The Bologna Process and Content

and Language Integrated Learning

 Program
1) A: Bologna Process (Aim Experience)
B: Student activity: Comparison to
Mercosur/Argentina

2) A: CLIL (Pros and Cons)

B: Student activity: (Dis)advantages of CLIL.
Relate to own experience/ideas.
 Understanding Bologna Process
A collaboration/agreement between European states
towards a joint higher education area: Free and easier
mobility of education (Students, teachers, etc.)
The Bigger Picture: The European Framework
European Union: Economic and Political Union between 27
states
Denmark (1973)
A wish to cooperate (Post WWII)
Beginning: Economy vs. Today: Economy/Education/Politics
(Federation?)
The United States of Europe?
Free mobility and borderless Europe (Schengen)
 The Bologna Process
Process? Agreement? Declaration?
Indicating an ongoing agreement
Collaboration between European states implemented by Ministers
of Education in 1999
1999: Signed by 29 countries
Predecessor: Sorbonne Declaration 1998 (France, Germany, UK and
Italy): Students, graduates and teaching staff.
Today: 47 participating countries
Ministers of education meet every second year to measure progress
and set priorities for action
A symbol of the overall European wish (need?) to work together:
Unity.
EU: Incorporated into the Lisbon treaty 2007: Make the EU the
most competitive knowdlege-based economy in the world by 2010
 Bologna Process versus Lisbon
Treaty
Not the same
Bologna process is NOT an EU program but the
EU is a huge supporter
Imagine the bologna process as a file/folder
that has been copied and used by The
European Union in the EUs own wish and
actions to create an educational mobility
 Reforms initiated: make European Higher
Education more compatible and comparable,
more competitive and more attractive for
Europeans and for students and scholars from
other continents
Reasons:
o Various educational opportunities (Transferable)
o Competitive advantages: Meet the increasing
competition of China, India, Brazil, etc.
o Language: A lingua franca?
 Goals
The European Higher Education Area (EHEA)
launched in 2010 (Result of 1999)
Europe free movement and choice for students
of higher education (University, etc.)
Autonomy and diversity respected
Three main objectives:
o Introduction of the three cycle system
(bachelor/master/doctorate): 3+2+3 system.
o Quality assurance
o Recognition of qualifications and periods of study
 Example:
Student A studies English Bachelor Degree at
Aalborg University (3 years).
Student A wants to do part of his/her Masters
Degree at Manchester Metropolitan University
(2 years), e.g. a course on British literature
Possible due to: Educational mobility, similar
grading, acceptable transferable/comparable
qualifications across borders, etc.
 Main Priorities until 2020
social dimension: equitable access and completion,
lifelong learning;
employability;
student-centred learning and the teaching mission of
higher education;
education, research and innovation;
international openness;
mobility;
data collection;
multidimensional transparency tools;
funding.
 2020 goals
20 % of Master graduates have had a stay abroad
20% increase in students outside the Bologna
agreement at European universities
Equal access to Higher Education
Focus on education equipping students to meet
the requirements of an ever-changing job market
Desired result: European educations more
attractive for students and scholars from other
continents + strengthen Europe as a knowledge-
region
 Advantages of Bologna Process
Four major advantages:
o All of the students completed courses (credits) are recognized
throughout the EHEA.
o An up-to-date education, centered on the acquisition of
professional and academic competencies, providing enhanced
opportunities for rapid entry into the professional workplace.
o A broad-based education in which reflection on individual
personal and professional development is important
o Greater flexibility in shaping the academic and professional
curriculum, according to each students individual profile.

University education today is more:

o International
o Practical
o Broad-based
o Flexible
 Bologna = Easy, smooth
Necessary with similar education programs,
grades, etc.?
Partner-agreements (Aalborg University
UNICEN)
Without Bologna = Not impossible
 Criticism
New survey by European University
Association (2011): Quality of education in
European countries incomparable
Quality judgement (The thing to secure similar
quality) differs
Less flexibility
Less diversity
 A binding contract? (EHEA Website: Voluntary
harmonisation process) + a commitment freely
taken
Who wants to be on the outside?
Bologna Process a tool of the EU: Without
harmonisation of educations, no effective market
can be established
Becomes a counter-competition: Education = a
product (Market - Capitalistic set of rules)
Bologna not just instructive as declaration states (27
EU Members)
Lisbon Treaty = Reforms do impose upon national
higher education institutions!
 Effect on Danish Education
Implemented into Danish education: 2nd on
the list of countries having adapted the most
to Bologna
ECTS points/grading system. (30 ECTS per
semester)
Internationalisation
Previous Danish Grading System
 The Horrors of Mathematics?
7-step scale:

Claim: Easier comparable/transferable to other

systems
Direct consequence of the wish to
compare/transfer to an all-European education
system
Autonomy?: ECTS incorporated into 7 scale
 Danish scepticism
Education = Product = Competition = Money
From free to fee (Student worry): 3800 pesos
pr month (NOT because of Bologna)
EU overrules national/sovereign decisions
Autonomy possible at all? (Lisbon): Top-down
phenomenon
 Standardisation
Aalborg University + Roskilde University forced
to cut down on e.g. project work in order to
meet other universities
Basis year (AAU 1, RUC 2): Changing?
No room for diversity/difference ruins the
competitiveness
Ranking list: How do we change in order to
climb up the list? Similarity Less
diversity
 Student activity
1) Describe, explain and discuss briefly what the Bologna Process is
2) Compare the opportunities of education mobility in Europe to
Argentina.
3) Consider whether a similar Bologna Process would be beneficial to
Argentina (With European/South American countries). Debate/Discuss
why and reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of such a South
American/Argentina-Europe student mobility agreement exchange.
Questions you may consider:
o Why a good idea?
o Spanish language?
o Would it be useful if you could transfer a degree in teaching or a
course/subject/semester from e.g. Brazil or Europe to your institute
and vice versa?
o Would you/Argentinians consider studying/teaching abroad?
 Content and Language Integrated
Learning (CLIL)
Combining content and language into one (E.g. Mathematics taught
in English)
An approach connected to the overall aim of The Bologna Process
and The Lisbon Treaty:
Comparable/Similar grading comparable/similar language
Pluri/Multi-lingualism
Mobility
Transferability
Internationalisation
Example: If several students across borders are taught Mathematics
in English, the vocabulary is similar and used by all and thus
beneficial to an educational-united Europe.
The relevance of the dual-focus (Content and Language) of CLIL is
thus related to the wish of a content and language integrated
Europe
 "CLIL refers to situations where subjects, or parts of
subjects, are taught through a foreign language with
dual-focused aims, namely the learning of content
and the simultaneous learning of a foreign
language. (David Marsh)
A method to integrate English with other subjects
2 or maybe 3 subjects in 1
Possible on different levels: E.g. Maths in the first
years of primary school (Counting to 100 in English
instead of Spanish)
Not the entire Maths class has to be in English.
Maybe 20 minutes.
 A medium for learning content + content used to learn
languages
Language put into instant practice (Motivational effect)
Neurologists: CLIL good for both brain halves
EU goal: 1 mother tongue 2 foreign languages
o CLIL listed a method to improve language teaching
o Pupils/students should be guaranteed CLIL
o Teachers should receive CLIL-education
Language diversity in Europe = need for understanding
 CLIL similar to Content-based instruction (CBI)
- American approach
Communicative language teaching (CLT): a
broad approach to teaching, rather than a
teaching method
CLIL seeks to equal language with content
more than CBI which primarily focuses on
content. More aware of the need of dual-
focus and equality
 CLIL popular in Europe behind the scenes in
Denmark
Primary and secondary level mainly
Survey proves CLIL as beneficial to learning a
second/foreign language (Finland in the spotlight)
Cross-disciplinary teaching highly used in Denmark
Example: Combining History and English over a
course of 3 weeks learning about the
Industrialisation in Britain (Fact + fiction + language)
 CLIL at AAU?
1st semester courses Modern World and Social
and Humanistic Theory taught in English
Students of English, English and international
studies, German and Danish
Content lost for less-skilled English speakers?
Language barrier? Teachers level of English?
Increase in English taught courses at Danish
universities Effect on quality of education
Solution?
 Lost in translation?
Content (Main) Language (Secondary)
Language reduced/devalued in CLIL?
o Content determines language?
o Language determines content?
CLIL = English as a lingua franca
Inequalities regarding the level of English: How do you compensate for
this?
With content in focus, how do we secure not neglecting the less
acquainted student or the skilled student? (Motivation?)
What is lost compared to standard English classes
o Grammar?
o Vocabulary?
o Pronunciation?
Dario Banegas (EFL teacher): Run the risk of content superficiality?
English grammar (Spanish or English? CLIL in use if we teach grammar in
Spanish in an English class?)
 Level of teachers?
Can a good biology teacher with ease convey his
knowledge and message in English?
Level of students?
Will all understand the same?
Will the level of English result in some students
being lost?
Or a low level bore the better acquainted student?
If so, where is the so-called motivation?
 Student activity
Give an example of how you as a teacher
could use CLIL in an Argentinian context
(School, College, etc.). What would you do to
be sure that the students/pupils learned
Consider the advantages and disadvantages
with specific emphasis on the English
language (Equal to content? Grammar?
Pronunciation, Levels of pupils etc.)