Tutorial Teaching: A New Paradigm for the Development of Competencies

Abstract

Higher education institutions have been confronted with demanding challenges regarding especially the quality of teaching and learning. The constant technological evolution, the rapid growth in the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge, and the constructivist views of learning bring into question the precariousness of rigid answers, and the kind of information conveyed by textbooks or crystallized lectureship. In addition, academic staff have been the target of an ongoing, widespread and sometimes superficial process of innovation, and the object of evaluation and criticism by the public and by a society that has changed profoundly in the last half century. This article discusses the challenges and the transformations in teaching and learning processes stimulated by the «Bologna Process». Pedagogical processes are intended to go beyond a mere feedback on the accuracy of a given assessment and should become exploratory, constructive and critical, an essential component in the development of a shared teaching and learning process. Reflecting on these issues is fundamental so that professors can gain new competences and implement new teaching and learning practices in their daily routines.