NCUE Global LearningKeynote 4

Program evaluation & critical reflection:

Added value in Global Learning

Dr. Alan BruceULS Dublin

Visiting ProfessorNCUE

Changhua17 March 2016

Overview themes

• Changing role of the University in global learning• Assessing the impact of Global Learning initiatives• Evaluating impact of change• Leadership and critical reflection • Assessing quality in global learning • International dimensions and evaluation• Evaluating university/corporate/community

partnerships • Planning for sustainability

Policy Environment• Continued restriction in most economies on public

spending• Increased competition between and within higher

education• Defined targets for commercialization and

practical application• Doing more with less• Universities as agents or as independent drivers• Valuing independent critical analysis

Global Learning and Higher Education

• Pressure of comparative ranking tables • Competition for resources and students• Outsourcing, amalgamation and rationalization• Changing impact of knowledge economy• Recruitment and retention of graduate students• Impact of ICT – distance learning, access and MOOCs• Linkage to industry, enterprise and for-profit sector• Linkage to government priorities

Business and community development• Less than 10% of SMEs in developing countries well prepared for

new conditions and increased competition in global markets.• An emerging opportunity to reap potential benefits of global

trade is establishment of business linkages between SMEs and transnational corporations (TNCs).

• These linkages represent one of the best ways for SMEs to enhance competitiveness and acquire a series of critical missing assets: access to international markets, finance, technology, management skills and specialized knowledge

• However, specific linkages promotion programs only have a chance to succeed if a conducive policy environment is set up.

• UNCTAD Information Economy Report, 2006

Authentic global learning

• Creates shared meaning in uncertain times• Provides support and inclusion• Values difference as a critical advantage• Maintains creative and innovative focus• Demonstrates research capacity• Breaks limits and boundaries• Shapes futures not reacts to them• Multilingual and multicultural

Evaluation

Standards and evaluation

Kinds of evaluation

Uses of evaluationTO GAIN INSIGHT:• Identify barriers to use of the program• Learn how to best describe and measure program activitiesTO IMPROVE HOW THINGS GET DONE:• Determine the extent to which plans were implemented• Make mid-course adjustments/Clarify communicationTO DETERMINE THE EFFECTS OF THE PROGRAM: • Assess skills development by program participants• Compare changes in behavior over time• Document level of success in accomplishing objectivesTO AFFECT PARTICIPANTS: • Stimulate dialogue and raise awareness • Broaden consensus about program goals• Support organizational change and improvement

Education: from Newman to KerrJohn Henry Newman (1873) The Idea of the University

1. Primary purpose of a University is intellectual and pedagogical2. Range of teaching within University is universal; it encompasses all branches of knowledge, and is inconsistent with restrictions of any kind.3. The University prepares students by allowing them to learn about "the ways and principles and maxims" of the world4. True education requires personal influence of teachers on students.

Clark Kerr (1963) The Uses of the University

1. Modern university is diversified – a multiversity2. Serves needs of society, economic and cultural3. Think tank – essential to progress4. Master Plan for Higher Education (1960) in California

ICT and re-imagining access

• Contradictory and paradoxical process• Never greater potential - side by side with

increasing disparities of access• What we think:

• Citizens• Shared knowledge

• Participative engagement• What we have:

• Consumers• Increasing exclusion

• Significant problems with equitable access

Education as business• Terry Eagleton: The Slow Death of the University (April 2015)• Packaging knowledge• Destroying arts and the humanities• Teaching less vital than research – research brings in he

money• Vast increase in bureaucracy, occasioned by the flourishing

of a managerial ideology and the relentless demands of the state assessment exercise

• Professors are transformed into managers, as students are converted into consumers

Purposive learning in an age of uncertainty• End of linear models of learning• Cognitive dissonance: what is needed is not

being provided• Alienation and anomie in a changing world• Labor market flux and the loss of autonomy• Adaptability and innovation as norm, not

exception• Globalized paradigms/fractured community• Elephants in the room: power and

ownership

Planning for results

• Purpose and mission• Meaning and motivation• Commitment and competence• Team learning• Performance and outcomes

Towards Global Citizenship

Education must fully assume its central role in helping people to forge more just, peaceful, tolerant and inclusive societies. It must give people the understanding, skills and values they need to cooperate in resolving the interconnected challenges of the 21st century.

United Nations: Global Education First Initiative (2012)

Contested citizenship

• Membership of a political community• Belonging and engagement• Rights and entitlements• Duties and responsibilities• Constrained by legacy of nation-state• Cultural minorities and migrants• Disputed access

Post-national citizenship

• Shaped by globalizing process• Greater access to knowledge, information

and values• Digital media• Mobility and migration• Climate change• International governance bodies• Accelerated interdependence• Respect for pluralism and diversity

UN Thematic Learning Outcomes• Awareness of the wider world and a sense of own role

both as a citizen with rights and responsibilities, and as a member of the global human community.

• Valuation of the diversity of cultures and of their languages, arts, religions and philosophies as components the common heritage of humanity.

• Commitment to sustainable development and sense of environmental responsibility.

• Commitment to social justice and sense of social responsibility.

• Willingness to challenge injustice, discrimination, inequality and exclusion at the local/national and global level in order to make the world a more just place.

Universities at the crossroads

A review of evidence from the perspective of knowledge-seeking firms and knowledge-generating universities reveals a striking asymmetry: • Companies presently seek mainly public science outputs • Universities pursue proprietary science opportunities more

heavily in their dealings with business and industry.

At the same time: • Knowledge flows are being promoted more aggressively • Universities are being totally restructured, harmonized and

decentralized regarding governance and accountability.

Together, these momentous events may pose potentially divisive pressures within universities among their various faculties and individual members.

Universities: changing roles

• Stakeholders expect universities to respond to needs beyond classic education, teaching and research

• Strengthening the knowledge economy• Restructuring basic institutions • Assimilating new populations• Democratization, access, social mobility, critical thinking

and sustainability• Embedding the complexity of modern societies in a

dynamic socio-economic-learning matrix• Industry/corporate linkage occurs in this context• Best practice is multidimensional depending on these

needs

Responding to change• Flexibility• Digital learning• Learning outcomes, added value• Sustainability• Sugata Mitra:

Comprehension/Communication/Computation

• Social capital and inclusion• Visions of excellence

Crisis impact: system change

Innovation and knowledge

• How does learning sustain innovation?• Necessary focus on inherited structures

and delivery mechanisms• Access and validation of knowledge have

become central concerns• Focus on mediation role, hierarchy and

control• What is now the role of the University?

Incremental innovation• Addresses core of what already exists• Airplanes that fly farther• Batteries that last longer• Computers that process faster

Disruptive innovation

• Evolves very rapidly• Replaces traditional solutions• Rooted in simple applications• Personal computer• Internet• Mobile technologies

Policy opportunities for Global Learning• Engaging with diverse communities• Developing massive outreach to sectors• Community empowerment• Outreach, access and validation • Legislative foundations• New technologies – mobile telephony• Shared learning and linkage to other

universities

Conclusions

• Education at crossroads: both structure and process• Global learning focus is on mobility, skills and

innovation• Leadership critical• Leadership requires planning and clear goals• Transnational action is the only method in a

globalized world• Depends on vision and understanding for

community needs• Innovative learning demands imagination and risk

taking

謝謝Dr. Alan BruceULS Dublin

abruce@ulsystems.com

Associate Offices: BARCELONA - HELSINKI - SÃO PAULO - CHICAGO