WG4 – Output 4: A Portfolio of New Approaches and Teaching Practices

Start date: 18/04/2021
End date: 17/03/2022
Leading organisation: Aston University
Participating organisations: Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza, EURNEX e.V., Technische Hochschule Wildau, Zilinska univerzita v Ziline, Sveuciliste u Zagrebu, Universidad de Málaga.

The aim of the WG was to produce a portfolio (toolkit) of new teaching and learning methods, approaches, policies, and practices for rail skills development.

The work done involved setting up the structure and framework of a portfolio for skills development in the rail industry. This included identifying the main pillars such as job categories and rail university degree programmes and training courses. Additionally, an analysis was conducted on the current methods of skills development for each rail job category identified by WG1, and new methods were developed. Finally, a portfolio or toolkit was created, which contained new approaches and teaching practices for rail skills development. Overall, the focus was on improving and enhancing the skills of individuals working in the rail industry.

The main results of the study are:

• The role of the teacher has been defined and confirmed for different rail-specific subjects and types of delivery of teaching and learning activities.
• New approaches to assess the quality of a learning outcome have been suggested, focusing on the different roles of the teacher as Director, Leading Learner, Nurturer, and Facilitator.
• Improvements in Classroom Assessment Techniques, course-related and teacher-related student feedback have been identified.
• Suggestions have been proposed for identifying and establishing the right balance between different teaching and learning methods such as information acquisition and knowledge construction, teacher-centred learning and student-centred learning, lectures and practicals, distance learning and self-studies, exam-based assessments and project/course work-based assessments, and student mobility and distance learning.
• The importance of research-based teaching and learning in rail higher education has been discussed and potential new initiatives and mechanisms to link teaching and research have been identified.
• Good policies and practices for research-based teaching and learning have been audited, shared, and enhanced for transfer and implementation to strengthen rail skills development and rail higher education provision in the universities of partner organizations and departments.

The output 4 final report is available at http://astonrail.eu/downloads/.