Metodologia do ensino superior

Teaching and Learning Methods in Higher Education: a glimpse of the future

22/01/99: A new improved web version (with links, references, notes etc.) of the paper from
Reflections on Higher Education (A Journal of the Higher Education Foundation) Vol 9,
1997, Pages 77 - 102.

TEACHING AND LEARNING METHODS IN HIGHER
EDUCATION: A GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE
Tom Bourner and Steve Flowers
Introduction
The aim of this article is to look at the future of teaching and learning methods (TLM) in higher education
(HE) over the next decade. The purpose of the article is to develop a viable new vision of the future teaching and learning methods (TLM) that is preferable to the destination towards which we are currently headed [Note
1].

The problem
The time when teaching staff in HE could simply follow the teaching methods that they experienced as students is drawing to a close. There are several powerful reasons for this: a falling level of real resource per student, an increasing focus on, and publicity about, teaching quality and developments in technologies for communicating and disseminating information.
The same forces are raising the position of teaching and learning methods on the institutional agendas of most universities and other higher education organisations. A declining unit of teaching resource has put the spotlight on teaching methods because teaching staff costs are a high proportion of total costs within universities. Greater focus on, and publicity about, performance indicators of teaching quality have also increased the attention paid to teaching methods. Developments in technologies for communicating and disseminating information have a large potential impact on the practice of teaching because teaching is an activity in which communicating and disseminating information are significant aspects. None of these factors are likely to go away, so it is unlikely that concern about teaching methods in universities will subside. On
the