Fostering Learning Competencies in Higher Education

Social, economic and technological changes require the development of learning competencies as a precondition for lifelong self-directed learning. Against this background, this research study investigates how learning competencies can be theoretically and practically justified as a pedagogic-didactical objective and fostered in the university context. Based on the detailed definition of the research problem, the meta-theoretical part demonstrates the pragmatic-interactionistic position underlying this study and deploys and founds the research design. The theoretical part elaborately investigates selected didactic-pedagogical theories and develops a pedagogical framework serving as a starting point and point of reference. The explorative empirical part then encompasses three qualitative good-practice case studies conducted at the University of Oldenburg (Germany, 2005), Stanford University (USA, 2006) and University of St. Gallen (Switzerland, 2007) in order to explore innovative practices to enhance the theory building process. Each case study has been investigated in the field over a period of at least two terms applying different research methods – among others 42 semistructured interviews with 53 people. As this research aims at theory generation, faculty members designing innovative university seminars in a technology-enhanced environment facilitating self-directed learning and as a consequence, explicitly or implicitly fostering learning competencies, were chosen as the primary unit of analysis. Data analysis was conducted applying the grounded theory methodology. As a result, a learning model fostering learning competencies has been developed in the theory-building part, comprehensively indicating the selfdirected learning process of students deducing multifaceted competencies required. The application part then transformed the findings obtained in the course of the theory-building process into a practical concept, i.e. a course was designed and conducted several times at the bachelor level at the University of St. Gallen. The study investigates the self-directed learning process in depth and uncovers crucial competencies as well as supportive and hindering learning conditions. It emphasizes the active part of both, the learner and the instructor when it comes to fostering learning competencies in technology-enhanced environments in higher education. In the final part the research questions are summarized. In addition, the adequacy of the research strategy and desiderata for future research are discussed.