z, ?)
- Programme ? (Prior achievement, Y, ?)
21Variance components model (two-level)
4
Cij f ( Rij , Sij ) uj ?ij
- Composite error terms
- uj group noise N( 0, ?2u ) field,
institution, country - ?ij individual noise N( 0, ?2? )
- Intragroup correlation ?2u / ( ?2u ?2? )
225. Some estimation results
23Table 3 2-level model (individual/field) for
development of CTIs
5
24Table 4 3-level model (individual/institution/co
untry) for development of CTIs
5
256. Concluding remarks
26Summary of main results
6
- Acquisition of CTIs in H.E. appears to depend on
the prevalence of some pro-active TL modes - Each CTI is more efficiently developed through a
specific combination of TL modes - Most prevalent modes in Latin-American H.E.
contribute little, if any, to develop CTIs
specifically - Field of study, institution attended and country
are crucial to development of CTIs
27Problems remaining / Further research
6
- No longitudinal information on decision rules of
- Students programme choice, behavior
- Institutions study design, admission
- Policy makers regulation and funding
- Costs of teaching learning modes unknown
- Other sources of CTIs beside higher education
- Actual CTIs utilization not yet addressed
28The development of competences at Latin-American
universities A multi-level production function
approach
Thank you very much for your attention
luis.vila_at_uv.es