Aims and Objectives |

Expected
Outcomes |

Action Plan |

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CONTEXT

CHAGAL is a GRUNDTVIG 1-project to develop European Curriculum guidelines for Access programmes into Higher education for underrepresented Adult Learners.
This GRUNDTVIG 1-project CHAGAL (SOCRATES Programme, European Commission/DG for Education and Culture, 2002-2004) is the background and the context out of which CHAGAL-Set Up has been designed in order to work on further dissemination and implementation of the Curriculum Guidelines.

In the field of access courses into higher education for underrepresented and disadvantaged adult learners there is a growing need for cooperation, transparency and improvement. Various institutions within the European Union are offering different and rather diverse types of integration measures, orientation and preparatory courses/programmes facilitating access to higher education for the target group, i.e. members of ethnic minorities, migrants, university applicants from European accession candidate countries and from developing countries (international students), refugees, asylum seekers, school drop-outs. There is the need to coordinate and improve the effectiveness of the programmes by developing common Curriculum Guidelines. They focus on student-centred innovative teaching and assessment methodologies to meet the needs of this target group in acquiring the competences essential for higher education studies in a multilingual and multicultural Europe.

The basic and determining pedagogical approach is a learner-centred, holistic and integrative approach. It is action oriented with focus on learning strategies / developing the ability to learn. It aims at integrating the hitherto isolated guidance and counselling measures as a vital element into existing teaching/learning programmes.

CHAGAL-Set Up aims at implementation and dissemination activities:
- development of an implementation concept for the Curriculum guidelines at national and at European level within the framework of the Bologna Process;
- dissemination of the Curriculum Guidelines.
CHAGAL-Set Up wants to enhance innovative curriculum design and innovative teaching methodology for institutions offering preparation courses (access courses into higher education).

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES _____________________________

General aims
The overall aims of CHAGAL-Set Up are:

• to make the Curriculum guidelines available for the member states of the ECML.
• to initiate an implementation process of the Curriculum guidelines at national and at European level.
• to enhance the Bologna Process by providing examples of good practice for orientation and integration activities in order to facilitate access to higher education (and retention) for the CHAGAL student target group.
• to promote the learner-centred approach for course design and for language teaching methodology.
• to support networking of decision makers and of instructors/lecturers at preparation/access courses.
  

Specific objectives
Specific steps to achieve the general aims are to

• disseminate the Curriculum Guidelines, bringing together
  - experts of higher education and
  - practitioners/instructors of preparatory/access courses
  from different European countries; increase the number of countries already involved in CHAGAL (other than the 9 CHAGAL GRUNDTVIG 1- project partner countries: AT, BG, DE, ES, LT, NL, RO, SK, UK),
• evaluate the innovative impact of the Curriculum guidelines with respect to the curriculum design as well as to guidance and counselling measures,
• identify and define the benefits of a student centred approach for the CHAGAL student target group,
• develop appropriate implementation measures for the Curriculum guidelines with experts: decision makers in the field of higher education, university multipliers and curriculum designers,
• recommend implementation measures to key multipliers in member states of ECML,
• exchange, discuss and collect examples of good practice of innovative course design for preparation courses and of learner-centred, innovative language teaching methodology
  (examples compiled in the Curriculum guidelines and examples contributed by workshop participants),
• disseminate good practice to instructors at institutions offering preparation/access courses in member states of ECML,
• support networking of decision makers and of instructors/lecturers by inviting them to use the CHAGAL website for further communication and dissemination.
  
  

EXPECTED OUTCOMES ______________________________

1. Recommendations for the implementation of the CHAGAL Curriculum guidelines at national and at European level, including a proposal to be submitted to decision makers of the Bologna process. Publication on the website.
2. Summary of the recommendations: paper version (flyer) for dissemination purposes.
   Outcomes 1 and 2 are to be used by decision makers in the field of higher education.
3. Teaching the language of study as a foreign language: the student-centred curriculum approach. Collection/portfolio of good practice (course designs, teaching material and so on).

Publication on the website and publication in paper including a CD-R.
Outcome 3 is designed to be used by instructors/lecturers of preparatory/access courses.

ACTION PLAN _____________________________________

2004: January to April

CHAGAL-Set Up team analyses status quo / makes a needs analysis: What is the situation concerning provision of preparation/integration measures for the CHAGAL student target group in different countries?
A questionnaire was developed by the CHAGAL-Set Up team and distributed with support of University networks EAN, WUS and UNICA as well as ECML.
Click here to see an example.
Apart from AT, DE, NL, which have already been investigated by CHAGAL, the CHAGAL GRUNDTVIG 1-project partner countries BG, ES, LT, RO, SK, UK plus 5 additional countries out of the member countries of the Council of Europe will be analysed.

2 - 3 April
Expert meeting of the CHAGAL-Set Up team in order to

• exchange on previous preparatory work,
• discuss evidence of the questionnaire und make further inquiries, if necessary,
• prepare the subsequent phases and the Expert Meeting in July 2004.

April to July
CHAGAL-Set Up team

- summarises evidence of the questionnaire,
- publishes summary on the website,
- develops a prototype of "Curriculum guidelines Implementation Measures" for one of the CHAGAL partner countries - the prototype will serve as a model for the Expert Meeting in July,
- provides the finetuning of the programme of the expert meeting in July.

9-10 July
An expert meeting is held to

• develop an implementation concept for the Curriculum guidelines on the European scale (within the framework of the Bologna process),
• develop and formulate strategies for decision makers,
• evaluate the innovative impact of the Curriculum guidelines with respect to curriculum design as well as to guidance and counselling measures,
• Set Up networking: make use of the CHAGAL website facilities to increase the number of persons to be informed about the Curriculum guidelines implementation concept, initiate further communication between decision makers/participants of the EXPERT MEETING and others.

Participants:
project team (plus approximately 5 CHAGAL-partners at the expense of CHAGAL-GRUNDVIG 1- project) plus 5 further experts selected in consultation with the ECML.

Participants' profile:

• Professional background: key multipliers in higher education: curriculum designers, educationalists, administrators.
• Participants have knowledge about and interest in university accession regulations in their countries and they are familiar with the Bologna process.
• During the period preceding the EXPERT MEETING participants are prepared to deal with the questionnaire as mentioned above.
• Participants take over responsibility for
  • disseminating the Curriculum Guidelines,
  • initiating an implementation process at their institutions or countries respectively.
• Participants stay in contact with the CHAGAL-Set Up team and the other participants for further networking and they give a short report about the progress of implementation after one year by July 2005.
• Participants take up contacts with the ECML national nominating authority to suggest participants for the workshop in April/May 2005.

July to December
CHAGAL-Set Up team prepares printing and publishing of results (outcomes 1 and 2):

1. Recommendations for the implementation of the CHAGAL Curriculum guidelines at national and at European level, including a proposal to be submitted to decision makers of the Bologna process. Publication in paper and on the website.
2. Summary of the recommendations: paper version (flyer) for dissemination purposes.

28-29 January 2005
Preparatory meeting of the CHAGAL-Set Up project team to prepare the CENTRAL WORKSHOP.

21-23 April 2005
3-day ECML central workshop:
Dissemination of good practice in order to

• disseminate the Curriculum guidelines to practitioners - instructors of preparatory/access courses,
• identify and define the benefits of student centred approach for the CHAGAL student target group,
• exchange, discuss examples of good practice: examples compiled in the curriculum guidelines and examples contributed by the workshop participants,
• develop a plan for further networking: how to use the CHAGAL website as a tool for networking and for further exchange of experience; how to increase the number of "CHAGAL-instructors".

Participants:
Instructors of pre-university programmes (preparatory/access courses) for international students/CHAGAL student target group, including persons who might have already been proposed by the experts/participants of the meeting in July 2004 - see above.

Participants' profile:

• Professional background: Instructors/lecturers from preparatory institutions and/or from universities, who are familiar or interested in the learner-centred curriculum.
• Persons, who are interested in
  • developing teaching material,
  • adopting the curriculum guidelines,
• Participants are asked to contribute their material, course designs, students' feedback to the workshop. For preparation purposes participants should present a short description of their contribution until February 2005.
• Participants should be prepared to multiply their expertise, to get involved in further networking and dissemination activities.

May to July
CHAGAL-Set Up project team works on material for publication / outcome 3.

3-4 June 2005
Meeting of the CHAGAL-Set Up project team to finalise results for publication.

August
Dissemination at the XIII. Internationale Deutschlehrertagung/IDT 2005 in Graz.

August to November
CHAGAL-Set Up team prepares printing and publishing of results.

November
Publication of outcomes.

LANGUAGES
The working language of the workshops / experts' meeting as well as of the CHAGAL-Set Up project is English and German. Participants should have productive and receptive skills in one language and receptive skills in the second one.
Simultaneous interpretation will be provided between English and German for the central workshop only.