An Analysis of Students’ Learning Experiences in an European Credit Experimental Project in the Education Degree

Résumé

The aim of this paper is to compare the learning experiences of a group of students before and after their participation in an experimental Project aimed to implement the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) in the Faculty of Education of La Laguna University.
In order to achieve that purpose we designed two questionnaires filled by the same group of students about their learning experiences in the second year of the Bachelor Degree in Education and in the Pilot Project (third year). The results revealed that students in the Project spent fewer hours attending classes but more hours working with colleagues. Moreover, a greater percentage of students said they studied through the semester not just for exams. The activities of research and information search were more used in the Project; lecturing remained dominant.
The reflection about the experimentation suggests that the success in the implementation of the ECTS is associated with changes in students’ culture as well as teachers’ culture. But changes are also needed in the organizational culture of university schools and colleges which should pay closer attention to the process of shaping, developing and evaluating each degree.