Nothing amateurish about the Bologna Process

Ukrainian students are facing difficulties now that they have to write exams according to the Bologna Process standards. Much has been said and written about the Bologna Process, and the whole thing is reminiscent of the “broken telephone”: no one seems to remember the first phrase. Nevertheless, we are in the game, so our education minister is using every press conference to stress the noble goal of enhancing the role of students’ independent work, motivation of the participants in the educational process to achieve top-quality training, recognition of Ukrainian diplomas abroad, etc. Outwardly, everything seems to be in order, but the most important problems are internal ones.

DOES “INDEPENDENT STUDY” EQUAL QUALITY?

One of the principles of the Bologna Process is to enhance the role of students’ independent work (ideally the number of academic hours is decreased to allow students more time to spend in the library, and seminars turn into “consultations,” where the professor focuses the students’ attention on the more sophisticated aspects of their work). However, Ukrainian schools of higher education have decided to combine this principle with the Soviet practice of lecturers “masticating” the material and putting it into the students’ mouths. Thus, they are trying to combine totally different principles of work.

Now subject matter is being taught in a concise form, and the process is best described as a whistle-stop tour. Lecturers should be credited with being aware that students will not stay at a library for a long time and that working independently does not necessarily mean that students will attain good results. They would be better off listening to a lecturer in class: that way they would retain some of the material. Instead, our higher schools are devising such interesting projects as “self-study weeks” (e.g., the Institute of Foreign Philology at Drahomanov National Pedagogical University). Students are supposed to spend seven days working on creative and research papers, but in reality they simply go home.

What is most interesting is that Europe borrowed this system of independent study from the Soviet system of instruction by correspondence. I remember a correspondence student, a girl who didn’t know how to write a basic application even though she was in her fourth year at the philology faculty.

EXAMS: TO BE OR NOT TO BE?

The Bologna Process envisages the introduction of credit-module instruction. Students must work conscientiously during the semester and at the end submit their record books to the lecturer, who writes in the percentage honestly scored by the students without subjecting them to the torture of exams. What do we have instead? Conscientious work during the semester is something that not all students are capable of doing. Why should they copy articles from dozens of textbook pages? Are there any good results from the incredible number of papers downloaded from the Internet, the easiest way to make up for a lack of accumulated marks? Yet lecturers are reluctant to issue marks without going through the rigorous examination process. Some allocate a certain percentage - 30, for example - for exams and the student must accumulate these marks. Others disregard the results of students’ work and make all students take exams. Here the question is, “Why accumulate marks at colloquiums, seminars, boring lectures, and so on?”

Iryna, a student at Drahomanov National Pedagogical University, has an interesting view on this question: “Today the amount of knowledge we receive does not constitute a complete picture. We receive bits and pieces of knowledge. Under the old educational system it was easier to pass an exam ‘automatically’. And even when I had to take an exam, I would take a textbook and prepare myself. It was a complex approach.”

100 OR MAYBE 150?

Our education ministry is talking about an easy transfer of grades for evaluating student’s knowledge level within the framework of the Bologna Process. If so, how is one to explain the absence of a uniform system in Ukraine and even within a single institution of higher learning? Why do some lecturers follow a 100-point system and others modify it by setting 150, 200, even 500 points? This calls into question the adequacy of information these lecturers have about the principles and basics of the Bologna Process. The impression is that somehow they have failed to grasp it fully. Students also often lack information about the principles of this kind of instruction, because the Bologna Process is included in their curriculum only in the fifth year and is usually taught by part- time instructors, who have nothing new or useful to tell future graduates. And why do fifth-year students need it?

Meanwhile, the BA student is trying to figure out the academic evaluation system. This especially hard for first-year students, who are used to numbered grades (5 being “excellent” and 4 being “good”), or have studied in schools practicing a 12-point evaluation system, taken independent tests based on the percentage (100) system, and who are now faced with 100 or 200 points at a higher educational establishment. How can they avoid becoming confused? One often sees students bent over their record books counting up their marks before exams, adding, subtracting, and multiplying. Is the level of knowledge the sum total of points scored for writing papers?

ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL!

Starting in 1991, people in Ukraine have been talking about an individual orientation of education, its democratization and humanization. Meanwhile, students continue to study in groups, each averaging 25 people. Let’s model a simple situation: a double class lasts 80 minutes. How can one lecturer question all the students and assign marks to them? Some professors solve this problem by giving students test assignments. Yet how can tests assess the knowledge and skill of future journalists or actors? Students end up fighting for every mark, which makes for unhealthy competition and destroys team spirit that should exist in every group.

Speaking of points, it is worth recalling Europe’s experience, where students assess their lecturers by filling out questionnaires. Professors who find themselves in a not-too-popular bracket are censured by the administration and even fired if they have repeatedly low ratings. There is no such practice in Ukraine.

The Bologna Process has both advocates, who are prepared to forgive all its shortcomings, and opponents, who condemn this educational system with every fiber of their being. Be that as it may, Ukraine has made its choice. Good luck to us!