L'università delle competenze. Analisi di caso e ricerca applicata sulla progettazione dei corsi di laurea nel Processo di Bologna.

The thesis deals with two issues: the design and evaluation of degree programs within the framework of the Bologna Process. Chapter number one reviews the relevant scientific literature concerning the design of higher education degree programs - i.e. curricular theories - and the main documents produced by European institutions, from which a European approach for the design of degree programs can be outlined. The emergent approach focuses on the definition of the learning outcomes, including competences, which are to be gained at the end of the program. The analysis of the different meanings and uses of the two terms underlines some contradictions; the chapter proposes some guidelines for designing competences oriented degree programs. Chapter number two concerns the evaluation of degree programs; both the scientific literature and some European documents and projects regarding the evaluation of degree programs are examined. In particular, the chapter presents and criticizes the most important Italian models and practices in order to sustain the proposal of an integrate (ex ante, in itinere, ex post) evaluation model (L. Galliani). Chapter number three reports two case studies. The first case study concerns an experimental course titled Identities in European history. The course was realized by an academic partnership called eHistory Learning Environment and Evaluation; it was held using an Internet-based learning platform called WebCT and in local study groups. This course was designed, delivered and evaluated according to history-specific competences, as they were in the Tuning project. The second case study presents the European master degree program in Lifelong Learning of the Danish School of Education in Copenhagen. As required by the Danish framework of qualification, this master is competence-oriented. Both case studies are analyzed through documentary, bibliographic and electronic references and through key-witness interviews. Some interesting and innovative elements about the design, the delivery and the evaluation of competence-oriented degree programs have emerged. Chapter number four illustrates the results of an empirical research about the design and the evaluation of a master degree program called Programmazione e gestione dei servizi educativi (Faculty of Education of the University of Padua). The goal of this action-research was the creation of a competences-oriented master degree program through the specific means of introducing some innovative and integrated practices and strategies for the design and evaluation of degree programs, in order to understand if the internal - i.e. the attainment of knowledge and skills from the point of view both of the teachers and the students - and external - i.e. the correspondence between the profile gained at the end of the course and the profile required by the labor market, and the capitalization of the competences - efficacy might be improved by focusing on the knowledge and the skills to be gained at the end of the course since the very design of the degree program. The hypothesis verified by the research, therefore, is that if the curriculum is designed on a knowledge and skills profile, the program's internal and external efficacy will be improved.