Description
The project promoted by the University of Craiova, in partnership with Bifrost University and Nesna University College, is underpinned by the need to develop an effective tool for proper integration of transversal skills in teaching activities. The project aims to provide a suitable context for the fruitful professional training and development of teaching staff. The ultimate focus of the project will be to draw up a good practice guide as an auxiliary tool to the educational curricula in social sciences and humanities, ensuring the integration of personal and transversal skills in teaching, tutoring, coaching and training actions and subsequently developing, fostering and enhancing personal and transversal competences of beneficiary students for a better employability. The project activities target both direct beneficiaries (the teaching staff who are project members) and indirect beneficiaries (students, who will develop their transversal skills with a view to participating in lifelong learning programmes and bringing a valuable contribution to the community; other teaching staff of the involved universities). Bifrost University and Nesna University College will provide valuable input and good practice examples. The transfer of innovative approaches already existing in the partner universities, along with the promotion of key transversal skills in education will be achieved.
Summary of project results
This project was proposed by the partnership in order to meet a jointly identified need: the enhancement of teaching staff training for the development of Transversal skills (TS) in students. If TS are increasingly important in today’s society, in Romania they are still secondary to professional skills, while Nordic universities, which have placed a major focus on them, would benefit from more good practice exchanges and training materials for teachers. The objective of the project was to provide a suitable context for the training of Romanian teaching staff, by harnessing innovative inputs from Iceland and Norway. It was achieved through: - an analysis of the implementation of TS in the 3 partner HEIs; - good practice exchanges; - joint interdisciplinary reflections on new methods for integrating TS in teaching practice; - transnational and national debates. The following outputs were delivered: a jointly designed TS Questionnaire on the implementation of TS in the 3 universities; a joint volume Transversal Skills in Modern Teaching Practice. A Good Practice Guide, freely available on the project website, in Romanian and English; a Joint International Seminar with good practice examples;informative materials including a project presentation brochure and a book of the seminar abstracts. The TS Questionnaire was administered to 147 teaching staff from the University of Craiova, 28 from Nesna and 17 from Bifröst. The questionnaire showed that, even though everybody agreed TS are important, they are not well defined yet, and tools should be created for their assessment, and relevant good practice exchanges are much needed. The questionnaire can, subsequently, function as a tool for assessing the state of the art regarding TS in the partner HEIs. The Joint Seminar was attended by 40 participants, who actively took part in the debates. The members of the project team undertook 6 transnational mobilities and 12 visits to Romanian universities for good practice exchange purposes; the latter were attended by 130 teachers, who actively took part in project-related debates.
Summary of bilateral results
Bifröst University brought to the project its experience as a leading educational institution in Iceland, with an outstanding record in the development of transversal skills. The Icelandic team contributed to all project activities (transnational mobilities, the questionnaire - elaboration, administration and collection of answers, the online workshop, the joint international seminar and the joint publication), as well as ongoing project management. The strong cohesion of the partnership successfully underpinned the project outcomes, and facilitated the achievement of the envisaged outputs: a quantitative analysis model of transversal skills and the publication of a joint volume. The partners aim to continue this successful cooperation at multiple levels. The strengthened bilateral relations have already led to an increase of student and staff mobilities. The results of the TRANSMOD project have been disseminated to other partners of Bifröst University and other wider effects are expected in further academic contexts, such as conferences, publications and future projects. Nesna University College brought to the project its experience as the oldest institution of professional education in the Nordland County of Norway. The project team included two teachers from Nesna, with 28 respondents to the questionnaire, one transnational mobility, three presentations in the joint international seminar, three contributions to the joint publication, and one member in the scientific review committee. The partnership successfully delivered the project outcomes and facilitated the achievement of the envisaged outputs: a quantitative analysis model of transversal skills and the publication of a joint volume. The strengthened bilateral relations have already led to an increase of inter-institutional student and staff mobilities and to a recently launched joint conference of the University of Craiova and Nesna University College (Mapping and re-Mapping Identities and Cultural Policies, October 2015). The results of the TRANSMOD project have been disseminated to other partners of Nesna University College and other wider effects are expected in further academic contexts, such as conferences, publications and future projects.