Innovation, research and professional development in higher education: Learning from our own experience

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Teaching and Teacher Education 24 (2008) 104–116 www.elsevier.com/locate/tate

Innovation, research and professional development in higher education: Learning from our own experience Leonor Margalef Garcı´ a, Natalie Pareja Roblin University of Alcala, Spain Received 4 October 2006; received in revised form 20 February 2007; accepted 21 March 2007

Abstract This paper describes and analyses an innovative experience carried out by a group of lecturers from the Psychopedagogy Faculty of the University of Alcala, involved in an action research process with the purpose of reflecting about our own practice and constructing alternative teaching strategies to facilitate students’ reflective, autonomous and critic learning. The experience consists of a didactical proposal through which we intend to establish connections and interdisciplinary relationships among courses, in order to break down the isolation that usually characterizes the work of university teachers, and move towards a more global and complex formula for curriculum development. We also propose the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as tools to support the learning process and expand opportunities for reflection, dialogue and collaboration beyond the classroom activities. The results of this experience show a dialectic interaction amongst innovation, research and professional development processes. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Innovation; Professional development; Interdisciplinary approach; Self-study of teaching; Reflective learning; Information and Communication Technologies

1. Theoretical principles and objectives ‘‘Pedagogic innovations are like heart beats that renew air on its way, closely observing and discovering new routes’’ (Carbonell, 2001, p. 14). Our innovation experience was based on the methodological principles of action research (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1998) and, more specifically, on teachers’ own research (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2002; Burnaford, Fischer, & Hobson, 2000). This way of understanding the research process recogCorresponding author. Tel.: +34 91 883 92 07.

E-mail addresses: [email protected] (L. Margalef Garcı´ a), [email protected] (N. Pareja Roblin).

nizes teachers as reflective professionals (Sho¨n, 1992) and allows recovering and representing their practical knowledge, with the purpose of promoting changes in the teaching and learning processes and contributing towards the generation of pedagogic knowledge that emerges from the reconstruction of educational practices. In the teachers’ own research, it is the teachers themselves who investigate about their own practice, becoming both subjects (researchers) and objects (participants of the social and educative life) of the research process. By overcoming the traditional distinction between the researcher and the ‘‘object’’ of investigation, action research falls into the teachers’ own research genre, becoming a type of research where

0742-051X/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2007.03.007

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‘‘those who are investigating question themselves from deep in side, look for proximity and not distance and let themselves be affected by the research process, therefore it requires abilities that are related to discretional capacities, intuition and tacty’’ (Van Manen, 2003, p. 17). To position from this model demands not only a new way to face educational research but also a new understanding of teaching and learning, considered as processes of continuous social and collaborative construction (Contreras, 1994). The main purpose of this type of research is that participants critically reflect upon their social and educational practices in order to understand and transform it, assuming a high responsibility on the decision making processes about the strategies and actions to be taken as well as on the results of these actions. Based on these principles and on the understanding that ‘‘teachers learn when they reconstruct local knowledge while working in the context of research communities that theorize and elaborate their work, connecting it with social, cultural and political aspects’’ (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2002, p. 68), we committed ourselves to explore, reflect and research—from our own teaching practice—about two dimensions of the educational processes related to: (a) How to facilitate autonomous, reflective and critical learning among our students, and what opportunities does ICT offer to support this type of learning experiences. (b) How can we stimulate an interdisciplinary approach to learning? Is it possible to erase boundaries among courses and subjects? These questions served as a starting point to design and develop a plan of action and intervention. However, during the implementation of the experience, and as a consequence of the resultant reflection processes, new questions emerged. This lead us to reformulate, expand and reconstruct our initial focus of attention so as to broaden the vision of the process of change in which we were engaged. Our interest to explore and construct new methodological strategies to facilitate and encourage active, reflective and integrated learning experiences is not recent. In our classes over the past few years, we have been exploring and implementing diverse strategies based on collaborative learning and knowledge construction principles supported by the use of different media (video

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games, films, etc.), learning materials and evaluation procedures (Margalef, 2005; Margalef & Pareja, 2006). As a result of these experiences, we decided to move on to the proposal that is presented in this article and look for a deeper comprehension on issues related to: (a) content integration among different subjects, (b) new alternatives to facilitate a complementary methodological approach among teachers, and (c) different ways to encourage interactivity among teachers, teachers and students, and students themselves. Based on these common interests and on our initial questions, we proposed the following objectives for this experience:

     

Encourage an interdisciplinary approach among the courses and subjects involved in the Project, avoiding fragmentation and work overload. Share a teaching and learning understanding that allow us to work with similar teaching strategies and common activities. Facilitate opportunities for individual and collaborative knowledge construction. Involve students in an active, critic and reflective environment. Expand learning beyond ‘class’ time and space. Initiate all participants in the new culture of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), understood as a new way to approach the teaching and learning process and not only as a measure system.

Team work and collaboration among teachers and students were essential to address these objectives and achieve an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning. Regular meetings and informal conversations helped us share experiences, contrast opinions and interpretations, plan action strategies and alternatives, make decisions and move on to the analysis and reflection of our own practices. This also contributed to enhance self-reflection processes by complementing and contrasting it with the views, experiences, actions and reflections of other teachers and students. 2. Description of our innovation experience 2.1. The context The experience we describe and analyze in this paper has been developed under the framework of the Teaching Innovation Projects 2005/2006

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sponsored by the European Harmonization and Planning Vice-Presidency of the University of Alcala. Five lecturers and around 120 students from the first year of the psychopedagogy program participated in this project. The courses involved in this experience were quite diverse as to type (core, mandatory, elective) and discipline (psychology, curriculum, teaching and learning theories, research methods, professional development) refers, as it is shown in Fig. 1. From the seven courses involved in the experience, three belonged to the first semester and four to the second. In order to facilitate the development of common activities among courses, arrangements were made with the Faculty Dean so that the schedules for these courses could coincide on the same days, and therefore facilitate the participation of all students and teachers in the proposed activities.

2.2. The actors: teachers and students involved in the experience The project team was comprised by five university teachers and one PhD student. We consolidated as a team moved by the desire for understanding and transforming our teaching practice, assuming inquiry as an attitude. According to Liberman and Miller (2003), to position from an inquiry attitude allows a deeper comprehension of the linkage between knowledge and practice and is an alternative way to facilitate teachers’ professional development. By adopting inquiry as an attitude we assumed a big challenge. It was not only about trying to introduce changes in our teaching strategies supported by the use of new tools, but to integrate the different courses involved in the project through an interdisciplinary approach and shared working guidelines, within a context of dialogue, critic, continuous and constructive

Curriculum design, development and innovation (Core course)

Teaching and learning theories (Core course)

Infancy and adolescence psychology (Selective course)

Educational Research Methods (Compulsory course)

Teachers’ professional Development and training (Core course)

Development of social abilities programs (Selective course) Learning difficulties and psychological intervention (Core course)

Fig. 1. Courses involved in the innovation Project.

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deliberation that could lead us to reflect about our teaching practice, enabling us to transform it. The teachers engaged in this experience were from different knowledge areas and had different teaching styles. Age and teaching category were also different. This diversity enhanced the experience since it propitiated the convergence of multiple viewpoints, opinions and experiences. However, this also generated some difficulties in terms of conciliating different styles and approaches to teaching and learning. During the implementation of the experience teachers became agents of change, facilitating the construction of new and diverse learning situations and environments. The PhD student participated in the experience as a ‘‘critic friend’’ (Stokes, 2003), encouraging reflection processes and stimulating a continuous revision and reconstruction of the project proposal through debate, opinion exchange and deliberation. According to Elliott (1990) and Freese (2006), the ‘‘critic friend,’’ far from assuming a neutral role, is actively involved in the action research process. The ‘‘critic friend’’ contributes new ideas that help stimulate teachers’ reflection about their own practice and provides information—of data recovered during the process and external interpretations about the experience development—that could help to face and solve the problems that may emerge during the action plan implementation. The group of 120 students who participated in the experience was highly heterogeneous. Around onethird of the group was 30 years old and had a professional background as an elementary or high school teacher. The rest of the group was between 22 and 27 years old and had just obtained their teaching certificate, so had no previous professional experience at all. Students’ interests and prior knowledge was also diverse due to the presence of students from different careers and specialities. Many of the students enrolled in the courses worked and studied at the same time (around 70% of the group) and therefore had difficulties to assist regularly to class and participate in group assignments. The use of ICT was very helpful for these students since it allowed them to follow up the activities developed in class and ‘‘keep up’’ with the course, communicating and exchanging information with their teachers and classmates through new channels for dialogue and interaction. Students’ familiarity and knowledge of ICT tools (concretely for the use of Internet and its most common applications) was also diverse. This lack of

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familiarity was overcome through training workshops on the ICT tools used in the project and personalized support, when required. Collaboration among pairs was central for all students to feel comfortable with the tools and to generate a climate of cooperation and mutual help that encouraged group cohesion. 2.3. The research process Since this experience was based on an action research approach, the process was characterized for being open, emergent, flexible, and in continuous construction. As Kemmis and McTaggart (2000, p. 595) assert, in this type of research processes ‘‘phases overlap and initial plans quickly become obsolete in the light of learning that results from experience. The criterion of success is not on participants following the steps but on the strong and authentic feeling of transformation in their practice and the context in which it develops’’. As we moved on the experience, several decisions needed to be taken and changes made in the teaching strategies introduced, as a result of the reflection processes and feedback received from students, colleague teachers and the critic friend. This process can be best represented as a spiral where action, self-reflection and assessment complement and feed each other to give shape to the decisions and strategies taken, as it is shown in Figs. 2 and 3. At this moment the two first cycles of the action research experience have been completed and we are planning the continuation of this experience on a third cycle. The first cycle consisted in the initial proposal and the implementation of shared methodological strategies and tools. As a result of this cycle, three teachers explored and reflected on their own practice with the use of blogs as tools to support the construction of reflective diaries and carried on a conjunct common activity where the contents of the three courses were integrated in an effort to encourage an interdisciplinary approach to learning. The second cycle consisted in the continuation of the experience implemented during the first semester, but with new courses and a couple of new lecturers who joined the project team. Some changes were introduced to the initial proposal based on what we learnt in the past experience and on the feedback received from students. In this cycle the common activity was developed only between two

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Fig. 2. Action research phases.

courses and less emphasis was placed on interdisciplinary issues due to time constraints and diverse teaching styles. Since students were more familiar with the methodological approach and tools, a deeper appropriation of the project and the proposed methodological strategies was revealed during this cycle. The aim of continuing with a third cycle is to keep on analyzing and reflecting upon new methodological strategies and the use of ICT to support it. New teachers will join the experience and each will explore a different aspect/strategy with his/her students. A series of meetings and workshops will be arranged so that teachers can exchange their experience, reflect on it, and learn from each other. During the implementation of the two first cycles diverse techniques for data collection were used in order to encourage and facilitate reflection and the decision making processes. These techniques consisted basically in participant observation, in-depth interviews, group discussions (focus groups), student self-assessment and short stories elaborated by teachers and students about their participation and experiences in the project. Through participant observation, the critic friend was able to interact with the teachers and students involved in the project, experimenting and understanding the process in a vivid way. The observations and notes taken by her were later on returned

to teachers and students, serving as a ‘‘mirror’’ of what really happened in class and encouraging selfreflection. In-depth interviews and discussion groups were a powerful technique to recover the meanings, beliefs, opinions, experiences and suggestions of teachers and students participating in the project. The interviews and discussion groups served a twofold purpose: on one hand it encouraged reflection by inviting teachers and students to think about, analyze and question their practices and experiences and, on the other hand, it served as a source of data for the decision making processes, providing information about teachers’ beliefs and teaching styles as well as students’ difficulties and suggestions. Information from two discussion groups1 and 32 interviews2 was gathered, analyzed and returned to participants. In all cases, ‘key informants’ were selected so as to recover meaningful data that could help and enhance self-reflection and decision making processes. 1

A total of 13 students participated in the focus group discussions divided into two groups: one of eight students and one of six. 2 All teachers involved in the project were interviewed at the end of each semester (a total of 6 interviews) and 13 ‘key informants’ selected from the group of students participating in the innovation experience were interviewed in each semester (a total of 26 interviews).

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Third Cycle

Second Cycle

First Cycle

Fig. 3. Cycles of our action research experience.

Self-assessment elaborated by all students at the end of the experience’s first cycle and short stories constructed by teachers and six ‘key informants’ provided meaningful information about how students and teachers valued and lived the experience, as well as the things that should be revised and improved in the following cycles. Both techniques were also used as means to encourage actors to self-reflect upon the teaching and learning process and their participation and commitment to the experience. All data collected through these techniques constituted a source of information for decision making and a device to activate reflection among teachers, serving as a professional development tool. 2.4. The innovation proposal: characteristics and development Our innovation proposal was twofold: on one hand, we pretended to encourage and facilitate reflective and deep learning through the implementa-

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tion of multiple methodological strategies (reflective diaries, group projects, workshops, seminars, debates, case studies, problem based learning, etc.) and, on the other hand, we aimed at promoting an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning among the courses involved in the experience through the development of common activities and a shared methodology. The integration of ICT in the teaching and learning processes was another component of our ‘‘action plan’’. There is no doubt that the use of ICT in higher education has become a recurrent topic of educational debates and university’s policies nowadays. The construction of the Higher Education Area in Europe has further increased the attention and interest of Spanish universities in ICT, bringing along several challenges and questions about why and what for these technologies should be integrated in the teaching and learning processes. Even though in the past 10 years a lot of research and experiences have been carried on about the use of ICT in education, recent studies in Spain (Alba, 2005; Pareja, 2006) reveal that the implementation of ICT in higher education has been focused mainly on knowledge transfer and that little attention is given to these tools as channels for dialogue, collaboration and reflection. The purpose of integrating ICT into this experience was to explore and analyse its potential uses to support dialogue, interaction and knowledge construction within the framework of a critic, reflective and active learning environment. Along with Romero Morante (2001, p. 46), we understand that ICT ‘‘do not determine the teaching proposal but represent it’’, so our attention was focused on educational change processes and the methodological and didactic aspects of ICT use. What we wanted was to go beyond the simple incorporation of new toolsyour proposal was more ambitious. We aimed to take advantage of the possibilities ICT offers to facilitate a process of innovation in which research, deep learning, and an interdisciplinary approach take life of its own in the teaching and learning processes. Within this framework, the use of ICT in our innovation proposal was oriented to:

 

Support and complement teaching and learning processes. Transcend class’ time and space, revaluing faceto-face encounters as spaces to share and construct new knowledge.

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Involve students in an active and autonomous learning environment. Expand opportunities for collaboration through the use of tools that facilitate dialogue and exchange. Extend opportunities for individual and collaborative reflection beyond the classroom.

Based on these three core principles (reflective learning, interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning, and the use of ICT as a channel to enhance dialogue and reflection) an intervention plan was designed. The main characteristics of this plan were: (a) The proposition of a case study situation as a common activity across all the courses involved in the project: encouraging interdisciplinary connections. A common activity between the courses involved on the project was designed to encourage interdisciplinary relationships between subjects. To accomplish this, the elaboration of a common assignment that stimulated the analysis of real life situations from multiple perspectives was planned, and activities with the participation of students from all courses were organized. In the first semester, this activity consisted in the analysis of the Education Law (LOE) from the perspective of its underlying learning theories, its curricular proposal and the consideration of individual evolution aspects. The purpose was to start with a brief exploration of the Spanish Educational System’s current situation and elaborate a diagnosis so as to, starting from this analysis, critically reflect on the proposals made by the new legislation and detect whether these proposals are adequate or not to respond to the problems identified in the prior diagnosis. Through this activity we wanted to carry out not only a critical analysis of what was said on the official discourse (formal curriculum), but also find out the missing points (null curriculum) and reveal the hidden curriculum. The last step of this activity consisted in searching for alternative educational proposals that are being carried out successfully, in order to contrast the Law analysis with examples of ‘‘good practice’’ that are giving answers to the previous diagnosed situation. In the second semester we worked around concrete action research experiences from a

double perspective: the methodological aspects of it and its contribution to teachers’ professional development. The implementation of these activities helped students to critically examine real life experiences and construct meaningful learning situations. The opportunity to connect with an educational reality close to them has been highly motivating for students and opened new generative topics to keep on reflecting and studying about their daily lives and future professional practice (Kincheloe, 2001). (b) The construction of reflective diaries: encouraging active, reflective and autonomous learning. We understood reflective diaries as a formative strategy to promote individual reflection, knowledge construction and deep learning experiences. ICT were used as a support tool to facilitate student interaction and collaborative knowledge construction. We chose Weblogs3 because we considered it as a potential tool to encourage reflection about course contents and students’ learning experiences and personal/professional experience. The tool was introduced as a complement of face-to-face sessions so that reflection and discussion processes initiated in class could be continued and further elaborated outside the classroom. Students’ work on the blogs was considered as a source for formative assessment and, thus, a requirement for all students. The use of blogs for the construction of online journals in educational settings has spread quickly in the past few years. Research shows that these tools can lead to reflection, analysis and contextualization of learning, encouraging a more creative response from students and providing a richer and enhanced context for interaction, dialogue and collaborative construction (Instone, 2005; Oravec, 2002). The unconstrained format of blogs and the possibilities to categorize and manage learning content in a personalized manner are also considered as potential features of blogs to facilitate 3

Weblogs are web pages consisting of dated entries (short comments, reflections, personal experiences, etc.) arranged in reverse chronological order (Walker in Efimova & Fiedler, 2004). Weblogs are characterized for being tools that facilitate the creation and publication of digital content (text and images) in a simple way and without the need of programming skills. Its informal style and its public nature make it an adequate resource for creative expression and peer collaboration.

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knowledge generation (Farmer & Bartlett, 2005). Furthermore, the possibility to post comments and add links allows forming and maintaining knowledge communities, facilitating interaction and collaborative learning. After some exploration we decided to work with a no-cost online weblog service called ‘‘Bitacoras.’’ We chose this service because it provided a Spanish interface and allowed to create ‘‘folders’’ so that students could organize and manage the posts and comments of the different courses involved in the project in one single blogspot. The tool was introduced to students during the first week of class through a workshop where the ‘‘critic friend’’ explained the purpose and sense of this tool (why and what for it will be used in the courses), how to create a blog, and how entries can be posted or edited. In this workshop we emphasized the reasons why we proposed this tool and its role within the framework of the innovation experience. It was important for us that students understand the sense and rationale behind the tool and its connection with our methodological proposal. Once the purpose of this support tool was explained, the procedure to create a blog using Bitacoras was reviewed with the students. Teachers and the critic friend were available for consultation and individualized assistance when needed, not only during the workshop but also throughout the experience development. Personal support was highly important to avoid anxiety and to help those students who were less experienced with the use of ICT. Reflective diaries helped students to reconstruct their learning processes and share their opinions, thoughts and ideas with others. The opportunity to publish these diaries on the Web allowed opening and expanding individual reflection to the whole group, so that students were able to learn from and with others, while reading the diaries of their classmates and posting comments. The sharing of their work with others and exchanging thoughts about a certain topic stimulated students to approach the course content from multiple perspectives. Furthermore, reflective diaries allowed teachers to follow students’ progress and find out the ways in which they analyze and interpret the contents studied. It also served as a mirror of our teaching practice, helping us to follow up

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the class, reorient it and take decisions about the methodological and didactic strategies implemented. 3. Findings, results and learning experiences The implemented innovation experience provided us new lights on the challenges and difficulties of interdisciplinary proposals, as well as on the possibilities of ICT use in higher education but, amongst all, it allowed us to reflect about the processes of educational change. Questionings, challenges, dedication, satisfaction, readjustments, reconstructions and reflections were a constant in this process of search and inquiry. Many findings and learning gains result from this experience. We have reconstructed some of these findings, aware that there is still a long path to walk on, exploring and reflecting upon. The results and findings we present in the following paragraphs have been organized into two major sections related to the initial questions that guided the development and implementation of our innovation experience. In each section, the findings are presented as affirmations followed by a brief description supported on some testimonies of the actors involved in this experience. (a) The challenge of facilitating and encouraging autonomous, reflective and critical learning. The methodological strategies explored during the development of this experience allowed us to generate a favorable learning environment aimed at encouraging reflection and deep learning among students. The construction of reflective diaries, supported by the use of weblogs and the implementation of participative teaching strategies in class, progressively contributed to enhance knowledge construction, comprehension, interaction, dialogue, self-reflection and collaborative learning. However, this was not easy to accomplish. It required time, effort and an active involvement from all participants. Time, so that students and teachers could internalize the purposes and rationale of this project and own it, get acquainted with the new strategies being implemented, and construct a new comprehension about teaching and learning processes. Effort to constantly construct meaning and knowledge, reflect on the daily practices and keep up with the experience. An active involvement, so that teachers and students

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commit themselves to the experience and develop a sense of shared responsibility for the teaching and learning processes. 3.1. From initial expectation to receptiveness and an appropriation of the Project and its tools ‘‘During this journey teachers and students experienced a mixture of contradictory feelings: scepticism and high expectation, illusion and disillusion, confusion and clarity. Only the process helped us to dissolve all these uncertainties and face the challenge of this experience.’’ (Student, Short Story) At the beginning of this experience students expressed the feeling of uncertainty and a sense of being ‘‘guinea pigs’’ of some sort of ‘‘experiment.’’ As the experience moved forward, these feelings gave place to a sense of ownership, an active involvement of students and a shared responsibility in the teaching and learning processes. This has been shown by the autonomous organization of working groups and the sense of illusion generated by the participation in this innovative experience. A research study carried out by Brockbank and MacGill (2002) shows the influence of voluntary tasks on students’ involvement and engagement to the teaching and learning processes. According to these authors, students’ commitment results from the recognition of group work potential and active learning tasks. In our experience, beyond the voluntary character of activities and the importance attributed to group collaboration, the sense of ownership among students has been the result of their participation and leading role on challenging and appealing tasks proposed throughout the course. 3.2. From the categories ‘‘class,’’ ‘‘teachers,’’ ‘‘students,’’ to the creation of a learning climate which facilitated free expression of ideas, tolerance, opinion exchange and group cohesion ‘‘With our teachers’ help we constructed a whole new environment where dialogue, trust, personal relationships and knowledge construction were enhanced inside and outside the classroom.’’ (Student, Interview) We proved connections between the structure of academic tasks and the social participation structure. The achievement of autonomous, critic and reflective learning has been supported by a partici-

pative and favorable climate generated in class, through the implementation of diverse strategies and activities proposed to students. The affective dimension of educational processes was also recognized and encouraged in class, helping to generate a positive environment for human interaction, dialogue, exchange, and tolerance. This result is coincidental with a series of studies about the affective dimension of educational processes. Elliott (1990) has demonstrated the importance of class climate and affective dimensions to encourage comprehensive tasks in education. In a similar perspective Hargreaves, Earl et al. (2001) have documented the importance of emotional support, recognition and a stimulating climate for educational change. 3.3. From individual reflection to collaborative construction ‘‘Weblogs have been, from my point of view, the place where I’ve seen the evolution of my thoughts. When I now read my Blog’s first entry I realize how much I have learned, and even more, how much I have been able to reconstruct my own way of thinking and see things from a different point of view.’’ (Student, Self-assessment) The construction of reflective diaries through Weblogs became a place for students’ creative expression, knowledge construction, individual reflection, and interaction. It also allowed teachers to follow students’ progress and formatively evaluate their learning. The potential of this formative strategy has been revealed on the level of elaboration and in-depth analysis of some students’ reflections and on the way learning progressed as they constructed new knowledge and meanings. The opportunity to read the diaries and reflections of other members of the class and leave a comment encouraged different ways to look at the reality being studied and brought up new topics for reflection, enhancing the learning processes and facilitating collaborative knowledge construction. Results show that through the construction of reflective diaries a reproduction context was overcome and, in some cases, a knowledge production scenario was developed, highly superior to what has been achieved with other similar groups of students.

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Reflective diaries supported by the use of blogs allowed us to:

 

 





Encourage self-reflection, creativity and knowledge construction, helping students to take acquaintance of their learning processes. Stimulate the construction of an interactive environment that allowed collaboration and dialogue, due to the possibility blogs offer to see and comment the work made by others. The shared characteristic of reflective diaries allowed the confrontation of different opinions and points of view in a climate where collaboration was encouraged and valued. Support a ‘‘learning by doing’’ spirit by giving students an active and committed role in their learning processes. Create an open space for knowledge construction, allowing reflections to be edited and reelaborated as a result of teachers and classmates’ comments and/or new learning experiences. Keep a record of the learning process and aid the development of metacognitive abilities, allowing students to ‘‘follow up’’ the ways in which their ideas and reflections transformed and consolidated throughout the course. Establish relations among the courses involved in the project, identifying connections between them and encouraging and interdisciplinary approach.

3.4. From evaluation seen as control and grading to evaluation seen as learning and a shared commitment ‘‘Evaluation was a shared responsibility among teachers and students and it was necessarily seen as a continuous process. Information about learning progress was shared and returned in both ways. Final assessment and grades were negotiated and experienced as a shared responsibility.’’ (Student, Interview) Evaluation has been developed as a shared and participative process. The defining of same criteria and the use of similar evaluation procedures has contributed to give credibility and coherence to the project. Self-evaluation and self-grading generated a high level of students’ involvement, demonstrating great maturity during the evaluation process. A continuous follow up of the project during its implementation and at the end of each phase (semester) by all participants helped to make readjustments, introduce improvements and carry

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on an observation-action-reflection cycle which enhanced the didactic process. Introducing changes and improvements according to students’ suggestions and proposals has strengthened their involvement and commitment to the process. (b) The challenge of implementing an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning Encouraging an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning was perhaps one of the hardest challenges of our innovation proposal. It was not easy to break down the individualism that predominates in higher education teaching practices and move towards an integrated approach for curricular development. The proposition of common activities among students from the different courses involved in the project, the use of the same tools to support the teaching and learning processes, and shared procedures for student assessment helped to construct some bridges among courses and give the first steps towards a more global and integrated educational practice. However, a real interdisciplinary approach was not completely achieved due to the presence of different rationales to teaching and learning and the difficulty to break down the traditional isolated working structure of university lecturers. 3.5. From a common proposal to the integration of multiple perspectives and points of view ‘‘Beyond the use of shared ICT tools there were some contextual, relational and methodological differences much more complex to coordinatey . How to integrate different teaching styles is a challenge we must keep on exploring in the future, but at least now we are able to see and recognize these differences.’’ (Teacher, Short Story) Even though we started from a common and shared plan, each teacher gave a personal touch to the didactic proposal when putting it into practice, emphasizing some aspects and tools more than others and using different teaching strategies depending on his/her teaching style, objectives and the characteristics of the subject being taught. Despite all teachers involved on the project introduced blogs with the purpose of promoting students’ self-reflection, the sense and ways in which this tool was approached in their teaching practice differed from one course to another. The type of

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posts, its length and content were also different in each course. In some cases the focus of attention was placed on reflection and personal construction. Students were asked to freely express their ideas, opinions, reflections and comments about the topics and readings discussed in class, focusing on issues of interest to them. The only ‘‘instruction’’ given to students was to post reflections as the course evolved so that the process of knowledge construction could be followed by the teacher and students themselves along time. Posting deadlines and the length and topic of reflection were not determined by the teacher. Each student could print their own rhythm and give their personal ‘‘touch’’ to the work, as long as the reflections were connected to the contents and topics approached in class. This resulted in deep reflections and an enhanced comprehension of contents, students’ active involvement in course tasks, and the development of critical thinking and creative skills. Reflective diaries were used by the teacher to follow students’ learning processes and discover new abilities in the students that otherwise remained unseen, thus becoming aware of their interests, motivations, needs and progress. Another teacher approached the use of blogs as a channel to construct and share short comments about class content in the form of individual assignments. The focus was placed mainly on asking students to make connections between class contents and real life experiences. Deadlines to post comments were established and the topics for the posts were suggested by the teacher, although creativity was highly valued. The result of this experience revealed an enhanced level of student comprehension, but the system of deadlines generated some anxiety among students who felt under a lot of pressure and, in some cases, this pressure affected the quality and depth of students’ reflections. Other teachers discovered and exploited the potential of blogs by the end of their courses. They started slowly, leaving the use of blogs as something voluntary for students and assigning it little importance for student assessment and continuous feedback. Only when they realized the type of comments and reflections some of their students were posting on the blogs the use of this tool started to be promoted and stimulated by them. One teacher started his own blog and shared it with the students, resulting in a new and interesting experience to communicate and interact with his class.

Each teacher also faced the uncertainty resulting from the innovation process in a different fashion. In some cases, deep unbalances and questionings about their ways of perceiving teaching and learning were generated when they faced a methodological approach based on principles, beliefs and values which demanded a reconstruction of their knowledge and practice. These unbalances also had an impact on teachers’ levels of involvement and commitment to the project, as well as on the different meanings each of them assigned to it. We proved what Stokes (2003) affirms about the capacity of teachers to use research as an instrument for empowerment and change according to the degree in which they share beliefs about teaching and learning. In our case this issue has been determinant for the development of the experience because the teachers involved in the project had different, and not always compatible, rationalities. The contributions of Hargreaves (1996) and Fullan (2002) about educational change and the balance between individualism and collectivism can also explain the difficulties faced during the implementation of our experience. The dilemma of conflicts and a constant search for balance between divergent approaches has been present throughout our experience. We believe this is the hardest challenge to overcome regarding innovations of an interdisciplinary nature like ours. We also learned that teachers need time and support to get involved in this kind of innovation experiences. Sometimes this process was experienced with a sense of ‘‘guilt’’ for not being sufficiently involved at the right times; however, this has been compensated with the impact this experience had on their later practices. Maybe one of the major achievements of this experience was to provide new glasses to see our own practices. It was not only about searching or forcing new practices, but to reflect about our teaching methods and strategies and look at them from other perspectives in order to reconstruct them. 3.6. From an isolated teaching practice to the search for ways to collaborate and work together ‘‘One of my initial fears was to what extent we could be able to handle this goal [an interdisciplinary approach] without loosing our own identity or the control over our course content.

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Once I realized the importance of this experience and the competencies we were collaboratively developing as teachers it was easier for me to let my self go along with it.’’ (Teacher, Interview) To work in a collaborative and interdisciplinary way has probably been one of the biggest challenges we had to face. It is not easy to generate a collaborative climate inside individualistic and balkanized working cultures (Hargreaves, 1996) as the ones that predominate in universities. It is hard to create a common scenario in which teachers are able to work together if differences in the ways they perceive teaching persist. Give away part of the teaching contents, open up to new proposals and suggestions from other teachers, share power and decision making, and dedicate time for group work has been hard, but it allowed us to give the first steps towards the construction of a new way of work in higher education teaching practices. 4. Conclusions Taking this experience into practice has not been easy for the teachers involved in this Project since it implied a lot of hard work, time and dedication, not only during its design and development phase, but mainly during the follow up of the processes that were generated by it. Reflection on our practice demanded continuous adjustments and readjustments that went beyond procedures and, in some cases, questioned teachers’ conceptions and beliefs. Yet, the value of this experience relies precisely on these questionings and uncertainties since they allowed us to stimulate change processes and transform educational practices. It is also important to recognize that this was not an easy task for students either. Although they were highly involved in the project, it was not always easy to accomplish the assumed commitments. Let us remember that, in some cases, the dynamic of other courses breaks the processes initiated by this experience. Furthermore, not all students were involved in the same way and, in some cases, this generated frustration feelings among those students who were really committed to the project. To get involved in a process of inquiry helped us to reflect upon the conditions and demands of educational change and innovation, giving us the opportunity to question, problematize and reconstruct our teaching practice at the same time that it

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opened us new doors to keep on exploring, investigating and reflecting. This experience also had a formative character and became a step forward in our professional development by promoting reflection processes about our teaching practices. Along with Perrenoud (2004), we believe that teachers’ reflection about their own practice is important for their professional development since it allows to:

     

Compensate the superficial approach to professional training. Facilitate the accumulation of experiential knowledge. Face the increasing complexity of teachers’ tasks. Aid to overcome an impossible profession. Give resources to work on one-self. Facilitate cooperation among colleagues.

We understand that learning from our practice and about it implies a closer linkage between research, curricular development and innovation. As Ling and Mackenzie (2001, p. 96) concluded in their study, ‘‘one of the first tasks for professional development may be to facilitate the development of teachers’ ability to engage in critical refection. Without this, teachers are disempowered and dependent upon outside forces to control their work.’’ In this case we proved the need to understand professional development in a continuum of lifelong learning and teachers’ vital trajectory improvement, contributing to see innovation also as a continuous process and not just as a punctual aspect related to a project or an external incentive. Finally, we must say that even though this has been a small initiative, it allowed us to move towards the construction of new ways to conceive and approach education, as well as to give voice and visibility to university teachers and students. In a few words, it allowed us to learn from our own practice.

References Alba, C. (Ed.). (2005). Viability of methodological proposals elaborated by teachers from Spanish universities under the framework of the European Credit implementation and associated to the use of ICT for teaching and research. Madrid: Ministry of Education and Science. Brockbank, A., & McGill, I. (2002). Reflective learning in Higher Education. Madrid: Morata.

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