Abstract:

Analyses of current trends in world economics and industry, indicate that we are entering the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which fundamentally will change our professional as well as everyday life (World Economic Forum Reports, Davos, 2018). Phenomena occurring in the socio-economic environment naturally announce the need to introduce people to the labor market who will be equipped with new competences, such as critical thinking, problem solving, interpersonal skills, and who will be prepared for lifelong learning.

All this influences the need for fundamental changes in the higher education, not only within the content of study programs, but also in the organization of the teaching process so that students can achieve the necessary competences (European Principles for Enhancement of Learning & Teaching Project EFFECT, 2017).

This is an urgent task for academic teachers to reorganize the teaching process – replacing traditional teacher-centered teaching style by the style of effective supporting students on their way of studying, gathering educational experiences, building own knowledge and developing desired skills.

However, this transition demands also preparing students to practice their own active and responsible learning process.

In this article I would like to present the main results of my own project: “Developing the educational experience of university students”, which are based on carrying on the innovative course given to ca 1000 novice students at the university of technology in 2019.

The aim of this course is to make students conscious of modern academic learning methods, as well as to give them an opportunity to acquire skills such as the ability to work individually or in a team, to create one’s own style of studying, to plan an individual path of the study, and to overcome difficulties which may arise at the beginning of academic studies, in connection with the need of changing the school style of learning to the academic style of studying.

Keywords:

University didactics, student-centered teaching, ability to life long learning.