The shift from teaching to learning has slowly been going on for many years in higher education. One aspect of this is European and national policies which direct institutions and staff to formulate curricula that specifies what should be learnt rather than what should be taught. The Bologna agreement and policies surrounding learning outcomes in higher education makes competence rather than knowledge the primary objective of academic courses. Since competence is often referred to as ‘ability to do a certain task’ (see for instance Ellström, 1997), this has profound effect on how the learning objectives must be formulated and assessed. The question remains if this shift in policy also have an effect on higher education and the way teachers and students think about their practice. This paper presents a study about a medical programme in Sweden. Interviews are conducted with students and teachers at two different points during the programme. One just before the students start their clinical training and one point near the completion of the programme. Questions are asked about their views of teaching and learning in the programme, as well as their views of the desired end product of education, i.e. a competent physician. The theoretical framework for this study is a form of pragmatism (Biesta & Burbules, 2003). Performance is used as a common denominator for actions with meaning. This concept is derived from Dewey (1925) and from Butler’s (2006) notion of performativity. Being a wide concept, actions with meaning entail both cognitive actions (like for instance thinking or planning) as well as motoric, lingual or emotional actions. The analysis focuses the reports of performance (good or bad) in the professional field of physicians made by teachers and students. As the study is not yet completed at the point of this submission, the results are not entirely finished. The preliminary results show interesting disparities between “educational virtues” such as possessing knowledge and scoring well on written exams, and “workplace virtues” in which personality and “frames of mind” are predominant. Students see the medical programme as a test they have to go through in order to have a desired diploma, but have to spend extra time learning what they think is important for the ability to function as a physician. In contrast, teachers view the students as “not seeing the need” for what they are trying to teach them. As a whole, the students and the teachers seem to view the curriculum as something predominantly taught rather than learned. In this paper, discussion is raised about the readiness of higher educational institutions to go from teaching knowledge to facilitating competence. Based on the findings, questions might be asked about the possibility of an educational practice which meaningfully incorporates learning outcomes and whether or not this shift is desired by professionals.

Interviews with teachers and students at a medical programme

Views of competence and professional performance related to the educational environment as well as the future positions. Discussion of the readiness for an educational institution to change from teaching knowledge to facilitating competence.